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When did the horses leave

N

NEKS

Well-known Member
Just thought there might be some good stories out there when your dad decided to quit using the team of horses. Did it happen when he get his first tractor? Was it when the team was getting old? What kind of tractor was replacing the team. Around what year do you think this happened. Dad had a CC Case and a team of horses. Do not remember what year the team left, but would say between 48 and 50. Dad bought a new WD Allis in 51 and they were gone then.
 
My Daddy had records from Grandaddy buying the 9N I have in December of '39. Tractor was $630, with a Sherman step up unit. Also got a two bottom plow, two row planter, cultivator, flat belt pulley adaptor a 6' drag type disc. Total was $925 I believe. Larger tractors followed, one I believe was a Case. The mules would have been gone shortly after the 9N came into the picture. One was named Tina!
 
My grandfather had a Ford naa he bought new in 1955, he used it to maintain his 20 acres which I still live on but he didn't farm heavily, was a toolmaker by trade. His father still worked the original family farm a couple towns over, entirely with horses into the 60s and I'm told it was always a fight between them over him bringing around his newfangled tractor to do things on the farm! And like stubborn ast generations my father as well tends to be rather attached to the old 4 cylinder Ford's as well but has started coming around to more modern toys like the mini excavator and such but it definitely took time too!
 
IH came out with the Cub tractors in 1947 in hopes of convincing the little guys still using horses to give them up. I don't know if the availability of small tractors convinced them to give up horses or the end of their farming careers ended using horses.
 
My Dad bought his first tractor(a used Fordson) in 1934. The decision was based on the extremely hot, dry year making it very hard on horses doing tillage work. He still kept a team of horses until about 1955.
 
I live on my father in laws farm. He still has the first tractor ever purchased for the property here. It's a 1951 H. I know it was a beef farm and then switched to crop, but I honestly never asked when this was, so I couldn't say if the tractor was just for chores or if they were doing some crops with it too or at least some hay. It's about a 120 acre farm.
 
There still here
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Great grandpa had an Aultman Taylor steam engine. Not sure of the year have to be abound 1910. later bought a Rumley oil pull tractor and a Sandusky model E tractor. Dad said he can remember picking corn once with horses. Would have been around 1942-43. Then they bought a MM corn picker. The tractor would have been a 1941 JD model A. Grandpa used that tractor until about 1964 when he bought an Oliver 1850.

Now that must have been a real upgrade. Going from a hand crank model A with no hydraulics to an Oliver 1850 diesel with power steering, electric start, and LIVE hydraulics and PTO!
 
A John Deere 50 replaced the 3 Percherons for field work in 1953, a team of mules that mostly pulled wagons and manure spreader were sold in 1958. My Dad was a stockman, he never had any use for tractors or vehicles, he used them because they were efficient and necessary in the modern age but he would have much preferred to keep the horses if all things were equal.
 
My paternal grandfather couldn't get rid of horses fast enough. I think any horse for draft was gone by the early 40's.

His dad, my great grandfather, kept a team -Pat and Mike- into the 50's. Despite this he did have tractors pretty early- the most notable being a Farmall F30 he bought in '35. His son (the guy above) left home in fall of '36 when he got married. The F30 might have been some of his doing... we don't know.

My maternal grandfather bred Percherons and had as many as 40+ at a time. In the late 40's, many or most went to the glue factory, as there was NO market left. He kept some, but I am not sure when the last left, perhaps the late 50's or into the 60s. I'd have to ask mom. He kept his horses in a special "horse barn"... in this case it was as large as the two story dairy barn, and located directly across the road. In fact the horse barn was just like a typical WI bank style dairy barn, only it hafd horse box stalls below.
 
Whadaya mean, when Dad got rid of the horses? Horses left here only 3 years ago. I kept a team here for mostly light work, like harrowing ground and raking hay, or hauling wood. Got to where it was just more trouble than it was worth to hook a team, when I could just go and turn a key. Working horses for me is sorta like milking cows: the nostalgia of it is nice, and being able to do it for a day is mighty nice, but living that lifestyle just don't work for me any more. I understand now why the old guys got rid of the horses and mules first chance they got.

