In the last installment, we told you all about the Sargent Overhead Shovel which was invented by Tengel and Thomas Andersen. Their younger brother, Arthur, also migrated in 1921 from his native home in Risor, Norway to the USA to seek his fortune. Arthur was born on March 31, 1902 to Torje and Karen Andersen.

When immigrants arrived at Ellis Island, it was a common practice for the customs officials to try to have people change the spelling of their last name to a more American spelling. Thus the name Andersen was recommended to be changed to Anderson. Tengel and Thomas wished to keep the original spelling of their last name, so they refused this change. Arthur, however, was willing to embrace this change. So his last name was spelled Anderson from that day on.

Arthur’s early ventures in the new country included working on Fairbanks Morse diesel engines. Arthur and his wife, Sigrid, arrived in Wildwood, New Jersey with $5 in their pocket and high hopes. In 1929 Arthur and Sigrid worked side by side to establish Anderson’s Machine Shop specializing in automotive and marine repairs. As it has been said, behind every successful man is a good woman. Certainly, this was indeed the case here as Sigrid was Arthur’s strong right arm. This southern New Jersey area had many miles of shoreline, so there were many boats that needed to be serviced.

Since Arthur was an outstanding salesman they soon outgrew their modest facility. Around 1936, he moved his business to a larger building and specialized more fully in marine repair, boat supplies, and engines in addition to his machine shop. This business would later be known as South Jersey Marine.

Soon after the end of World War II, Arthur’s brother, Tengel, approached him with the need for a small dozer that could be lifted by crane in the upper floors of buildings that were being demolished. Tengel had been a general contractor in Staten Island, New York. As you may remember from our last story, Tengel and Thomas were partners in inventing the Overhead Shovel and later the Strait-Line loader. Now Arthur and Tengel would become partners in another venture that would become a very important part of the Oliver crawler tractor line as we know it. Arthur and Tengel worked together to design and build a small dozer on the Oliver-Cletrac HG42. Thus the Anderson dozer was born. This was one of the first small commercially produced crawler dozers.

This small, well-built unit featured an integral hydraulic reservoir with a mounting area for the single 4” diameter lift cylinder; the hydraulic control valve was located on the side of the reservoir. All of this mounted above the tractor hood. This design bore some similarity to the dozer lift system that was used on the Oliver 900 industrial when equipped with a Sargent Overhead Loader. The hydraulic pump was mounted on the front mainframe crossmember and shaft driven off the front of the crankshaft.

The Anderson dozer- also featured a simple way to angle the blade. This was accomplished by removing one pin that held the blade onto the push frame and swinging it forward and then adding a section complete with a third pin. This feature would be used for the duration of the Anderson dozer production.

Look for Issue #18 of Oliver Heritage to finish the most recent sage of the Cletrac Facts. Also, be sure to order your back issues of Oliver Heritage Today and read all about the history of Cletrac