In the last issue of Oliver Heritage, we told you all about the successful loaders that Ware Machine Works built for the Oliver crawler tractors.

Fifty years ago, a quiet little town in Adams Co. Ohio was about to be turned upside down, literally. Peebles, OH, with a population of 1800, was a rural town dotted with quaint family farms. It was a self-contained village with all the businesses uptown that the residents needed. For many of those in Adams County, there was never a need to live the county. But this little town was about to become known world wide as the home of the World Plowing Match and Conservation Expo.

I first met Luke Rizzuto at the HPOCA summer show in Canandaigua, NY in 1999. The love of Oliver tractors, mostly Cletracs and Oliver Crawlers, started a lasting friendship until this day. Our visits have always included an adventure, and the best one happened in July of 2004 when we went in search of a Cletrac that had tumbled down a California canyon in the mid 1950's.

Just across the river from Port Hudson, Michigan, stands the city of Sarnia, Ontario. Before the turn of the century, Sarnia was the home of a thriving business that would leave an indelible mark on the agricultural landscape of not only Ontario, but all of Canada, and several American States as well. Not unlike other companies of the day, this one, it its earlier years, would also see name changes as well as product line up changes.

In November of 1962 Oliver President Sam White, Jr. announced that there would be nine empty desks in Chicago that month. No, there weren’t nine people looking for a new job. They hit the road to assist in the traveling road show to introduce all of the new products available for 1963. That traveling road show would be called “The Growing O”, to represent Oliver – growing in the number of fine machines to help farmers grow their crops and growing in opportunities for Oliver dealers and employees. The show would be visiting nine branch cities in thirty-three days.