Classic Oliver Tractors: History, Models, Variations & Specifications 1897-1976`. This item is unavailable.Classic Oliver Tractors: History, Models, Variations & Specifications 1897-1976`

Oliver Tractors chronicles this historic agricultural brand from when James Oliver bought a quarter-share of the South Bend Foundry in 1855 to when the last Oliver-branded tractor rolled off the assembly line in 1976. The Oliver Corporation’s roots run deep in the agricultural industry. This once small company started with a young man and an idea that would lighten the load of the farmer. Through the years the company grew and acquired other companies with the same philosophy until nearly a dozen companies operating under the Oliver flag became a strong force in the farm market. This new account of Oliver’s history includes its industrial and crawler tractors, implements, international ventures, and the various products that carried the Oliver badge. Vintage advertisements, brochures, and color and black and white photos, alongside contemporary color images, illustrate this compelling part of agriculture’s history.

Sherry Schaefer is a Greenville, Illinois (Bond County) native and grew up around tractors and equipment. Her grandfather, Ervin Schaefer, was an Oliver tractor and her father, Oliver Schaefer, is a used Oliver tractor and equipment dealer in Greenville, Illinois. The Schaefer family also owned and operated a national tractor pulling sled service for more than 25 years beginning in the late 1960s. In 1993, Schaefer became the editor of the Hart-Parr Oliver Collectors magazine. Schaefer began her own bi-monthly Oliver publication in 2004, and started Heritage Iron magazine in 2008. Schaefer has authored three books, and has provided her expertise to dozens of other tractor-related books. In January 2003, Schaefer was picked and approved by the Smithsonian Institution to assist with the restoration of the oldest mass-production gasoline tractor in existence. Sherry also serves as the vice president of a non profit organization called Farm Rescue. Schaefer took up scuba diving to get a break from tractors, thinking nothing could be farther from that niche than diving to the bottom of the ocean. On her first open water dive, she dove to the bottom of a quarry where the first thing she saw was a crawler tractor. At that point, she realized there was no getting away from it.