PARIS, Ky. – This year was the 52nd annual Central Kentucky Antique Machinery Association Show. Club member Brian Scott said, “This is the oldest and largest show in Kentucky.”

Held at the Bourbon County Fairgrounds, the show’s featured tractor was John Deere, although several brands were represented at the show. The feature tractor, a 1959 John Deere 730 diesel has been at the show every year. It belonged to Joe Fritsch of Paris, Ky., a farmer who has a cow/calf operation and puts up alfalfa and orchard grass for horse farms.

“My grandpa and dad bought the 730 new from Keller Implement in Lexington in 1959,” Fritsch said. “They also bought a new John Deere 2-row mounted corn picker and a four-bottom mounted plow.”

Sharing what makes the tractor special, he said, “The draft control works better than any other tractor.”

This is a family tractor passed down through the generations. “After grandpa Joseph passed, I bought his half, then after my dad Andy passed away, my son Andrew bought his half. It is neat to have the feature tractor. My dad would have been thrilled to death. My dad used to have tractor pulls,” Fritsch said. “He would pull it. One time a guy brought a John Deere 4230. It was new, and he was showing off. Dad said, ‘Can I pull it to warm up?’ He said, ‘Sure old man,’ then later dad was in the same class, and dad beat him by 50 to 60 feet.”

Fritsch added a few more stories of the 730’s pulling power, showing what memories this tractor has for the Fritsch family. They still play with it as well, plowing with the 730 every year.

“My brother is an ag teacher, and he painted the tractor in the 1980s when we took the corn picker off it.,” Fritsch explained about renovations. Besides the 730, he has two 1972 3020’s, one restored, and one original. He also has a 1971 John Deere 4000 power shift tricycle, which was only made in 1971 and 1972. Another 4000 he owns is a 71 with a Synchro-Range transmission. Joe owns eight of the hard to find 4000’s.

Being the oldest show in Kentucky, it has a bit of history, and Eddie Richard, Steve Persinger and Donnie Dailey shared information about the show. “About 10 people decided they wanted an old iron show,” Richard said. “Back then, we had lots of hit and miss and steam engines at the time. You didn’t see as many tractors then, but more hit and miss engines because they were used on the farm.”

Persinger said, about a family member, “On the farm back during the Depression, the government gave money every month to grind feed for chickens.”

When the club started in 1970, at first it was called the Steam & Gas Engine Association. Dailey said with the accidents associated with steam power at some other shows, they decided to change their name focus and changed their name.

“The show started out at the stockyards,” he shared, then Richard added that the show’s next move was to the Cane Ridge School before moving to its current location. “We have been here for 25 years,” Dailey said.

“This is our 52nd show, and it would have been the 53rd except we skipped a year during the COVID shutdown,” Persinger explained.

The Central Kentucky Antique Machinery Association offers scholarships to local students. “We have given out $7,000 in scholarship funds,” Dailey said.

The club doesn’t charge anything to attend the show, but they have a $10 gate fee for the Bluegrass Pullers. Money made from that event is how they fund the scholarship program. “We use a $10.00 gate fee. We are non-profit, but we seem to have enough money. I don’t believe we can outgive the Lord.”

The club stays in the black in part through efforts they credit to club member Danny Booth. Today, they also have sponsors that help with the show cost.

The show brings visitors from all over. “Last year there were people here from Ohio, Indiana, and one guy used to come from Florida and bring a tractor,” Dailey said, adding there were also visitors from Michigan and South Carolina.

All three had tractors at the show. “I’m a Ford guy,” Dailey said. “I’ve got a 2000 5-speed diesel that is a 1963, and came from a show in Evansville, Ind.”

Persinger is also a Ford guy and has overseen the vendors at the show for the last several years after retiring as president. “I have a 1958 Ford tractor with a Select-O-Speed that I got from Donnie, who restores tractors. My dad bought a 961 Power master new in 1959. I’m a 1949 model,” he added. “I also have a 65 Ford Commander, it’s the biggest Ford they made in that day.”

Persinger is sharing the love of tractors with the younger generation. “I gave a 135 Massey to my grandson Jase Persinger, who is 9.”

Richard, who is a car guy besides being a tractor collector, broke away from the Ford group with his 1957 John Deere 620. “I have had it for close to 30 years. I bought it in Ohio, it came from a dairy farm. I’m a John Deere guy and it’s my favorite. I have three big tractors, and seven or eight small ones.”

On the show grounds, one of the attractions for visitors is the engine which used to be in the Spears warehouse. “It is a 1910 model, that I think was built in Cincinnati, Ohio. They used it in the grain warehouse before they closed. They gave the engine to the club. We used to run it on steam, now we use compressed air. The engine sat in the warehouse its whole life.,” Richard said.

Persinger and Richard go way back. They worked together at IBM running presses during their work life. Persinger is also a traveler. He and his wife Linda have been to all 50 states.

The show had several cool items on display. One showstopper was a 1947 Willy’s Jeep that Brian Scott said was bought at one time by the fire department.

Collector Jim Hamilton chimed in on jeep history. He said when he was little, they used a jeep to rake hay. He traveled from Hillsboro, Ohio, adding, “Hillsboro is the only town in Ohio that has two stockyards. We are a livestock area in Southern Ohio.”

He had a beautiful 1963 narrow front John Deere 1010 diesel. “We’ve fixed it up a little bit,” he shared. “I bought it at a sale to travel around to tractor shows and add it to my John Deere collection. This makes six older John Deeres. We farm with newer Deeres.”

The most touching moment of the show was when 13-year-old Bentley Carpenter, Brian and Kendra Scott’s son, shared his recently renovated 1962 Cub Cadet original that he restored with the help of Mike Feeback. The tractor is a dedication to his grandma Becky, a breast cancer survivor, and to his grandma Judy Martin, who recently passed away from breast cancer. The pink tractor is beautiful and the sentiment even more so.

For more information about this cool Kentucky show, visit ckama.org.