Mac
 
We had horses until 1949 when Dad got a Farmall H. At the same time built a new barn. I don't remember the horses much as I was only about 3. Ron Mn
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From what I remember. Dad was born in 1915 and started farming in about 1938-1939 and never used horses after he started farming on his own. The only tractor I can remember as a very young child was a 1937 JD D and later he and my uncle bought a new JD
A together in 1946. Drove a team while helping a neighbor put up hay when I was about 13 years old which would have been about 1955, but that farmer also had a MM U tractor and only used the horses for haying and feeding. Also remember attending the retirement auction of a cousin of my mother's who was using horses for farming and that was probably about 1949-1950. All my dad's brothers (3) were older than he and all were farmers but I don't remember any of them using horses.
 

I think that it happened at the farm where my mother grew up around 1948. It was about that time when my uncle took the farm over from my grandfather. My uncle bought a Ford N right away, but my father who still worked on the farm was not giving up his horses easily, and he would not get on that tractor. Finally there was a day when everyone but my grandfather went somewhere one day, and when they came back my uncle could see that the 8N had been driven around the yard fairly extensively in his absence. Soon after that my grandfather started to agree to do tractor related jobs, even though he kept his horses for a a few more years.
 
I bought a so. ga. farm in 1995. It had never had a tractor permanently resident on it until I brought my 1953 SuperH. I found single trees, halters, bits, and all manner of parts of drawn implememts. I was told they quit farming in 1975 but leased it for peanuts irregularly. I have added a MF 231S but the Super H seems most at home. I recently found an intact mule hoof in the barn. It must have been a tough way to farm.
 
My grandpap had a used Fordson as his first tractor. It spent most of its time sitting because he said that it took longer to get it started than it took to do most jobs with the horses. He traded that Fordson on a used 9N but still did quite a few things with the horses. He did use it to run the Blizzard silo filler when filling silo as well as some other jobs. In late 1952 he traded the 9N on a new 1952 8N with a plow, drag disc, cultivator & 3 point mower. Until that time, he used the three horses to cultivate, mow and rake hay as well as pull the hay up into the barn. I don't remember them using the horses to pull the wagon with the hay loader with the horses, just the tractor. The same with the bundle wagon to pick up the sheaves for threshing. Sometime in the mid 1950's, he got rid of the last of the horses & used a 49 Plymouth to pull up the hay. About 1957 he bought a used Allis 60 combine that dad ran the first year with his WC Allis that they also had been using to run the Blizzard to fill the silo. By the following year, my uncle, who still lived on the farm with grandpap, bought a used WD Allis and a Moline 760 balor.
 
This is really a fun topic. I'm told Grandpa first tractor was a Mcormick 10-20. But had to keep the horses for cultivating. The horses left when he bought a RC Case with 2-row cult. but I don't know what year that was.
 
Grand father had F20s the G john deers, in the 30s so I do not know about the horses. Did keep a pair of mules to snake logs with until early 50s.
 
Great grandpa homestead in 1910 and of course started with horses. He bought his first tractor a Twin City 21-32 in the late 20s. I don't think all the horses left until the mid 30s however. The last tractor he bought was a JD 4020 in 1964.
 
i remember dad cutting hay and raking hay with the horses in the early 60's. we had horses right through the sixty's pulling the wagons with bundles for thrashing. we used the trashing machine every year till 1973 when we got a super 92 massey combine. in 2000 we cut some wheat with the binder and dad had horses pulling the wagon just for old time sake. i had my restored W12 McCormick pulling a wagon too. had lots of nieghbours over for that.
 
Dad picked corn with a team of mule. WWII, and when he got back it was all gas power.
 
My dad bought his first tractor in 1945. It was a John Deere B. He kept at least 1 team of horses and sometimes 2 teams until 1953 when he bought a Farmall Super H. We still had horses but didn't do much with them until the farm and all livestock was sold in 1963. Also My father was the last farmer in our area to work Oxen.
 
