Guy’s mother, Carol Walker Kidney Herman, age 100, lives on her Century Farm south of Glidden, Iowa. The farm was purchased in 1910 by the grandparents of her first husband, Lowell Kidney. Jerome and Anna Marie Coleman paid $115/acre for the farm in 1909. Jerome bequeathed the farm to his daughter, Rosa Coleman Kidney, who was Lowell’s mother.
Lowell and Carol began married life on this farm in 1942. Guy is the oldest of their four children, who grew up on the farm. Their dad had several tractors while farming, including this 1924 Fordson.
Although fewer than 80 acres, the Glidden farm was awarded the Century Farm designation at the 2013 Iowa State Fair.
Guy’s brother Vey, younger by 14 years, came back from Indiana in 2023 for the Glidden reunion with a flat-bed trailer in order to display the Fordson in a parade, then take the treasured tractor home with him.
Fordson was the brand name for mass-produced tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son, dominating the market from 1917-about 1925, then again from 1946-1953.
Somewhat like the Ford Model T for automobiles, the Fordson was for tractors, with a popular design, a low price, a widespread network, and a capacity for producing great numbers.
And just as the Model T helped the public notice how soon cars and trucks might replace horses on the road, the Fordson helped them appreciate how tractors could replace horses on the farm.
A compelling story about the hunt for the only surviving Ford tractor prototype, thanks to Tractor Hyatt via Twitter.
