This March 17-18, the village of Sublette, Ill., celebrated 30 years of the Sublette Toy Show. It began in 1983 in the Sublette Community Building. When this idea for a fundraiser for local sports and other items brought 600 people to town, the village elders realized the show was a keeper.

Today the show covers seven buildings and brings approximately 7,000 people to town. Each year a brand is selected to be represented, and this year’s was International Harvester. The newspaper that is given out at this show had one headline stating: “IH Has Long, Storied History in Sublette.”

Farmall red goes way back to 1893, when Paul Stephenitch opened a hardware and implement business downtown.

The article shares: “He was soon selling McCormick Deering farm machines. The business thrived and over the years they continued to sell International Harvester’s McCormick Deering farm tractors and equipment. Later they added International trucks to their lineup of products.”

The family business was passed down from Paul to his son, Leroy, who became owner of the store in 1934. It remained in Sublette until after World War II when Leroy built a new IH dealership in the nearby community of Mendota.

While the Stephenitch family kept both stores open for a time, eventually they closed the Sublette store and operated in Mendota. When Leroy’s brothers Donald and Richard joined the business, they called it L.J. Stephenitch and Sons.

The dealership operated until the 1960s, when it became an Ace Hardware. The store today is the Do It Best Hardware store and is run by the fourth generation of the Stephenitch family.

Don Dinges, one of the founders of the Sublette Toy Show and a member of the Stephenitch family, added that in nearby Amboy, W.G. Leffelman also opened an IH dealership that continues today, operated by the third generation.

Along with this type of history come stories of equipment – in this case, a Farmall M. Don told the story of his family’s tractor, that was restored right before this year’s show. “The Leffelman dealership is still operating and they have the original ledger showing the sale of the tractor,” Don explained.

The 1940 Farmall M was first purchased by Charles B. Hatch. (Don added the Hatch name also heralds back to the Sublette history: “Charles Hatch’s grandfather was the first settler in Sublette Township. He came in 1837, so the tractor spent its working life on the first farm settled in Sublette Township. The tractor has never left Sublette Township.”)

While Hatch was the tractor’s owner, it was often serviced by Raymond “Mike” Dinges, who worked at L.J. Stephenitch International Harvester dealership.

When Hatch died, his daughter, Harriet Palmer, gave the beloved Farmall M to Mike.

Don added, “He, Urb Glaser and Art Prendergast, all who had worked at the Stephenitch dealership, restored the tractor. The tractor has been used in parades and on tractor rides since.”

The tractor was even used as a background for Mike Dinges’ 90th birthday picture. Mike passed away in 2004 and his tractor was passed to his grandson, Nick.

The M was badly in need of a new paint job, so Michael Vaessen of Sublette Mechanical repainted the tractor in March, just in time for this year’s Sublette Farm Toy and Antique Tractor show.

The restoration was done in honor of “Grandpa Mike.” The lovingly repainted tractor was brought by Nick to the show for the enjoyment of visitors, the extended Dinges family and families of former workers at the IH dealership.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.