How This Iowa Farmer's Oliver 1655 Ended Up In England

How This Iowa Farmer's Oliver 1655 Ended Up In England TRACTORS Antiques 25-2-21 When Vernon Stemler bought a brand new 70 hp Oliver 1655 back in 1975, the Waterloo, Illinois, farmer never dreamed the tractor might eventually end up across the ocean in England. Chris George of Winford, England, grew up on a small farm and has always been fascinated by Oliver tractors, especially the 1655 which he calls "the last of a famous name". "I had seen pictures of 1655's in magazines but there were none in our country," he says. "The Oliver brand is fondly remembered here because of the model 80's and 90's that were brought over during the second World War to help increase domestic food production." Back in Illinois, Vernon Stemler was cutting back on farming and the Oliver was really more tractor than he needed. His wife, Brenda, mentioned to a friend that they were selling it. Not long after, that friend was working at the Hart-Parr Oliver collector's exhibit at the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky, when she was approached by Chris George from England. He asked if she knew where he could buy an Oliver tractor. George, a three-time British national champion tractor puller, was in Louisville with his wife, Kate, for the tractor pulls. After the show, the Georges went to visit the Stemlers in Illinois where they negotiated a deal to take the old 1655 home to England. George says buying a tractor in the U.S. is easy. Getting it home is the challenge. "I had two choices in shipping," he says. "I could either pay the roughly $3,000 it cost to load it up and ship it direct, or I could wait for someone to have an open space in a shipping container and share the cost of shipping with them. I chose the latter. I contacted a number of people all over the country and finally got a call from a friend not far from where I live who's been buying used pickup trucks and parts in the U.S. and shipping them to the U.K. He said he had room in a container coming over from the U.S. and, as the price was about half the cost of the other way, I took him up on it." George put the 1655 on display at his business, where he makes parts for tractor pullers and also does machinery repair and rebuilding. He says when people climb aboard it he gives them a history lesson. He says people tell him it "looks American." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Vernon Stemler, 3432 KK Rd., Waterloo, Illinois 62298 (E-mail: verdem52@hotmail.com) or Chris George, Pippenwell, Frog Lane, Winford, Bristol, England, UK BS40ADJ (E-mail: pippenwell@aol.com).

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