family history

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BearCreek Majors
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family history

Post by BearCreek Majors »

I hope the new year well for all. Our Family enjoyed the holidays, we are now expecting another grandchild, we have been fortunate to all have job security, and are looking forward to a new year.
Unfortunately however we lost my Grandmother Vaiden of 97 years only a few days after Christmas. Tears were shed but yet we can’t help but be happy for her. Grandpa Walter had passed probably a good 20 years ago and Grandma continued to live on the home farm taking care of herself up until the last two days of her life, if only we could be so lucky. Of Course being on this earth for that many years doesn’t come with some heartache as well. Aside from her husband, she had to lie to rest her only daughter after a tragic accident when she was only in her early twenties, my father, one of his brothers, and several grandchildren, as well as all but two of her siblings from a brood of thirteen.
Having seen the horrors of two world wars, the great depression, numerous plagues and epidemics, one has to wonder what the hell we have to bitch about. But seeing your world going from walking and horse drawn wagons, to steam engines, gas engines, horseless carriages, tractors, cars, the industrial revolution…….. it had to be amazing. Some day one of my Great grand children will ask me what it was like witnessing the birth of the computer age, I will tell them stories of having to boot up a computer, using DOS, and their wrist watches having more megabytes than my first computer, they will look at me with wide eyed disbelief, but yet it can’t even be compared to what she has lived through.
Our families have all gotten our love for tinkering and mechanical abilities from our Grandmothers side of the family. In one of her journals she wrote that as a little girl she loved to do the house chores her mother had taught her, being the book keeper for her father’s honey bees, (he had 140 hives at one time) and she also liked to be a mechanic. She had helped her brother Gordon rebuild an early Fordson “and it worked well for many years after”. Her Father John Stilen had farmed not far from where I live and was the first farmer in the area to go from horses, to steam, to a tractor with a plow, and own a car, a Fordson and a Model T, and did much custom plowing with The Fordson over the years.
After Grandma and Grandpa were married they worked on several farms in the area as farm hands. Grandma a midwife and Grandpa operating the equipment. During WWII they moved to Milwaukee and Grandpa worked at a foundry as an inspector of big gun barrels. Shortly after the war they moved back to the area and purchased their own farm. 120 acres, 20 of it wooded and on the Embarrass River, don’t ask me how it got its name but I spent a lot of time playing in it as a young boy. They farmed here for many years, probably had 30 plus milk cows, hogs, and I’m sure a bunch of chickens running around. They started out with an early Fordson, maybe a N or a F (don’t know my early Fordson very well either way), a “little Ford” as it was always referred to, and then in the early fifties their first new Major (note the round precleaner). This one was traded in later for another new Major with live PTO. The second one now being in the possession of my youngest uncle Harold, who is also the little snapper sitting on the seat of the little Ford. The pics are with the earlier Major, I believe the date on the picture was 56. The last pic is of Grandma in the early seventies showing of an exceptionally nice crop of soybeans.

Never be afraid to give someone you love a hug.

Pat

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Last edited by BearCreek Majors on Mon Feb 06, 2012 2:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.

Kiwi Kev
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Re: family history

Post by Kiwi Kev »

BearCreek Majors wrote:I hope the new year well for all. Our Family enjoyed the holidays, we are now expecting another grandchild, we have been fortunate to all have job security, and are looking forward to a new year.
Unfortunately however we lost my Grandmother Vaiden of 97 years only a few days after Christmas. Tears were shed but yet we can’t help but be happy for her. Grandpa Walter had passed probably a good 20 years ago and Grandma continued to live on the home farm taking care of herself up until the last two days of her life, if only we could be so lucky. Of Course being on this earth for that many years doesn’t come with some heartache as well. Aside from her husband, she had to lie to rest her only daughter after a tragic accident when she was only in her early twenties, my father, one of his brothers, and several grandchildren, as well as all but two of her siblings from a brood of thirteen.
Having seen the horrors of two world wars, the great depression, numerous plagues and epidemics,

one has to wonder what the hell we have to bitch about.