Dad farmed with horses for quite a few years. I would say from teens to late 30's. The horses were gone before I arrived in 1942. He bought two tractors to replace the horses. One F 12, he bought from a near neighbor, and a New AC model M Crawler. Not sure which came first. Still have the F12, and the AC M. A story he tells when he got rid of the houses named Molley, and Polley. He took them to the San Diego Zoo 30 miles away, for animal food. He said he cried all the way home. Stan
 
My Grandpa on my Dads side farmed with horses near Falun,KS until around 1922-23...
At that time Grandpa got a new Wallis tractor...He just couldnt drive anything with a steering wheel
so the tractor was sold around 1925 and he went back to horses..Grandpa got a new
Overland car in the 1920's and never could drive it...In 1929 Grandpa finally
decided a tractor was needed for their 300 acres of tillable creek bottom ground so a new
22-36 McCormick was purchased...Grandpa died a few years later and Dad traded the 22-36
for a new 1939 or 40 model M Farmall.

On my Moms side Grandpa got a Fordson and a 10-20 McCormick some time in the 1930's..He had
240 acres near Lindsborg,KS..
 
I only remember seeing the team work one time- plowing the garden. I'm thinking spring of 1953, when I was 4, because Dad bought a '52 8N when it was a year old, presumably from the sale of the team. I do remember an old Fordson that we used to play on, but I never saw it run, and it disappeared at some point.
 
Had a landlord that still spread manure from his hogs with horses till 1974.

Bought his first hydraulic loader in 1975. Loaded it all by hand before then.

He died in 1976 at the age of 85.
 
Horses were off the farm in about 1930. Replaced with a Titan 10-20, then traded for a McCormick Deering 10-20, then am 48M joined the 10-20. The 10-20 was traded for a Stage I Super H in 1953. The M was traded off for an IH 350U in 1957. Those two remain the tractors from my Gramps and Dad's farming. There are many more on the farm today, but none work hard. Jim
 
The mule; home delivery milk wagon; and all the cows went down the road a year or so after WW 2 started.
From what I have been told the labor force was at war and my grandfather could not do it by himself.
When my dad started back the home deliver side of the milk business in the early 60's he had a refrigerated truck.
So there have never been any tractors in our family business.
 
Every year a man would walk his team of mules over a mile to plow our garden.

This was in the late 50's.

My sister had a horse and I had a Shetland pony.

Both of them left in the late 50's when she "discovered" boys as my mother would say.

First tractor was a Farmall Super C in the early 60's.
 
Pop Would probably say back in the 50s " if You owned only a VAC Case Tractor ,, YOU still needed a team in order to pull the tempermental Case when it stalled Hot, and the charging system was crap , so the battery was too . or when ever there was too heavy load coming out of the creek bottom "..Dad traded his worn out SC Case and Bought a used 57 Ferguson Deluxe practically new,,and then the horses went to the sale barn.. i barely remember Nellie and Bill pulling the 4 steel wheeled manure spreader . Mom said they sold to a man at the sale barn on the hill in Corydon, Ind , Thanksgiving 1959, i would had been 3 yrs old,. Funny i Recall ,,Dad Still spinning out with the 35 Ferguson with a load of hay on that hill coming out of the creek,.he would hook a chain to the VAC and that rascal would bounce and pawl, and jump and raise 10 kinda hale coming up out of there ,,but it always came on up out of there a hell'en! //fastF 1967 , the neighbor Cloyd Poindexter and his family moved in below us from Burkesville Ky , Those Folx were real wonderful fire and brimstone country people,. and they had a mule named" RED " ,..Dad luved that mule,. he did most anything with voice command from a deep throated adult male ,.When us peep sqeaks got behind him cultivating , we thought we were commanding Red , But he was just doing what he was taught and used to doing ,..and He would not quit til the patch was done,. He was amazing ,, at leisure in the pasture if that mule heard his name in comment from us kids ,he would Bob his head and wiggle a bit like he was proud to be mentioned , The world and people today ,has no clue of the wonderful world of love and respect and work that occurred in those days between a God fearing man and his team .Cloyd Poindexter , His owner and trainer would break a ear of corn and whistle and call Red after milking,,and Red would come trotting up to see what Cloyd needed him to do and eat that ear of corn , He would do his very best every time ,Dad always had about 5-10 acres of garden row crops . and Cloyd and Dad hit it off from the beginning, and So we got to "Borrow " Red for perhaps 2 seasons,working potatos, tobacco ,Tomatoes , sweet corn and cantaloupes . Then, Cloyd lent him to his cousin one winter for logging back in the hills at Burkesville and Red got lokjaw from a nail injury
 
