D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
July
2008
Roebush Tractors
Page: 2"The principles were all there; they didn't change much," Ruebush says. Probably the most dramatic change in the John Deere line came in 1939, he adds, when the front of the tractors went from "unstyled" to "styled" — basically, adding a slotted grill to the front.
"They're very simple machines. If you work on one letter tractor — this one here's a 'B' — " He indicates a comparatively diminutive machine. " — they're all similar. The big difference between the models is the size of the parts. There's not a part on this that a man can't lift by himself. The 'A' parts are a bit bigger. With the 'G,' you'd need some help.
"If you send the serial number in to John Deere," he continues, "they'll send you all the information they have on that particular tractor — what branch it was sent to, what dealer. That 'G' out there went through the Dallas branch, to Deming, 'destination Silver City, NM.' Well, there was never a John Deere dealer in Silver City!"
After some asking around, Ruebush discovered that a store called Cosgrove's — formerly on Bullard Street, near the present Buffalo Bar — sold John Deere equipment, though it didn't have room for a tractor showroom per se.
Swinging wide one heavy metal door after another, Ruebush winds through his slaughterhouse-turned-workshop. A couple of turns past the one-time abattoir, he points to a tractor that's obviously seen better days, with at least one of its tires flat. "I'll take every nut and bolt loose on that one. It'll be completely disassembled. I believe that's a '41. It came out of Hatch."
After being reassembled — a lesson Ruebush learned from that long-ago experience with the Model A Ford — each tractor gets decorated with authentic John Deere paint. "Dupont has this expo-quality paint," he says, "but it's not original John Deere."
He arrives at yet another engine, restored but not yet reattached to the rest of the tractor, and decides it's time for another demonstration. But despite a bout of energetic cranking in which Ruebush's arm seems to turn into rubber, the motor at first refuses to turn over. "I flood that thing every time," he says, bending down to make some adjustments. "Every tractor develops a mind of its own."
At last the engine kicks and coughs to life. "But it does run," Ruebush points out.
Besides Ruebush's collection of tractors, this sprawling workshop area down the hill from his house is also home to various other projects — like a meat smoker he and his son are making out of an old water heater — and bits and pieces of vintage farm equipment. There's an old hay baler (a "hay press," it used to be called) he brought out of Mexico, a drill press from maybe the 1890s ("I dunno — it's old"), and a 1935 ringer-washer that looks like it was made yesterday.
That washer was an unexpected dividend of a trip to see an old manure spreader, which, sure, he also came home with. "Even the tubs were still there, in perfect shape. I just ran a head sander over them," Ruebush says. "I had the ringer-washer at the fair, and everybody who came along had a story to tell about getting an arm or hair caught in a ringer."
For the museum's ice-cream social and tractor exhibit, he plans to assemble a corn sheller, seed cleaner and grist mill from his collection to show how fresh corn gets processed into masa for tortillas. Ears of corn will go in one end and fresh corn tortillas will be on the other.
Back in the front workshop, Ruebush begins rummaging through the piles atop a long table for another educational display. "I don't know where it's at, but it's somewhere on that table," he says, busily excavating. At last he extracts a pegboard holding vintage ice-cream equipment: two ice picks, an ice shaver, five ice cream scoops. He gives the mechanism of each scoop a try.
"I bought this one in Durango," he says. Testing another scoop, he adds, "I'm so proud of this one because I got it for just a dollar. An antique!" He pauses, reads the fine print on the reverse of the handle: "'Taiwan.' Huh. I didn't see that."
Nonetheless, he hopes the display will add another educational element to the museum's ice-cream social. Someday, too, he'd like to take the exhibit of corn-processing equipment around to schools.
"I don't know if I'll ever do it," he allows, gazing around the workshop with its array of mechanical things to do. "I'd have to live to 120 to get all this stuff done."
Which would be just fine by Norman Ruebush. "You know," he adds, "sometimes I can't wait to get to bed at night so I can get up in the morning and get back down here." k
The Silver City Museum's 25th annual Ice Cream Social and Tractor Show will be held Friday, July 4, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. The free event (refreshments and game tickets sold) features ice cream, floats, cold drinks, musical entertainment, children's games, a cakewalk and a vintage tractor show. 312 W. Broadway, 538-5921, www.silvercitymuseum.org
Prior to the museum event, vintage tractors will be driven in the annual 4th of July Parade, which begins at 10 a.m. Food, arts and crafts and vendor booths will be at Gough Park on July 4, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., as well as on July 5, 7 a.m.-4 p.m. For information, contact the Silver City-Grant County Chamber of Commerce, 538-3785, or see www.silvercity.org