Plowing through history Restored Holt 75 Tractor to get centennial celebration
The San Joaquin County Historical Museum is holding an unusual birthday party on Saturday evening. They’ll be celebrating a restored 100-year-old Holt 75 Tractor at Micke Grove Park.
After 10 years of restoration work led by experienced volunteers, the tractor is fully operational and will be available for guests to view during the centennial celebration.
“Our volunteers have dedicated their time restoring this tractor. Many of our volunteers are professors, farmers, mechanics, people who worked with machinery during the war, and people just interested in helping,” said Phillip Merlo, the museum’s director of education.
When volunteers first took on the project, most of the tractor’s frame was still intact, but the entire body was rusted over and covered in mud and grease, according to volunteer Edwin Venhuizen. Venhuizen began working on the
1 tractor 2⁄2 years ago, following the death of his wife. A former truck foreman at the now-closed Plummer Pontiac and Cadillac, he helped rebuild the carburetor and the engine.
Venhuizen joked that the instructions for the tractor were not something that could be Googled.
“We wrote most of the specifications for this, using old photos we received from Stockton and the factory that manufactured these tractors,” he said. “It was a lot of figuring out what worked and what didn’t.”
Since they couldn’t purchase most of the parts for the tractor, the group had to restore all the pieces or rebuild them completely, volunteer Leendert Robert said.
“The pieces for this are so old that we had to create new bolts to put it all together,” he said.
Robert, who used to work as a machinist at a shipyard, helped direct the installation of the tractor and rebuild parts of the split bearings for the carburetor.
With the help of Harley Zimmerman, the magneto for the tractor was also completely restored — crucial to making the tractor functional.
“The magneto provides a spark for the carburetor, which makes the engine run,” he said.
Restoring some of the parts became tedious because, if they were damaged beyond repair or restored incorrectly, they would have to be rebuilt from scratch, volunteer Donald Wienn said.
Despite the meticulous work involved, Wienn enjoyed the process of reviving the antique tractor.
“I was ready to rebuild and work on this tractor. I do tractor shows so I have experience with,” he said. “It feels nice to see this come back to life.”
Ken Mettler grew up on a farm and helped his dad restore their old equipment. He felt at home rebuilding the tractor because most of the parts were similar, he said.
“This piece is older than what I worked with, but it is not computerized like the equipment now,” he said.
River Swanson lacked mechanical experience, but volunteered anyway. Despite his lack of expertise and background knowledge, he felt he was able to grasp the tractor’s mechanics.
“It’s a lot more mechanical than newer things, which tend to be more compact. You can see how everything directly affects everything else,” he said.
All the volunteers are looking forward to the resurrection of the machine on Saturday evening. They can’t wait to witness their work on recreating the historic tractor.
“This is the only operational Holt 75 in the whole county,” Venhuizen said.
The Holt 75 Tractor rolled into production in 1913 at the Holt plant in Stockton. The tractors weighed 23,600 pounds and capable of hauling tens of thousands of pounds over long distances.
“This was the first gas-powered Caterpillar tractor,” Merlo said. “It reflects a time when San Joaquin County was the earthmoving equipment capital of the world.”
Farmers and foresters from California to New York made use of the Holt 75’s utilitarian design, and the U.S. and British armies used it as their primary hauling device during World War I. The tractor was even used to build the first federal highways across the country in the 1920s.
The model being restored at Micke Grove was purchased for the Barrett Brothers farms in Antelope, north of Sacramento, and used until the 1930s. It was donated to the museum in 2010, according to an article that appeared in the News-Sentinel on April 17, 2015.
“Although the tractor model is older than 100 years, this tractor was built in 1919, which is why we chose to celebrate it,” Merlo said.
The evening celebration will include self-guided strolling tours of the historic Calaveras School, blacksmith shop, the Sunshine Trail, Julia Weber House, and the tractor buildings, including the Cortopassi-Avansino Exhibition Building.
Many of the restored Holt Caterpillar tractors will be on display for guests, Merlo said.
The lawn will be decorated with twinkling lights, and Snap Jackson and the KnockOn-Wood Players will be the entertainment for the evening.
The celebration will be catered by Angelina’s Spaghetti House, located in Stockton.
The evening will also include a Benjamin Holt impersonator and live auction.
“The Holt family’s legacy of innovation and leadership shaped our community and the history of agriculture for the better, which is why it is so important to honor their roots in San Joaquin County at the celebration,” Merlo said.
More than 300 tickets for the centennial celebration were sold, with proceeds benefiting the museum’s exhibits and educational programs, such as Valley Days, Heritage Days, and Pioneer School Days.
The event is completely sold out, but the staff at the historical museum are expected to host another event for members of the community. For information about future events, contact museum Executive Director Kristina Swanson or Merlo at 209-331-2055.