Issue # 4: All in the Family

I’ll never forget the time years ago when I was attending a farm auction. Someone in the crowd that day fired up an Oliver Super 55 that had seen some pretty hard use. The Charles City, Iowa-built four cylinder belched a little black smoke but then idled down to that low, deep, throaty hum that is so recognizable. An elderly gentleman in well-worn bib overalls and wearing an Oliver farm cap walked up next to me and said, “You know, there’s something about how an Oliver tractor sounds…it sounds different than any other tractor…I like the way they sound…always have…” I simply nodded as he disappeared into the crowd.

People are attracted to Oliver tractors for a variety of reasons, but that’s the first time I’d heard that one; however, I have to admit I had to agree with his assessment, and this old-timer’s backside had obviously spent considerable time situated in many a steel Oliver tractor seat.

I grew up in the city and didn’t know the difference between a disc and a disk, but when I met my future wife in college I quickly became a student of Oliver and White tractors.

You see, it just so happened my father-in-law to be was Mel Highlander, (pictured above on 70) who farmed southern Illinois ground for the better part of 60 years. And he was an Oliver man through and through—as were other family members.

As soon as I started calling on his daughter, Connie, and the courting got halfway serious, Mel took the time to explain to this city slicker what Oliver tractors were all about. I was also intrigued by the fact that not only did he have Oliver tractors sitting outside…he also had Oliver toy tractors residing on shelves in his home. He showed me the Super 77 he had, along with his Oliver 1655 that he was so proud of. He had also purchased a White 2-155 (since Olivers were no longer available). Once I started attending family get-togethers, I noticed my mother’s-in-law father (Edwin Blom) and her two brothers (Vernon and Delmar) had a shed full of Oliver tractors, too.

Edwin Blom was as honest as the day was long. A hard-working, life-long farmer, a church-going man who enjoyed working the ground on the farm his grandfather bought in 1866. Delmar, Edwin’s oldest son, remembers when his dad bought his first tractor. “He traded some hogs and a team of mules for an AC WC Allis Chalmers tractor, a two-bottom plow, and an eight-foot disk. ”I remember he had tears running down his cheeks when he made that trade,” Delmar noted. “He loved that team of mules.” It wasn’t an Oliver, but it was the first time a gas-operated tractor had worked the soil on the farm.

Look deep into families and the histories with Oliver Equipment in each and every issue of Oliver Heritage!!!