You may have heard the hubbub surrounding the recent donation of a tractor to the museum … and thought “a tractor, so what?” It was no ordinary tractor that was donated, but a Rumely tractor – an icon of Indiana's industrial manufacturing heritage.
“Indiana produced the greatest automobile, the Duesenberg,” said Todd Stockwell, Curator of Agriculture, Industry and Technology, “and the Rumely was the same thing to tractors that the Duesenberg was to cars. As a center for showing the best of Indiana, we thought this tractor would be a perfect addition to the Indiana State Museum’s collection. It really says something about manufacturing prestige in this state.”
Rumely Oil Pull tractors were manufactured in LaPorte, Indiana, from 1909 until 1929. Widely considered to be the "Greatest Tractors Ever Built," they are the most desirable collectible tractors today. The name "Oil Pull" refers to the oil used as a coolant for the engine instead of water so that the engine can be run at a higher temperature to efficiently burn kerosene, which was much cheaper than gasoline at the time.
This 1929 Rumely Oil Pull tractor was donated by the Meyers family of Fountain City (Mary Meyers Williams and Francis Williams pictured above), who first tried to donate the tractor to the Wayne County Historical Society. Restoring the tractor, which had been painted flat black at sometime in its history, proved to be more than the historical society could afford so they contacted the museum.
“They didn’t have the resources to restore it and it needed work. They also didn’t have the space to store and show it properly,” Stockwell said. “Jan (Livingston, former director of the Wayne County Historical Museum) said that it wasn’t a loss for the county, but a gain for the state. This way a wider audience gets to see this tractor than if it had been kept at the local level.”
The museum hired a restorer to work on the Rumely who was experienced with old tractors. Stockwell had met John Tichenor while working as a consultant at the Smithsonian. They had both been involved with the restoration of a Hart-Parr tractor of the same era. John graciously donated his time and efforts to the museum for a fraction of what the work would have cost commercially.
“It had been repainted at some time and the paint quality wasn’t that good to begin with,” Stockwell said. “But in restoring it, we didn’t want to make it perfect, just get it in working order and clean and protect it. We didn’t remove all the dents – we wanted to show that this was a working tractor that had a life.”
The Meyers family was able to meet Tichenor and see their restored tractor on June 12, 2005, when they visited the museum. The tractor had been purchased new by Russell Meyers and passed down through the family, so seeing it restored was a special pleasure for them.
The tractor will be used to promote the museum in outside events, such as the Conner Prairie County Fair in September and the Indiana State Fair in August. It might even find a home as part of the upcoming corn exhibit. When not touring the state, the Rumely can be found on display in the Gov. Frank O’Bannon Great Hall.
“The Meyers family has requested that we take it to Levi Coffin Days,” Todd says. “We’re still working on the details, and it may be next year’s celebration, but we want to say thank you to them by bringing it back to Wayne County.”