In the wheat farming areas here, the major switch from horses to tractors came early. Labor shortages following World War 1 meant switching as soon as reliable and affordable tractors were available. (Australia suffered huge casualties in World War 1). My grandfather had 3 twelve horse teams, which were replaced by 2 Fordsons in early 1920s. Uncle told me they could not stop the Fordsons boiling. They were replaced by Case C and L early 1930s. Family stayed with chain drive Cases until mid 1960s
 
Dad"s last team was "King and Queen"...He had 2 AC tractors then...I"m thinking it was 1951-52...I still remember going to the other farm to round them up when he sold them. They were in a long, narrow pasture and I remember previously, when Dad wanted to harness them, they would run to the far end of the pasture. Same thing happened when he wanted to round them up when he sold them.
 
I started school in 1963, I remember before I went to school "helping" Dad clean the barn in the wintertime. He used a stone boat, (how many know what that is?) pulled by horses. He started farming in 1939 with horses and bought a Case S a couple of years later. He used the horse's in the wintertime until he sold his milkcows in 1965
 
The horses left my grandpa's farm long before I was born. My dad used to say when the horse left the farm was the beginning of the social and moral decay of America.
 
Dad always talked about the first rubber wheeled tractor on our farm was when they bought a used 9N. A
My Great Grandfather was asking a man who owned it new how he liked it. The man said he had heavy land and if he had a good team of horses the tractor would be gone. So my his Grandad went home loaded up one of his best horses and bought another one on the way and traded the pair and maybe some cash maybe not I'm not sure, and brought home the N. Dad tried years after it left to relocate it but couldn't so he picked up a 44 2N to restore to remind him of the little grey tractor he rode along on as a kid. I think they had steel wheeled tractors here and horses both at one time but I think they still kept a couple horses around for quite some time along with tractors.
 
My grandfather farmed in south Georgia with mules until 1951. Spring of 51 he bought a new 8N with attachments. He still had the mules in the early 60' and used them to work his vegetable garden. I still have the plow and the three point jack that came with the 8N
 
One of two times I saw my Dad cry was when the horses went out the drive. 1940 would have been the year. I remember my Mom holding me while looking out the front sire window as the truck carrying drove out the drive. The truck had an open rack with the horses head over the front. As the truck drove out my Dad came in crying and I could see the new red tractor on the barn grade. I don't think I could have remembered it if Dad had not been crying. My 101 young mother brought all of her old pictures to her 101 birthday party and in the pictures was on of Dad's team reared up playing. Mom commented, Your Dad sure loved those horses. I know the year because Dad was a share cropper at the time and we moved in the spring of 1941 to a farm for one year where my late brother was born.
 
heck if I know the details cause that was 50 give or take years before my time. But based on conversations with my pa I think I can get close.

I believe the 160 acre (late 1800/early 1900) homestead was split in the 30's into two 80acre sections.

The 40's a used F20 replaced the horses. They got to the point one had to hoist them up in the morning, they'd work all day once up. My Grandpa just took em out back and shot em.

Some were along the way a Farmall B came around, that was traded in for the first new tractor a 49 Farmall C in 1950. My (then 8 year old) dad drove it home from town.

The only other new tractor came in the 60's...a Farmall 504.
 
Started life as city boy. Moved to farm in 1948. can remember the horse drawn milk wagon making daily home delivery to our neighborhood. Moved to farm at age 5. Landlord had 2 teams dad used for a few times. Remember him picking the outside 2 rows of corn by hand and throwing into the horse drawn wagon to make way for the the pull type ear picker. Most farming was done with Oliver tractors.
 

The general theory is that it was WW2 that killed off horse farming. Not only were tractors becoming better and faster after WW2, but farm labor wasn't as available. Guys coming back from the war didn't want a job on a farm, they wanted a city/town job. Driving a truck was a lot easier than driving horses. You didn't have to care for a tractor nearly as much after working it and dind't have to feed and water it. OTOH, there's never been a tractor made that reproduces itself, walked over to get a scratch behind the ears or healed itself. 2 sides to the story.

