By TIM ALEXANDER
Illinois Correspondent

HENRY, Ill. — Read Brothers CASE-IH/True Value Hardware marked its 50th year of business on June 30 with a sausage-and-pancake breakfast and a tractor parade through this idyllic Illinois River town, where residents have come to rely on its owners, Jerry and Bob Read, for everything from lamps to duct tape to 16-row corn planters.

“(Bob and Jerry’s father) Francis Read built this business from nothing but just a lot of hard work, and a lot of other area dealerships have come and gone since then” said one farmer who attended the breakfast.

“Their success comes from working harder than the rest of them, and the brands they sell make the difference,” added another between bites of link whole-hog sausage. Both declined to give their names, deferring attention to the Read brothers who were busy greeting guests, most of whom they had known since childhood.

More than 500 attended the breakfast, which was at the Marshall-Putnam County Fairgrounds. Dozens of antique tractors and newer CASE/IH implements lined the fairgrounds, but Ryan and Natalie Murphy, ages 6 and 4, of nearby Bradford were fascinated by the two racing lawn tractors on display. They proclaimed the souped-up minis the “neatest” tractors on the grounds.

Following the breakfast, dozens of farmers paraded their tractors through downtown Henry and into rural Marshall, Putnam and Bureau counties on a leisurely 25-mile jaunt to call attention to the dealership’s accomplishment. Many locals lined the roads and sat in lawn chairs in yards along the route.

Downtown at Read Brothers True Value, 408 Edwards Street, customers were busy grabbing free hats and yardsticks being given away. Aside from the hardware store, which is also the site of their farm implement display lot, the Reads have other buildings sprinkled throughout Henry’s downtown to house various agricultural items for sale.

To get directions to visit an example of one of America’s vanishing treasures, the mom-and-pop (or in this case, brother-and-brother)-owned farm implement dealership, see the Read Brothers True Value (The Only Store of its Kind) website www.readbros.com