The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana

Eleven years ago, 25 people – give or take – got together to celebrate their love of antique farm tractors. Two of those people, Al Hall and Carl Denman, went on to co-chair the Antique Tractor Show & Swap Meet, an event that just recently celebrated its 10th year. “After the first year, we had about 20 to 25 members,” said Hall, “but we said ‘hey, our objective is to have a show, so let’s do it.’ It’s worked out very nicely.”

The two-day event held at the Grahamsville Fairgrounds takes place the third weekend in September. This year’s event was co-sponsored by the Sullivan County Trail Association. Admission was free. Parking was a modest $2.00 donation per car.

“We want people to get a feeling that these tractors are 40 and 50 and 55 years old, and they are in fine running condition,” said Hall. “It’s contact with the past. And young people come and wonder how they can look so good. But Ford and Ferguson built tractors to run for years and years, and they’re still running in the field today,”

Hall goes on to explain that during World War II, “Ferguson was commissioned by the government in England to produce tractors, because England was running out of food. So they had to have more tractors. Ferguson’s the guy who developed the three-point hitch, which is universal on tractors today, and had the internal hydraulics, which before were on the outside.”

Hall grew up on a farm and is clearly a lover of antique tractors. “The first tractors I got to drive were Fergusons. When I got a chance, I found I could make a little money mowing fields, and I’ve been doing it for 50 years, I had one tractor for 45 years, the rest just keep following me home,” he said with a hearty laugh. 

At this year’s show, Hall had five of his Ferguson tractors. “I have a couple more at home that are kind of sick and couldn’t make it,” he said.

Hall, who is also the membership chairman, reported 13 new members during the first day of the show, bringing the club’s total membership to around 80 people. “We have members from Orange, Ulster and Delaware Counties, people from Pennsylvania … I had a lady say, ‘there’s just something about you people, I gotta be a member.’”

Besides the show, the club has an annual dinner and a Christmas party. “And we have about eight meetings a year at the Neversink Firehouse on the third Wednesday of the month,” said Hall. “We’re open to everyone, you don’t have to be a real active person, you really don’t even have to own a tractor. We got people who aren’t even members who bring their tractors to the show.”

In addition to antique tractors, the show featured smaller antique machinery, antique cars and trucks, several vendors of old parts, as well as folks selling crafts. There were kids’ games, kids’ rides, a chicken barbecue and other food, a tractor pull, maple syrup and more.

At the other end of the Fairgrounds from Hall, Carl Denman, co-chair of the show was beaming with pride. “This is the largest year we’ve ever had. Yesterday there were between 350 and 400 cars here. I’m very happy with the turnout this year. We changed our music so more people could hear it. We have a tractor bingo this year – you buy a box, we take a garden tractor and ride around the boxes. Wherever the tractor runs out of gas, the right front wheel, that’s the payout -$250.”

Denman owns around 30 restored tractors: unusual ones that most people haven’t heard of, such as the David Bradley Tri Trac and Earthmaster, which was built in California. “There are very few Earthmasters this side of the Mississippi,” said Denman. “And Agra-Cat was a little bitty bulldozer that was built for a railroad company in CA, it was small – they put it right inside the railroad cars to push grain.”

According to Denman, the club has two goals: “To keep this old stuff going … There’s so many people who have no idea what a hit and miss engine is. … and we want to educate this younger generation.” To that end, the organization gives out a scholarship every year “to some young person that wants to be in the field of agriculture or agricultural machinery.” 

Membership in the Neversink Rondout Antique Machinery Association is $20 for a family or $15 for an individual. For more information on membership or next year’s show, call Al Hall at 985-2692.

To view more photos, or to purchase prints from the 10th Annual Tractor Show & Swap Meet visit The Catskill Chronicle on Zenfolio.