1950's dealer sales invoices

8850dave

Member
I have a couple of large boxes of the original copies of the sales receipts from our family's John Deere dealership from the mid 50's mostly parts sales but need to look at them closer kinda told my dad that we should at least save the ones which have implements or tractors listed on them.
 
I would definately keep the ones that have tractors or implements listed on them. The IH dealership in Mascoutah IL. where my grandfather bought a Farmall A new had a hand written receipt on a recipe card that showed the price and trade in value of a tractor he traded in.
 
Be neat to see the prices back then. My dad still has his invoice when he bought a new 986. The only new tractor he ever bought and the last IH we ever bought.
 
If there is any way to save all of them, I recommend it. One never knows what valuable information may be needed in a few years and if destroyed, the info is gone forever.
 
After both my parents died I got the pleasure of going thru all their receipts. They never got rid of any dating back to 1946. I found ones where they paid the doctor when I was born, all papers for purchase and repairs on all our farm equipment, where we bought and sold dairy cows and the milk, all kinds of interesting memories. At first my wife thought I should just get rid of it. Then when she started seeing the connection to some of the equipment that we still have, she said keep it. There is a lot of history you could lose.

Might be of value to an ag class at school, or county historical society if you decide to part with any of it.
 
They are great to have in the family I have some sale invoices from my family's farming operation going back to about 1900,have an invoice and letters when my Grandfather bought a
Boar Hog back in the 1920's.My grandmother was a real book keeper recorded buys/sells even the ones involving just a few cents.
 
I have the original invoice from when my great uncle bought a brand new Model T Ford in 1915, plus a personal letter from the Ford Motor Company thanking him for the purchase. The price was $485.

Then Ford said if they sold "X" number of Model T's, they would give a $50 rebate to each purchaser. They did both, and I have the paperwork from that.
 
I remember the receipt when Dad traded an AC 60 combine, for an AC 66, in 1957. Boot price was $900, and it was written up on the same style receipt that we got when buying small parts. Always thought that was funny. A whole combine on a little bit of paper.
 
As the others have said, save them. They are heirlooms to your family and could also be to other families in your area. I would imagine many families would love to see the ones connected to them. Mike
 
My Dad showed me his hand written receipt for his 300 IH utility back after he and Mom moved to their retirement home.Later on I inherited the 300,and later on yet I remembered that receipt.But by then Dad had Alzheimer's,and Mom and I could not find it. I wish we had.Mark
 
I have two old receipts. One is from the Ford dearborn dealer for the last sleeve and piston set grandpa bought for the old 8n in 1956. The other receipt is for the last brand new Oliver tractor he bought in Oct of 1974.
 

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