A pair of McCormick Farmall tractors, 1953, left, and 1954 models, on display Monday, Aug. 17, 2015, in the yard at Charles Parmley's rural Tyler home. Andrew D. Brosig/Tyler Morning Telegraph

 

A 1957 Farmall 230 tractor sits idle, its opened engine block covered like a patient laid out on an operating table inside Charles Parmley’s shop.

Parmley, 71, a retired Tyler ISD vocational agriculture teacher of 38 years, plans to restore the nearly-60-year-old piece of farm equipment and add it to his collection of more than 15 antique International Harvester Farmall tractors.

Restoring and collecting antique tractors isn’t a hobby for Parmley. It’s an addiction.

“I need another tractor like I need a hole in my head,” he joked. “But I don’t hunt and I don’t fish. So this gives me something to do.”

The pride of his collection – a 1953 Farmall Super C – has been in his wife’s family since it was purchased new. The history behind the machine is a point of pride. His wife grew up on it, he said, and continues to drive it at events, from area syrup and sweet potato festivals to the Texas Rose Festival Parade.

Parmley is the president of the Lone Star Antique Tractor and Engine Association based in Whitehouse. It started with about a dozen members who chartered the group in Parmley’s shop in 2000.

Since then, the group has grown to almost 100 members from all over East Texas and a few from western Louisiana who buy, restore and collect decades-old tractors and small engines that date back to when horses and horse drawn buggies were still the prominent mode of transportation.

Members congregate bimonthly to talk tractors, trade parts and opinions and plan events, such as the upcoming annual Antique Tractor and Engine Show and Plow Day hosted every September. They also attend national events that celebrate the progeny of pieces of agriculture equipment used to plant and harvest crops that fed communities, the nation and the world.

Parmley and members Mark Croasmun and Alan McEntarfer sat inside his shop on Monday talking tractors. Croasmun owns 20 antique tractors of varying makes, models and years. McEntarfer has more than 30 tractors he’s collected over the past decade.

For Croasmun, 47, of Chandler, collecting antique tractors is about the chase. He started collecting tractor standard bearers, such as John Deere and Farmall, seven years ago after joining the club.

Now he prefers hunting for “odd-ball” tractors, like his 1945 Silver King he found in Indiana. Between 1934 and 1954, 8,600 Silver King tractors were produced. They are a rarity today. The farmer he bought the tractor from raked hay with it the day before Croasmun picked it up.

Finding and restoring antique tractors also is a point of connection with Croasmun’s 14-year-old son. Tractor projects meant time together and sharing the basics of mechanics, Croasmun said. Now both his son and his wife have taken interest in the collection of rare tractors.

Joining the Lone Star Antique Tractor and Engine Association and traveling to shows gives Croasmun an outlet for the interest.

“Being in the club is a lot about camaraderie and seeing the different tractors people show up with and seeing what they’ve done with them,” he said.

The shows also can give Croasmun leads on missing parts and a new project.

Hunting tractors and parts and completing restoration projects are fun but antique tractors have a nostalgic draw to McEntarfer.

McEntarfer, 53, of Neches, grew up on a farm in western New York and said antique tractors tie to his childhood. He still uses his antique tractors on his land to cut hay for his milk and beef cows but his collection has outgrown his 3,200-square-foot shop. Like Croasmun, McEntarfer has gone to great lengths to find tractors. McEntarfer tracked down a tractor in Erie, Pennsylvania, that had been used on his family farm.

To rebuild a tractor often takes two to four “part tractors” to complete the project, McEntarfer explained. The hilltop behind McEntarfer’s shop is accented by rows of antique part and project tractors.

“My wife looks out there sometimes and says, ‘They’re breeding like rabbits,'” McEntarfer said. “It is an addiction.”

It can be a costly addiction as well – in time and money. A part tractor can cost several hundred dollars, and parts – especially for rare machines – can add up quickly if you’re lucky enough to find them, Parmley said. McEntarfer has bought an entire tractor to have specific wheels for a restoration project.

The time investment is another thing. Parmley’s mental cost counter only acknowledges purchases and parts. It doesn’t calculate countless hours preparing the body for paint or rebuilding an engine. It doesn’t count bloody knuckles.

The three men agree the equipment produced decades ago is better built than tractors and engines built today. The machines are simpler and built to last.

Parmley said he’s noticed interest in antique tractors has grown in the past several years. He said children have always been fascinated with tractors but that today there is a nostalgia and interest driven revival associated with farming and older farm equipment.

The men and the association appreciate the growing interest. It gives them opportunity to show and share their machines with generations familiar and unfamiliar with farming history.

“People are interested in how things were done in the past,” he said. “There’s a connection people want to have with the past.”

Twitter: @newsboyAdam

++++

SEE THE TRACTORS

Lone Star Antique Tractor and Engine Association members will be at two Tractor Supply locations – 3509 Robertson Road and 13641 Texas Highway 110, from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, to promote the group’s 16th Annual Antique Tractor and Engine Show and Plow Day Sept. 11-12.

Association President Charles Parmley said he expects members to have around a dozen antique tractors and engines on display at both locations.

The September Show and Plow Day benefits scholarships for area students.