Tractor trivia
John Deere Lindeman Crawlers
Last weekend I attended one of my favorite events. I am a member of the Lake Agassiz Two Cylinder Club and we had our “fall” meeting. It was held at the Happy Trails Saloon in Argusville, ND off I29 near Fargo. It was a beautiful day for the “long” drive but I knew it would be a good time.
There was a chair open near my friend and legendary John Deere collector, Don Dufner, so I had a seat and began to visit. First of course we held the business meeting and then I brought my guitar and sang a couple of songs including-”The Mean Old Minnesota Summer Fallow Blues,” which was written by my friend, the late Donny Larson. It mentions getting up in the morning and starting my old John Deere!(I thought that would be appropriate!)
After the meeting and songs comes the best part, just shooting the bull with a bunch of tractor guys. Don Dufner told a story of going to Washington to pick up a Lindeman crawler. While he was their he found a second one. Then on the way home he stopped for gas and a man saw his truck with two crawlers loaded and said, “Do you want another one?” The man had another and that one was loaded and he came home with 3 crawlers! That got me thinking about a little history about John Deere crawlers.
John Deere BO Crawler along with other equipment was designed and built by Jesse Lindeman and his three brothers Harry, Ross & Joe at Lindeman Power Equip. Co.. in Yakima, Washington. The history of crawler production is a interesting one. Eventually the plant was sold for $1,147,340.18 to John Deere. Jesse Lindeman received the bigger portion along with stocks in Deere and Company. Shortly after JD took over the operation the last of the BO Crawlers rolled off the assembly line. Jesse worked for Deere until Deere closed the plant in Yakima.
1645 BO tractors were made into Lindeman Crawlers as 29 BR tractors were also converted. Serial numbers of the crawlers were not separated they just corresponded with the BO or BR that was made into a crawler.
I’ve never been around a BO Lindeman Crawler except at a tractor show, but they are another neat piece of John Deere history.
How about a little tractor trivia!
1.T or F: The Lindeman Brothers idea of a crawler was the demand for use in orchards.
2. Jesse Lindeman secured a dealership in 1921 selling _________ crawler tractors.
A) John Deere B) Best C) Holt D) Cletrac
3. In 1925 Best and Holt merged to form the ________________ company.
4. Because of the merger Lindeman lost their dealer connection but then secured a dealership from the Cleveland Tractor Co.. selling _______________ crawlers.
A)John Deere B) Best C) Holt D) Cletrac
5. After this dealership fell through Lindeman’s procured a John Deere dealership and though the model GP may be good in the orchards to John Deere made some changes and developed the model ___________.
Answers: 1. True 2. C. Holt 3. Caterpillar 4. Cletrac 5. The model GPO(GP Orchard)
Eric Mickelson
Green Magazine
RIchard's Publishing
Oklee, MN 56742
218-791-9157