Suprise gift (long)

I recieved a wonderful gift from my old boss Rex L. Peckens on Friday. I was helping another customer when he walked in so when I finished with that gentleman I said "may I help you" without looking up. He said "no I've got something for you". He must have been going through old papers from the dealership and had found the paperwork from my grandfathers purchase of the HG-68 in 1949. The sheet from Oliver where Crowe Implement in Owosso, MI had ordered it 10-8-48, shipped from Cleveland 7-19-49, billed to Crowe 7-22-49. The delivery sheet to my grandpa from 8-17-49 from R.E. Peckens in Cohoctah MI. Cost to Crowe for base machine $1589.00, light & starter attachment $99.40, 10" track pads $11.50, battery attachment $16.10, muffler attachment $7.05, water temperature gauge attachment $11.50. It doesn't mention the PTO/belt pulley that it had unless, A) Peckens added it later, or B) it was standard equipment. No invoice from Peckens to see what Grandpa paid. Grandpa had seen the crawler on display at the Shiawassee County Fair in Corunna, MI, and had gone to R.E. and had him transfer it from Crowe. There is also a delivery sheet from Peckens from the delivery to my Dads brother on 5-5-48 of a 15 combine with down grain reel and motor attachment. I started work for Rex in 1984 at the Oliver dealership I'd been going to since I was being carried around as a baby. Hard to think sometimes that I've been behind a parts counter for 32 years now at 4 different dealerships.

Neat story!

Nice to have all that history on a piece of equipment......do you still have the crawler ?

No, it was sold at the auction when we quit milking. We later bought one from Old Bruce at Hofferberts that is only 22 serial numbers off, and probably came into Michigan on the same train car. That HG came from Bath, and was a one owner machine. You can still see the pinch weld marks on the drive sprockets. That gentleman never used it except on his muck. Funny story about that too. I'd gone up to pick up some parts, and Bruce took my by the elbow and said "come here you've got to see this". He took me to one of the back buildings and gleefully showed me the almost perfect machine. I told him I'd better not tell Dad. When I got home and told my Dad he RAN up to the house and called Bruce and said we'd be there first thing. We were there the next morning when they opened.