And lets not forget that "EZ" financing came along with the tractors! didn't have to pay cash on the barrel head.
 
Grandpa's team survived the barn fire in 1950, as did the little cow herd and hogs in the pig shed next door. The FarmAlls did not, nor did the neighbor's new truck full loaded with oats. A JD M replaced the Farmall, then a 1010 in 1963 as Grandpa neared retirement.

I think the horses were left to live out their days in leisure, with minimal use. I never saw one here, starting in 65.

Grandma never learned how to drive, so I became the team with Grandpa on the M in the late 60's. Since most of our farm was fruit trees or berries, often one horse was used for cultivating, spraying, etc. in the narrow rows. I just sold off the horse-drawn cultivators, plows and drags a couple of years ago to a guy still horse farming.

When we had to hand pick the corn from our muck ground, both Dad and Grandpa would harken back to the horses, as you could pick along as fast as you could and they would just pull the wagon along like they knew where to be.

I agree, there is something very unselfish about the bond of using animals for your livelihood- you need them almost as much as they need you. Not much unselfishness on display in society today, it is more often viewed as weakness.
 
My father's dad bought a new H Farmall in 1939. They already had a 2n. Don't know when they bought the first tractor, but they kept one team for cultivating corn. Midnight and Lightning. My grand dad knew you could not cultivate with a tractor without ruining the crop. They were only used for cultivating, and they were very hard to catch the first time in the spring. My dad just hated trying to catch them. After they had them up and working they were good but after you were done for the year they turned them out and the horses were free of obligations until next year. They burned in a lightning strike and fire just after WWII. The barn was a ways from the house and they could not there soon enough to let them out. My dad took over the farm in 1946 when he returned from the war, and I think they were gone by then.

My uncle drove the new H home from Springfield, MO, to save a delivery fee. 40 miles. He was about 18 at the time. My dad wanted to drive it but he was deemed too young at 16.
 
My Grandfather had horses into the 40s, even though he also had tractors since the early 30s. A 10-20 McCormick was his first I believe . I think it was the Depression that scared him enough to hang onto the horses, plus he just liked them ! I still live on the same farm, and we occasionally will still unearth a horse shoe or piece of hitching .
 
In the 30s my Grandfather used a stone boat with a stock tank full of water on it, pulled by the horses, to water the pines in our grove. It was so dry they would have died if he didn't do that. He would water after milking, and my Grandma would shake her head and say what a waste of effort it was...those very trees are 80 feet tall and still healthy today.
 
Had to have been around 49 or 50. My next older brother was born in 48. He was just old enough to walk and got in the barn when the horses were coming in I guess. The way my mother tells it one of them stepped right over the top of him. She said Dad came to the house carrying him and was so scared he couldn't even talk. They said the horses were out of here within a week.
 
The horses left in 1938 when my grandfather joined in partnership. Grandfather didn't like the way his partner treated horses. All the horse equipment and obsolete tractors were sold at auction. They continued with a McCormick 15-30,a Farmall M and WC Allis. There also was a truck starting with a Model T Ford followed by a Model A Ford and a 1935 Ford that did the hauling to town.
 
2ns didn't happen till 42. Might have been a 9n they were created in 39. The 2n came along in 1942 stripped down 1939 model mag, no battery, gen or starter, war time model.
 
Dad's 2 horses, Nig & Prince that he paid $200 for in about 1948 left the farm a couple of days after a brand new 1951 Ford 8N was delivered to the 80 acre farm. My son who lives in Wisconsin still has the tractor.
 
Horses left when dad burnt down the horse barn learning how to smoke cigarettes.
 
When I was 6 in 49 and hadn't been worked since 44 when the Ford 2N came. The first tractor on farm was a 26 Fordson and when it put a rod out the bolck got a used McDeering 10-20 and it was here untill 49 when replaced with a 41 Farmall H. So had the H and 2N only till 57 when Dad bought a 38 A Deere for a third tractor as I was starting to drive tractor.
 
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