But seeing your world going from walking and horse drawn wagons, to steam engines, gas engines, horseless carriages, tractors, cars, the industrial revolution…….. it had to be amazing. Some day one of my Great grand children will ask me what it was like witnessing the birth of the computer age, I will tell them stories of having to boot up a computer, using DOSS, and their wrist watches having more megabytes than my first computer, they will look at me with wide eyed disbelief, but yet it can’t even be compared to what she has lived through.
Our families have all gotten our love for tinkering and mechanical abilities from our Grandmothers side of the family. In one of her journals she wrote that as a little girl she loved to do the house chores her mother had taught her, being the book keeper for her father’s honey bees, (he had 140 hives at one time) and she also liked to be a mechanic. She had helped her brother Gordon rebuild an early Fordson “and it worked well for many years after”. Her Father John Stilen had farmed not far from where I live and was the first farmer in the area to go from horses, to steam, to a tractor with a plow, and own a car, a Fordson and a Model T, and did much custom plowing with The Fordson over the years.
After Grandma and Grandpa were married they worked on several farms in the area as farm hands. Grandma a midwife and Grandpa operating the equipment. During WWII they moved to Milwaukee and Grandpa worked at a foundry as an inspector of big gun barrels. Shortly after the war they moved back to the area and purchased their own farm. 120 acres, 20 of it wooded and on the Embarrass River, don’t ask me how it got its name but I spent a lot of time playing in it as a young boy. They farmed here for many years, probably had 30 plus milk cows, hogs, and I’m sure a bunch of chickens running around. They started out with an early Fordson, maybe a N or a F (don’t know my early Fordson very well either way), a “little Ford” as it was always referred to, and then in the early fifties their first new Major (note the round precleaner). This one was traded in later for another new Major with live PTO. The second one now being in the possession of my youngest uncle Harold, who is also the little snapper sitting on the seat of the little Ford. The pics are with the earlier Major, I believe the date on the picture was 56. The last pic is of Grandma in the early seventies showing of an exceptionally nice crop of soybeans.

Never be afraid to give someone you love a hug.

Pat
Pat
You are so correct. Enjoy life while you are able to. You are a lucky man to have what you have( plus your Fordsons)
Kiwi Kev
"Classic Contracting"


66 Ford 5000 6X (semi retirement)
International 784 4WD
& looking at another tractor!

Brian
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Re: family history

Post by Brian »

Pat,

Great story! My father was 98 when he passed about 5 years ago. He lived with us the last few years. When you look back at their lives it was really tough, ploughing all winter with a sack over your knees and head to keep you warm and dry, no wonder the knees went in later life.

Remember her with happiness! Both Ann and I talk to my father every day as we work on the land, cook, clean and play with the tractors. :D
Fordson Tractor Pages, now officially linked to: Fordson Tractor Club of Australia, Ford and Fordson Association and Blue Force.
Brian

super6954
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Re: family history

Post by super6954 »

Hi Pat
Thanks for posting the story it is very interesting and nice to see the picture of the major in working days there cant be many Family farm pictures like that around :) .Photography was not something everybody did in those years.
I guess to us those days way back when where a hardship but they did not know any different and it was just normal to them. Regards Robert
A Fordson is for life not just for Christmas !.

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Re: family history

Post by Dandy Dave »

The good old days when things were slower and simpler. The 8N looks like it has a Wolf Whistle attached to the intake manifold. 8) Dandy Dave!
Have a Fordsonful day Folks!

