Stephanie Christian Anderson’s grandmother entered the Oliver tractor purchase in her pocket ledger back in 1953.
This is one of those rural American, feel-good stories that centers around a tractor – a 1951 Oliver Row Crop 66 to be exact.
The tractor was originally purchased new by Leonard Christian for $1,650 in 1953.
Granddaughter Stephanie Christian Anderson, of Nevada, has many memories of that tractor, which she said her grandpa used to farm the 80 acres that surrounded his house, located 2 miles southeast of Roland.
Her dad, Larry Christian, was born in that house in 1943 and grew up on that acreage, learning to farm on that Oliver Row Crop 66 as he helped his father. Larry was an only child because a sister and a brother, born previous to him, both died at birth.
Larry and his wife, Nancy, settled with their children – Stephanie and her two brothers, Brad and Brent – on an acreage south of Nevada in 1973, when Stephanie was about 9 months old. That 1951 Oliver tractor, Stephanie noted, followed them to her parents’ acreage around 1976.
“My grandpa gave my dad the tractor to use when Grandpa decided to quit farming,” she said.
Stephanie and her brothers remember their dad using that tractor for all types of chores on their acreage. “It was used for everything from moving snow from the driveway to moving the wood we split to burn in the wood stove,” Stephanie said.
When she and her husband, Mike, built their house on the back part of her parents’ acreage, Mike also used the tractor a lot as he took over doing much of the labor around the acreage.
In 2020, the Christians made a decision to sell the tractor. “I contacted Andy Kelly to see if he wanted to buy it before I sold it online,” Stephanie said. “He bought it that day for $1,000 with the intention of restoring it.”
Kelly, of Nevada, said he felt the tractor was being offered for a very reasonable price, and Kelly knows his old Oliver tractors. “I’m from Charles City where that tractor was made, and my dad worked for Oliver Tractor,” he said.
Kelly owns several Olivers because of his hometown and family connection to the brand. He noted that fellow Nevadan Tim Hadley is another fan of Olivers.
On the day he purchased the tractor, Kelly said, “I drove it home.” After doing a little tuning, he found “the tractor was in really good condition for its age.”
Along with his love of old Oliver tractors, Kelly is also a big fan of the local Nevada High School FFA program and its advisor Kevin Cooper. He knew the Christian’s tractor would be a great fit for an FFA ag mech project.
“Cooper has a great ag mech program, where he gets a lot of tractor donations too,” Kelly said. Lots of kids spend time working in the school’s ag mech lab, but Kelly wanted to be an integral part of sharing his knowledge with the kids who would work on this Oliver project.
Eventually the tractor was moved into the back of Kelly’s downtown property management building. But before that move, Kelly said it was important for the FFA kids who would work on it – his son, Reed, and the Smith twins, Kye and Sterling – to get some “seat time.”
“We used it for some tasks, like pulling a hayrack and picking up brush, moving things around…,” he said, to give the kids the feel driving the tractor.
Once in the work space, they began washing the old Oliver. “They washed and washed and washed it, and then pulled the engine out,” Kelly said. The engine was taken to Hadley, who works at Arnold Motor Supply Machine Shop (formerly Midwest Cylinder Head). “It needed some work.”
When they got the parts of the engine back, it was time to reassemble it and put a hydraulic unit on the tractor. “My dad located a two-circuit hydraulic pump, and that (work) consumed a lot of our time,” he said.
As they worked, Kelly said the three boys taking part “touched every inch of that tractor… We had to take the transmission out… It was slow going.” But eventually, they got the transmission rebuilt, got the hydraulic pump put on, got a new clutch put on, and restored the engine. “We took care of all of the mechanical stuff and then took it to one of ALMACO’s test fields and drove it,” Kelly said.
To get the tractor looking like they wanted, Kelly, who admits he’s not one known for great patience, brought in a calming presence to help with painting the tractor. That calming and very detail-oriented person was his daughter Emilee, also a current FFA member. “She has an eye for detail,” he said. And her eye helped make the tractor look spectacular.
The first time Stephanie and her husband, Mike, saw the Oliver fully restored was at the Story County Youth Fair. “I couldn’t have been more impressed,” Stephanie said. “I’m not a tractor person, but my husband is, and he knew just about everything that was replaced on the tractor and what was original. He went on and on naming everything that was new.”
Her brothers finally got to see it too, and the three took a photo with it during the Iowa State Fair, where the tractor was named Reserve Champion in the FFA Group Division.
Kelly talked about the award the tractor won at the State Fair, saying he believes part of the reason it won Reserve was because of what was learned during the many hours of work time. “These kids spent close to 300 hours working on this tractor, and along with that work, they took hundreds of progress pictures, and asked many, many questions of me to better understand the tractor and the process,” Kelly explained. “Kids have to interview really well in the judging process, and not have just ‘robot’ answers. If they’re up against more expensive and extensive projects, the interview is going to be the key.”
Stephanie is proud of the work the Kellys and Smiths put in on the tractor she loved so much.
“I loved riding on it with my dad when I was little. I remember sitting on his lap on the tractor while doing yard work. I also remember riding in the bucket, and he would raise it as high as it went. We thought we could touch the sky we were so high. When I got a little older, I was able to ride on the back bar and hold on while he was driving it.”
When people sell or donate tractors to the kids in the Nevada FFA program, Kelly said they are giving kids a lot more than a tractor. “They’re giving them the opportunity to learn about attention to detail, about how to use tools, about how to follow instructions, and so much more.”
Kelly believes the Nevada FFA program, overall, is a special program for the community of Nevada. And this year was especially awesome for the FFA State Fair projects. Nevada FFA students won more ribbons than any other FFA chapter in the state.
Cooper and the Nevada FFA got the ultimate chapter award, Supreme Ag Mechanics Chapter, at the Iowa State Fair. Kelly believes this is a testament to Cooper and his passion for these kids learning all they can in FFA and ag studies.
“His program is changing kids’ lives. Tractors are a part of it, but there are so many other opportunities for these kids in our local FFA program. I’m proud that my kids are a part of it.”
The program is changing kids’ lives and it’s creating pride for others in the community, some as they see their old equipment come back to life.
If Stephanie’s dad, who passed away in July of 2023 could see that Oliver tractor now, Stephanie said, “I cannot put into words what my dad would think of this restoration… I can only imagine that it would bring him back to the day when my grandpa first brought it home.”
–Written by Marlys Barker, City of Nevada
