Commemorating John Deere's 100th anniversary of entering the tractor market, the Althaus family of Sublette, Illinois, restored a 1918 Waterloo Boy tractor and talks about the great uncle who inspired them all.

Everett’s fascination with tractors began as a young boy, when his family sold its draft horses and bought its first tractor, a 1920 Waterloo Boy, from a nearby dealer for $1,150. According to Bill Althaus, Everett vividly remembered catching a glimpse of the tractor’s yellow spokes out the back door of his one room schoolhouse, on its way to the Althaus farm. “He told me the schoolmarm caught him and gave him hell,” Bill Althaus says with a smile. “He couldn’t wait to get home to see that tractor.”

Years later, during World War II, and over Everett’s objections, the family drove the Waterloo Boy to the junk yard as part of a scrap metal drive to support the war effort. “Everett didn’t want to see it go, but he got overruled by his father and brothers. He was bound and determined to own another one someday,” said Steve Althaus. That day finally came in 1982, when Everett purchased the 1918 model.



https://johndeerejournal.com/2018/07/for-the-love-of-a-waterloo-boy/