Mr. Tarrant and the Wallis Cub Tractor
October/November 1990
Frank Tarrant
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Shades of the past-lifelong friend J. F. Kelley and 'Old' Fred Sr.-June 1916- both 22 years old, breaking sod on the south half of section 19-2N-48W in Yuma County, Colorado. F. K. T. standing.
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Bldg H., Apt. 146, 3266S.E. Aster Lane, Stuart, FL 34994.
RELATED CONTENT
A few years ago, I received a note from a Mr. Fred Tarrant from
Saratoga Springs, New York who had heard I had a Wallis Cub tractor
and wanted to come see it-he said he plowed with one in the teens
in Colorado. I wrote and said he was most welcome, so he gave me a
date to be here. I got my Cub out of storage, and had it running
when he came. He sure was pleased to see it, and said it looked
like the one he had plowed with in Colorado. I visited him in
Florida this past winter and asked him to write an article about
his experience of plowing in Colorado. Below is the article he
wrote and his picture in 1916 in front of the tractor. He is now 96
years old and a very sharp old gentleman. -E.F. Schmidt, 180 West
Kibler Street, Bluffton, OH 45817-
In the winter of 1915-16, I decided I would have a try at
farming in Colorado. I arranged my financing, and then set out to
select a farm tractor. I obtained catalogs and pamphlets from every
farm tractor company I could obtain an address for. I was
mechanically inclined and it only took instinct to see that the
best designed farm tractor available at that time was the Wallis,
Model D 'Cub'. I placed my order for one of these with the
J.I. Case Tractor Company at Racine Junction in Wisconsin. Then I
took the train to Racine to see the machine I had purchased.
At the factory, I met an affable gentleman named Roy Case. Mr.
Case had a Wallis Cub run out on the cinders in the factory yard so
I might drive it about. As I had been afflicted with polio very
young, my left leg was weakened and I had great difficulty
depressing the clutch pedal. Mr. Case assured me he would have an
extended pedal installed on my tractor to overcome this trouble. He
did as he said, and when my tractor was delivered at Yuma, Colorado
on May 12, 1916, it was so equipped.
Over the years following, I broke out slightly over 2,000 acres
of eastern Colorado sod, and I plowed and cultivated over 2,000
acres additional of fallow ground.
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