1960 Fordson Power Major

BearCreek Majors
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Re: family history

Post by BearCreek Majors »

Thanks guys.
Dave I do believe your correct, it looks like a wolf whistle to me as well, and no big surprise, my dad and the uncles were all tinkering gearheads, ( like that’s a big surprise), note the “muffler” on the Major.
For the last several years when we were over to visit Grandma she always had scrapbooks and photo albums out on the dining room table that she was working on. We got to see many family pictures of the grandkids, weddings, graduations, first communions, conformations, baptisms…..all the normal family functions. As well, I always tried to get stories out of her from her childhood and the years raising her own family, thankfully she was usually more than eager to share these memories. A few days before the funeral a few of us went over to the farm and gathered up the scrapbooks and all the pictures we could find to put some picture boards together for the funeral service. I was absolutely thrilled when we came across a handful of pics of the farm, the animals, and a few of the equipment. It is a shame to have hundreds of pictures and so few of them witnessing how they survived and fed their families. I’m sure the everyday farm chores were thought to be drudgery that no one would be interested in seeing, maybe there is a little lesion here for all of us.

Last night one of my cousins had a surprise birthday party for his girlfriend. A bunch of the family was there including Uncle Kenny, the older of the remaining two boys. Not surprisingly the subject of grandma and some stories of his childhood were brought up…and a story or two of the Majors. The twenty acres of woods on the river was never cleared because it was but low swampy land that was always under water in the spring. Kenny told us that he and his brothers would find an excuse to take the Major out to the woods in the spring, they would then slip the fan belt off and see how much water they could drive through, the theory was if you could drive in you could always back out, (he didn’t mention if this theory failed them a time or two). At one point they had to put a longer pipe on the precleaner ……they had the tractor completely under and didn’t want to suck water in the air filter and kill it. He also mentioned that if Grandpa would have found out what they were doing he would have tanned the hides on every one of them!

When Kenny was in high school, the late fifties, one particularly bad spring the road became completely impassable, I believe his missed close to two months of school because the school buss could not get any closer than several miles away. It got so bad that the farmers would haul the milk out on wagons with two or more tractors tied together and usually alongside of the road in the fields. The Major was usually the neighborhood tractor that pulled everyone else out, a dally routine that consisted of pulling Oliver’s, Farmalls, Internationals, John Deer’s, and more. The One day…THE ONE DAY THE MAJOR GOT STUCK, someone happened to be out there, snapped a picture, and the next day in the newspaper, hear was the Major with a Oliver and a John Deer in front of it pulling it out of the mud, and also the name of the lad sitting on the seat. I’ll bet Grandma is still stewing about it to this day.

Pat

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Re: family history

Post by Dandy Dave »

Fording a Fordson Major. :shock: Now thats a trip. :lol: I wonder if anything failed years later from water damage? Dandy Dave!
Have a Fordsonful day Folks!

1960 Fordson Power Major

Daves rusty bits
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Re: family history

Post by Daves rusty bits »

Lovelly story Pat, you are so lucky to have such family treasures. We need to tell the kids all we know about our parents and grandparents otherwise it all gets lost over the generations :clap: And I bet Grandad did know about the tractor in the swamp!
1960 Power Major, 1975 International 475 - well no ones perfect.

Brian
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Re: family history

Post by Brian »

Fordson Tractor Pages, now officially linked to: Fordson Tractor Club of Australia, Ford and Fordson Association and Blue Force.
Brian

henk
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Re: family history

Post by henk »

great video's Brian.
Kind regards, Henk

Fordson New Major February 1957 Mark I

ford5000y
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Re: family history

Post by ford5000y »

BearCreek Majors wrote:The Major was usually the neighborhood tractor that pulled everyone else out, a dally routine that consisted of pulling Oliver’s, Farmalls, Internationals, John Deer’s, and more. The One day…THE ONE DAY THE MAJOR GOT STUCK, someone happened to be out there, snapped a picture, and the next day in the newspaper, hear was the Major with a Oliver and a John Deer in front of it pulling it out of the mud, and also the name of the lad sitting on the seat.
I HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS!!!!

There was a time in our area that the road became so muddy that only tractors could traverse the road with ease. One day, somebody in a van tried to traverse an extremely deep patch and, of course, he got stuck, Luckily, a farmer that happens to be driving his tractor turned up and pulled the van out.

..and do you know what tractor is it????

