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I'm not very familiar with most developments outside the U.S. Caterpillar is a trademark name. Apparently, when their tractor on tracks was being developed, an observer noted that the tractor's movement looked like a caterpillar's, so the name was adopted. Caterpillar (the company) is the result of a merger between Best Mfg. and Holt. Both companies manufactured farm equipment, among other things. At least one of the two, I believe it was Holt, had a 'track laying' drive system for steam engines. It wasn't a full undercarriage, but a half-track configuration that only replaced the traditional rear drive wheels. That should have been sometime around the mid-to-late 19th century. (Holt and Best merged in 1925 to form Caterpillar.) Following Caterpillar back to its Best and Holt roots is probably going to find you your answers to the who/what/where/why/how questions about the first crawler tractor. Although, it is possible crawlers were in development earlier or around the same time in other countries. Crawlers were most popular on the West coast, (especially the Pacific Northweast), New England (snowy regions), and in the South (swampy areas). Lindeman Mfg. Inc. of Yakima, Washington was building a crawler conversion of the John Deere BO. I think they started with conversions of complete tractors, but demand led them to start buying incomplete BO tractors (without front axle or wheels) from John Deere in 1940. It was called a John Deere-Lindeman. In popular John Deere tradition (easier to buy out a good competitor than start from scratch in a new market) JD acquired Lindeman and called it the Yakima Works. The Lindeman tractor was soon gone, replaced by the MC. The Yakima Works made just the track systems at that point, and shipped them to Dubuque. The Yakima Works also became a special branch of JD, making some extra heavy-duty implements (like tillage and land-leveling items). That isn't really relevant to your question though... This is all to the best of my knowledge, but ought to be accurate enough to be a solid jumping-off point. Good luck with your research.
Hey! After I finished writing the above, look what I found...
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