New exhibit showcases tractors in Merced’s farming and agriculture community
While dirt is not a dirty word, it is usually something we sweep, scrub, or wash away, but to farmers, dirt is soil — the fountain of life.
To turn soil into productive land, farmers use farm implements and machinery to channel the energy flow of the soil organisms. From walking plows to smart tractors, the Merced County Courthouse Museum’s newest exhibit examines how the evolution of tractors shaped farming in the Central Valley.
“Tractor Dealerships in Merced County” will open at the Courthouse Museum on March 12 with a community celebration in the Courthouse Park, featuring the exhibit, history talk, tractor show, and hot dog barbecue. Please bring your lawn chairs and picnic blankets.
The exhibit begins in 1837 when John Deere invented his famous saw blade and developed the steel walking plow. When settlers came to Merced County shortly in 1855, they engaged predominantly in farming and used draft animal-drawn plows to get the fields ready for planting.
The productivity of walking plowing was low since a farmer could till about one and a half acres a day. Then came the riding cultivators in 1863 – a farmer could now plow five and a half acres with a team of horses or mules. Merced County had its own inventor of farm implements, a man named Robert Baxter.
Baxter, a grain farmer, had a 4,000-acre ranch about ten miles east of Plainsburg. With a sizable farming operation, Baxter realized that he needed to increase the capacity of farming machinery for sowing and harvesting to manage the large crops successfully. Thus, he invented a traveling thresher in 1863, produced the improved gang plow in 1864 and developed a header in 1866. His inventions made his ranch one of the most productive farms in the county.
The invention of the first steam tractor in 1868 by Henry G. Stone of Grand Rapids, Michigan was the next milestone in farming. Steam tractors quickly replaced horse teams to become a powerful force in the Merced County fields until the arrival of gasoline-powered tractors. The first gasoline-powered Case tractor was built in 1892, but it did not come to market until 1904. The first Case gas tractors were shipped to California in the fall of 1912, and Merced County received its first shipment in 1913.
The first mass-produced, highly popular tractor was the Fordson tractor developed by Henry Ford in 1917. Merced’s first Ford tractor dealership was started by Charles Edward Lounsbury and Richard Shaffer, Jr. at 1731 M Street next to the El Capitan Hotel. E. Lounsbury & Co. Garage & Machine Works began with selling Model T’s and other Ford cars in 1913 and added the tractor line in 1918.
In early 1923, the partnership of Lounsbury and Shaffer was dissolved. Shaffer took over the Ford dealership and opened a store at 636 W. 16th Street. In 1928, Shaffer terminated his automobile business, and Joseph Gaestel, who came to Merced from San Francisco, took over the Ford agency. Gaestel did not add the tractor division until 1941. To fill the vacuum left by Shaffer, Bedesen and McNamara Hardware became the new agent for Fordson tractors in the early 1930s.
The next major improvement in the tractor was rubber tires. Before 1935, tractors were hard to operate in the rugged terrain due to their steel wheels. The Allis-Chalmers Model U tractor was the first of its kind to include rubber tires as standard equipment, and Firestone Tire and Rubber Company was a driving force behind the effort to put rubber tires on tractors. In Merced County, Bohn and Shipley Firestone would travel to different farms and provide tire services.
1954 was another turning point in the evolution of tractors because, for the first time in history, there were more tractors than horses and mules. It was true in our community that the decade of the 1950s was considered the golden age of tractor dealerships in Merced County.
There were dealerships for just about every major maker in Merced alone: Shannon Tractor and Pump (Allis-Chalmers), N&S Tractor (Case), Gaestel (Ford), Halton Tractor (John Deere/Caterpillar), Scarborough Implement (McCormick-Deering/International Harvester), Bohn and Shipley (Ferguson), Kirby Implement (Minneapolis-Moline), Polzine Farm Equipment (Oliver), and Laird Welding and Manufacturing (Wagner).
On the West Side of Merced County, Edmund Murtos’ Ford Tractor was a fixture of the Los Banos community in the 1950s. In Gustine, there was Azevedo Hardware which sold Case tractors. Nylander and Sorenson in Dos Palos was the dealer for McCormick-Deering and International Harvester.
The Atwater and Livingston area also had several tractor dealerships, including Passadori Hardware, Atwater Mercantile Co., and Joseph Brothers of Livingston.
These early dealerships were more than just businesses, they were community hubs where farmers, dealers, salesmen, and mechanics formed close bonds. Their common goal was to ensure that the healthy soil would provide bountiful crops to feed the world. So, please join us on March 12 at 11:30 a.m. in the Courthouse Park to celebrate the legacy of these dealerships and the contributions of our farmers and farmworkers.
In addition, the Merced County Historical Society will hold its annual membership meeting during the exhibit opening at noon. For more information, please contact the Courthouse Museum at 209-723-2401.