..It's a FORDSON MAJOR!!!! :mrgreen:

(Mind you, I really love the sight of that fordson easily pulling a completely stuck van while the tractor itself is in deep mud :mrgreen: )

BearCreek Majors
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Re: family history

Post by BearCreek Majors »

Its been a very good weekend, a piece of my grandparents is now part of my herd.
My Dads youngest brother Harold, has had Grandpas Major for many years and used it for plowing snow, cutting wood, a forklift, grading,....about anything he needed done. He recently picked up a nice Ford 4X4 with a loader and a box blade to replace the old girl and has now given her to me. Quite humbling for me to say the least.
This was Grandpas second Major, the first one traded in for this new one about 1958 or 59. Luckily this is not the one that was used for the trips to the swamp!
She will need some TLC, the antifreeze leaks into the oil, the rear fenders are quite bad, and several other little issues, but she seems to run good and everything works yet. she will just have to wait her turn, but it will come.
A weird thing, my dads Major is SN 1467028, Grandpa's is 1467082.

Pat.

My Grandson James is showing us how to drive his Great Great Grandpa's tractor.

Image

oehrick
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Re: family history

Post by oehrick »

Nice one Pat, nice to see this sort of succession when most of the world seem to live such meaningless lives having no real sense of history, continuity or place like we do :D

My teenage lad came out to help me as choker wallah the other day and had his first drive on his late granddads Major, (did well so I ended up on the end of the chain instead :cry: ) and as we put her back into the shed turned and with a big smile on his face said something totally unexpected like 'I can see why you make so much fuss about this old tractor now', having shown no real interest or affection for any of my old ironwork to date it put a lump in my throat so perhaps there is some hope for another generation taking over custody rather than 'the auction' :lol:

Had the Major out today for a birthday runabout (well its some time this week or next depending on how long it took to cool, machine & assemble the engine, cast 14.04.58 !) and fitted a new filler hose, still leaking on filling, I'm wondering if the old chap has used a wrong rad cap as it has no rubber and the brass disk is cracked radially - I even wondered on the way home if it was an old fuel tank cap but that would have a breather hole, a ferret about and probably a trip to ebay should cure it, I'd like to have a road run on St Georges day but still a bit nervous about reliability at speed............
Best regards
Rick - Bogside on Bure


1958 Diesel E1A Mk2 s/n 1470165 - still in working clothes

BearCreek Majors
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Re: family history

Post by BearCreek Majors »

Thanks oehrick!
Sounds to me like you got him hooked now! Years ago my only concern (other than the women), were cars, trucks and Harleys. Unfortunately I let a few deals slip through my fingers because I didn’t really care or know better, one of those deals was a petrol Major. :cry:
Give that boy some time and encouragement, he’ll come around.

Pat

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Re: family history

Post by chriss »

its not only boys, I,ve got three girls the middle one's 25 and every time she visits the tractors have to come outImage

BearCreek Majors
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Re: family history

Post by BearCreek Majors »

Tractor tractor tractor tractor tractor tractor.....girl :scratchhead:
tractor tractor tractor tractor tractor tractor....girl with tractor :shock:
Chriss, are any of your daughters awaiting mirage proposals?

chriss
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Re: family history

Post by chriss »

All sorted and each one has a little boy eldest being 6 so you can imagine what a great help they are :buddies:

Daves rusty bits
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Re: family history

Post by Daves rusty bits »

Reminds me of the advert in a lonely hearts magazine. "Farmer looking for a lady with own tractor for possible romance / marrage. Please send a photo of the tractor."
1960 Power Major, 1975 International 475 - well no ones perfect.

ford5000y
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Re: family history

Post by ford5000y »

BearCreek Majors wrote:Its been a very good weekend, a piece of my grandparents is now part of my herd.
My Dads youngest brother Harold, has had Grandpas Major for many years and used it for plowing snow, cutting wood, a forklift, grading,....about anything he needed done. He recently picked up a nice Ford 4X4 with a loader and a box blade to replace the old girl and has now given her to me. Quite humbling for me to say the least.
This was Grandpas second Major, the first one traded in for this new one about 1958 or 59. Luckily this is not the one that was used for the trips to the swamp!
She will need some TLC, the antifreeze leaks into the oil, the rear fenders are quite bad, and several other little issues, but she seems to run good and everything works yet. she will just have to wait her turn, but it will come.
A weird thing, my dads Major is SN 1467028, Grandpa's is 1467082.

