In the 1990s and earlier, the hunt required persistence, connections and a sense of adventure.

“It was called networking and usually involved road trips,” joked Steve Rosenboom, a vintage tractor enthusiast from Pomeroy.

Rosenboom and his wife, Rachel, have been collecting rare and unusual tractors for years. “A friend told us early on, ‘While you could collect the plain Jane tractors, you need to go after the rare ones,'” Steve Rosenboom said. “We took his advice.”

Consider the couple’s 1948 Friday O-48 tractor with fold-in headlights, a Chrysler engine and a Dodge rear end.

-Messenger photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
This late 1930s-vintage Thieman tractor, owned by Steve and Rachel Rosenboom of Pomeroy, was built about 30 miles away from their farm at the Thieman Harvester Co. in Albert City. The simple tractor was sold as a kit. It offered farmers a more affordable way to access modern horsepower during the Great Depression.

“It has a two-speed axle and will go up to 60 miles per hour,” said Steve Rosenboom, who farms in the Pomeroy area with his son, John.

The Friday Tractor Company of Hartford, Michigan, was founded by David Friday, who built his first tractor in the 1930s, according to Classic Tractor Fever. The Friday 0-48 Tractor, which was built in the 1940s and 1950s, was designed for use in orchards and vineyards.

Its low clearance, sheet-metal design, and road-gear transmission made it the perfect tractor to go from grove to road. The idea was logical. Use the tractor to pull a wagon through the orchard to pick the fruit. Then instead of loading the fruit on a truck, drive the Friday tractor to town to deliver the crop to market.

Then there’s the Rosenbooms’ Allis-Chalmers One-Ninety Beachmaster industrial tractor, circa 1965.

“That one was in Wilmington, Delaware,” Steve Rosenboom said.

-Messenger photo by Darcy Dougherty Maulsby
Some of the Allis-Chalmers tractors in Steve and Rachel Rosenboom’s collection are green, rather than orange. Nearly 100 years ago, Harry Merritt, a senior sales and marketing executive at Allis-Chalmers, was in California in 1929 when the bright orange California poppy blossoms inspired him. He figured that brightly colored tractors that could be seen from far away would be a good marketing idea.

These tractors were designed to pull the Allis-Chalmers Beach Sanitizer, an implement that assisted parks and recreation departments with beach maintenance. The Sanitizer swept trash up onto a chain-link belt and sifted out the sand. Then the debris moved along to the top of the implement and dropped into a trash receptacle on the rear of the machine.

Going from green to orange

One of the oldest machines in the Rosenboom’s collection is a 1919 Allis-Chalmers 6-12, which came from Freeport, Illinois. With its skeletal frame, steering wheel and lugged steel wheels, it hearkens back to a long-gone era of farming.

The 6-12 design was intended to be a multi-purpose, low-cost tractor used for plowing, threshing and cultivating. Machines like this are rare today.

“A lot of tractors from that era were scrapped for the war effort,” said Steve Rosenboom, who started his career in the 1970s as a shop foreman in Newell at Grau Motors, which sold Chrysler, Dodge and Allis-Chalmers.

The Rosenboom’s green machine doesn’t sport the vibrant orange paint that came to define the Allis-Chalmers brand. The history of this dramatic change can be traced back nearly 100 years to Harry Merritt, a senior sales and marketing executive at Allis-Chalmers. Merritt was in California in 1929 when the bright orange California poppy blossoms inspired him. Brightly colored things that can be seen from far away had potential in farm equipment marketing.

Merritt soon changed the paint color of Allis-Chalmers’ tractors to Persian Orange, the paint color that he felt most closely resembled the California poppy’s color. Thus began the tradition of orange Allis-Chalmers tractors.

Thieman hints at forgotten ag history

One of the Rosenboom’s less flashy vintage tractors was built about 30 miles away at Albert City at the Thieman Harvester Co. Brothers Charles and Warren Thieman organized the company in the 1920s and manufactured various items through the years, from livestock feeders to steel burial vaults.

They also made tractors from 1936 to the beginning of World War II.

“The tractor was sold as a kit,” Steve Rosenboom said.

The kit cost $185 [about $4,200 in 2025 dollars]. The farmer had to procure his own engine, driveshaft and rear end from a Ford Model A, 1928 Chevrolet or Dodge Four, and then build the tractor, according to a 2007 article titled “The Thieman Tractor” in Farm Collector magazine.

The object was to cobble together pieces of used equipment to make an inexpensive tractor during those tough years of the Great Depression. If a farmer had a little more money to spend, he could buy a Thieman tractor with a Ford Model A engine for $500.

Thiemans were lightweight and could be used to cultivate row crops. For a few years in the 1930s, the Thieman company did quite well selling tractors. Nearly 150 people were employed 24 hours a day during peak season at the manufacturing plant in Albert City.

Unfortunately, the good times in the tractor business didn’t last long. America’s entry into World War II drove up demand for steel and led to rationing. Thieman tractor production ceased around 1942.

The Rosenboom family’s ties to Albert City remain strong, not only through their Thieman tractor, but the Albert City Threshermen & Collectors Show, which they’ve attended for years. They also enjoy tractor rides around the area.

“Every tractor has a story,” said Rachel Rosenboom. “It’s inspiring to see the next generation get excited about these classic tractors.”