James Noll was at the Classic Green Reunion in Grand Island, Neb., with his beautiful John Deere. Some tractors have a distinct story, and James and Helen Noll’s 1929 GP Wide Tread is one of them. Deere GP tricycles were first built in 1928 and the General Purpose Wide Tread production tractors were first built in 1929, until February 1932. Deere built just shy of 5,000 tractors for Southern farmers, as 2- or 4-row two-bottom-plows. James’ tractor was sold at the Steinmeyer & Co. General Merchandise store owned by Alfred Steinmeyer in Tynan, Texas. James acquired a photo from Steinmeyer’s granddaughter, Gayle Steinmeyer Smolik, a restaurant owner. James knows quite a bit about this tractor. Warehoused at the factory, it was shipped on Sept. 6, 1929, to Tynan. Steinmeyer not only had the store that sold the tractors, but also an experimental farm where Deere did experimental work. The dealership was operated by his son until it closed in 1977. James’ GP was found near the border of Mexico and Arizona by a good friend and avid collector, Larry Rovey of Glendale, Ariz. This tractor apparently made its way to Yuma for further testing because the area was the second place in the nation to start spring planting of crops. Larry did minor refurbishing to the tractor, where it stayed in his collection until James purchased it and brought it back to Texas in 2015. The tractor now resides approximately 60 miles from where it was originally sold. “The reason these tractors came to South Texas,” James said, who hails from Falls City, “Is that this was the first row crop planting area in the nation.” According to him, all manufacturers made their debut in this region. This was called a “Southern tractor" by Deere, with narrow front ends (tricycle) for row crop work. These first tractors – about 500 of them – were shipped with water injection to stop pre-detonation of the engine due to poor fuel with the high-compression engine. The well water used by farmers in this area had high concentrations of calcium, which would solidify on the valve stems and stick in the valve guides and cause the engines to stop operating. To alleviate this problem, after much fieldwork by Deere representatives, the company came up with a special kit. It was called the AC-576 Assembly To Eliminate Water Feed, and tractors with this kit are rare. James explained the kits were being installed on small-bore GP Wide Treads and GPs before January 1930. The casting numbers of this kit are special only to it. This represents one of the many changes Deere made to usher in improvements in farming. Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com JAMES AND HELEN NOLL with their John Deere 1929 GP Wide Tread when it was on display at the John Deere museum. (Photo provided) |