Pat.

My Grandson James is showing us how to drive his Great Great Grandpa's tractor.

Image
Pat,

That looks almost exactly like my uncles fordson major, yeah, the one I've been dreaming, except of course that it has 38 rims, one of which has a missing mounting lug, and it wasn't running. In fact I have got a good news and a bad one.
Good news is that yesterday we went to the uncle in question so I had a rare chance to look at his fordson major up close. the tractors been sitting outside for almost all my life (I'm turning 18 at November so almost 18 years now) but almost all the tinwork was there and looking good and strong enough.
Well, the bad news, is, I haven't brought my mobile phone with me, so I haven't got any pics and I'm still cursing about it even now!!! :cry:

Mark
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Re: family history

Post by Mark »

Great stories and videos everyone, I truly enjoyed them all. There's nothing like the old memories we have of our family's, especially our Grand parents.
Mark
See ya
Mark

When all else fails, get a bigger hammer

Dandy Dave
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Re: family history

Post by Dandy Dave »

My Grandfather on my mothers side was a Ford man. He had a Mode A Ford Tudor auto in the early years, and in the 1950's he has several 8N ford tractors. My Uncle told me he was looking at a Fordson Major back in the day but did not get it. Most likely it was too big for his very small farm in Trumble, Ct. USA. The old farm is nothing but houses on small plots now. Those were the days...
Have a Fordsonful day Folks!

1960 Fordson Power Major

ford5000y
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Re: family history

Post by ford5000y »

Well, my grandfather was a ford man as well. I could still remember that he told me that back in 1973 (I believe this might be the time because he bought his ford in 1973) he had money enough for a larger Fiat tractor but he chose a small Ford 4000 to work with, and it stayed with him ever since. Now he has bought five tractors, all Fords. A 1967 ford 4000 ("pre-force" as you would call them), a 1967 "pre force" ford 5000, a 1975? ford 6600 that has been reconditioned and was given to my uncle and a 1971 ford 5000 that has been reconditioned as well and it was the tractor that was given to us, in 2012.

And he, with my father, once bought a working Fordson Major Diesel, they used it for some time but with the intention of reconditioning it in the future but later it broke down and, due to financial problems, they never got into restoring it, and instead they ended up dismantling it ... and selling it. :cry: :cry:

So, in short, we once owned one of the tractor of my dreams, and we lost it. :cry:

BearCreek Majors
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Re: family history

Post by BearCreek Majors »

So we fixed a bunch of piddly things on Grandpas Major (now referred to as Walter), and took him to Symco this summer as well, Marc pulled him in the 6,000 lb pure stock class and placed about in the middle of the pack, we can see we need to change a few things, including the head gasket.

The Embarrass river on the back of Grandmas and Grandpas farm is at a flood stage the last week and is higher than it gets most springs. It made a little mess of our campground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DlMIQM3BDk



Image

Dandy Dave
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Re: family history

Post by Dandy Dave »

No water in the trailers hopefully. :shock: ... Dandy Dave!
Have a Fordsonful day Folks!

1960 Fordson Power Major

super6954
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Re: family history

Post by super6954 »

Hi Pat
Good to see another one running in your collection :D . She looks way to nice to paint and spoil :idea: . not sure how well that original drawbars going to like pulling on the top clevis though :| . I have a few snapped draw bars I have picked up over the years on variose tractors, that came here and seen a good few more in the wreckers while looking for good replacements :eyes: .
Regards Robert
A Fordson is for life not just for Christmas !.

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