Tom Wade Griggs said it best in describing his son Bradley’s restoration of a rare family tractor.
“He restored our old Oliver and it turned into a labor of love,” Griggs said. “I sure am glad we did not get rid of it. Some of the others we did, but we kept this one and I’m sure glad we did.”
It’s a 1961 four-cylinder 660 Oliver that Griggs bought new at the Elkton, Tenn. Farm and Home Store. He paid $3,880 for it, a four-row planter, four-row cultivator and turning plow. It has a tricycle front and runs off propane.
“It’s very rare, Bradley Griggs said. “I spent the better part of four months restoring it. I tried to put it back just like the day we bought it. The only thing different on it is the muffler. We put a Farmall M muffler on it. I just like that one a little better.”
His dad said the Oliver and Moline tractors are “hot items” today because when they were built 50 years ago, “they didn’t make all that many of them and there are not many of them around today.”
Griggs said the Oliver his son has restored at this home off Lydia Corey Road is believed to be the only one in Limestone County and one of a few in the entire nation.
He called it “a rare Oliver.”
“There are few 1966 models in the county, but I don’t think you will find another 1961 Oliver,” he said.
“We worked it hard on the farm 20-plus years,” said Tom Wade. “We used it for bench duty a while and then put it into full retirement a few years later. But we kept it up and Bradley decided last winter that he was going to restore it. He wanted to put it back looking like the day we bought it.”
Bradley said he has approximately $1,800 in the restoration. The Oliver still has the original 43 horsepower engine.
The Oliver was made in Charles City, Iowa. Only 1,000 or so of the tractors were made back then and that makes it a rare find today.
Bradley said the old Oliver has a rare white color.
“The white on it has a greenish tint and it’s hard to find,” said Bradley. “I had to get the paint out of Nebraska and I had to paint the hood five times before I got it to suit me.”
History has it that White Motor Co. bought out Moline in 1969 and ran the company a few years. They then phased in with Agco, which had the Allis-Chalmers tractor.
“Agco bought up a bunch of losers and made them winners,” said Tom Wade.
Griggs said he plans to take the old tractor to antique shows in the area to show it off. He said he’s also hunting for a 66 Oliver that was made from 1949 to 1955. If he finds it, he plans to restore it as well.
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Oliver tractor By Sonny Turner
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