CLETRAC BECOMES A FULL LINE COMPANY 1920-1930

If you compare Oliver and Cockshutt, you will find numerous similarities. These 2 compannies mirrored each other throughout their years of production and it is ironic that both companies were bought up by the same corporation and molded into one, eventually suffering the same demise.

When the Oliver Chilled Plow Works merged with Nichols & Shepard in 1929, the Battle Creek company had already been in the harvesting equipment business since 1848. But the well-known manufacturer had been in business for over 100 years before they would ever produce a self-propelled combine.

This series of articles will have excepts from my interview with former Oliver President - Sam White, Jr. Rather than put it in story form, these are his words just as they were told to me.

Located just north of Interstate 70 on HWY 13 (Exit 49) in Higginsville, Missouri is an AGCO dealership that has stood the test of time. It was 1946 when the Vahrenberg family acquired a business that would soon turn into an Oliver dealership that still thrives today as one of the top volume dealerships in North America.