Bob Woodward’s first cousin, John J. Woodward, Jr. (John J. Woodward – Theodore B., Sr. – John J. Woodward) also worked on the 250-acre Rosedale farm as a lad. The two cousins share their reminiscence with us:

BOB: This old Ford 8N was purchased (about) 1947 as the second or third tractor on the farm. It’s had one engine rebuilt, but otherwise it’s as it was. These little workhorses were strong and versatile with easy attachment installations. (Except for the mower that slid under the tractor, was mounted between the right side wheels and was a bear to install!)

The front and rear wheels had to be extended to fit corn rows. What a funny appearance when the right wheels were in for mowing and the left wheels still extended!

The cultivator and corn planter are still here (on Bob’s farmette)

These little tractors replaced horses and greatly lightened the burden of our fathers, enabling them to expand operations.

Ford tractors (or Ford – Fergusons after a merger) competed successfully with the larger tricycle-wheeled Farmalls and Alice Chalmers of that era that were a bit top heavy.

JOHN: The tractor Bob has was called the “big” tractor, but there was another Ford tractor with 32” rear wheels called the “little” tractor. The “big” tractor was used for plowing and corn planting, while the “little” tractor was used for mowing and raking.

As far as the sickle bar mower is concerned, I remember it being mounted on Pap’s “little” tractor, since he did most of the mowing. It was a bear to mount on the tractor, since many times I had to help do it.

That’s how I almost lost a finger in its blades. The mower would be laid out on the ground and some of the mounting brackets would always be left on the tractor. Then you would drive over it at an angle and line it up. Then go around and lift the pulley assembly up and put the belts from the rear pulley on the power-take-off and attach the 3 belts to the pulley of the mower arm. Then go around to the right side and hook up the major lift arms and also to the lift arm on the back. Once that was done you hooked up the lift cable etc, etc.

Once Pap asked me to take some dirt or grass out of the blades (after we got it hooked up) and being a good son (I didn’t dare disobey him), I went around and put my fingers between the blades to clean them and Pap thought my hands were clear and he touched the starter button (he had failed to take it out of gear) and the knife moved and just nearly cut my middle finger off.

In typical fashion, he said “Are you ok, boy?” As I held up my profusely bleeding finger, he got off the tractor and walked me to the kitchen and ran cold water over it and put a bandage on it (of course no stitches as we were too busy to go to the doctor’s) and eventually it healed but I carry the scar to this day.

The Ford-Ferguson Bob refers to was the Fords produced before 1947 as the result of a handshake agreement between Henry Ford and Harry Ferguson. Ford agreed to build the tractors (1939 to 1947) using Ferguson’s hydraulic lift system with draft control which made Ford easy to compete with Allis Chalmers and Farmall. It allowed a smaller tractor to pull a plow as easily as a larger tractor because weight was transferred from the downdraft of the plow to the tractor rear wheels. Ford abrogated the handshake agreement in 1947 and Ferguson went on to produce the Ferguson tractors (and we had one on the farm in the 50’s) and later merged with Massey – Harris to form the world’s largest tractor company at the time. Today, it is still produced with that name but under a conglomerate, AGSCO.

By the way, the early 1939-1942 Fords were designated 9N and Pap’s high wheel may have been a 2N (produced from 1942-1947), but not sure about that.