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This is part of a "Let's Talk Rusty Iron" column I wrote for the Farm and Dairy, a farm paper published in Salem, Ohio. The column was about the 1997 show at Wauseon where they featured "Orphans and Oddballs." Probably the rarest tractor was the 1920 Shelby 12-25 Model D, owned by Fred McCance of Lyons, Ohio. Mr. McCance bought the Shelby, along with a Red River Special separator, in 1972 from Stanley Whitman, who had used the rig for many years around Ogden Center in Lenawee County, Michigan. McCance said he's looked for another Shelby for the past twenty five years and only recently found a derelict Model 9-18 in Pennsylvania.
The Shelby Tractor & Truck Company of Shelby, Ohio, introduced the Shelby 9-18 in 1919. Powered by a Waukesha, L-head, 4-cylinder engine, the 9-18 pulled two 14 inch plows. The Model D was built during 1920 and 1921 and details on it are a little confusing. Wendel says the 3-plow Model D was rated at 15-30 HP, weighed 5000 pounds and had an Erd, 4 3/4 X 6 inch, 4-cylinder engine. The Cooperative Tractor Catalog lists the 15-30 Model D with a 4 1/2 X 6, Erd engine, while tractor weight is given as 4600 pounds.
These differences in the published statistics aren't big enough to worry about, and I wouldn't even mention them except that Fred McCance's tractor doesn't match them in one very important respect. Fred's machine has a Beaver, 4-cylinder engine. The Beaver tractor engine of 1920, built in Milwaukee, had two large hand holes on the left side of the crankcase, while the Saginaw, Michigan built Erd, valve-in-head engine, had no hand holes. The hand hole covers had cast in them the word 'Beaver,' and the McCance machine has these covers. Also, Fred is sure his Shelby is rated at 12 HP on the Drawbar and 25 on the belt, a size not mentioned in any of the books. Just some of the little discrepancies you run into when researching these old machines.
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