the Holt 5-Ton was in high demand in World War I for towing artillery. The Holt Manufacturing Company, which later merged in 1925 with the C.L. Best Tractor Company to form the Caterpillar Tractor Co., couldn’t keep up with the demand.
So Holt contracted with the Maxwell Motor Company and other manufacturers to help meet supply for the “Artillery Tractor 5-ton Model 1917,” as Holt called them.
Before all the orders could be filled, however, the war ended November 11, 1918. Holt, Maxwell and the other manufacturers were left with surplus tractors that never made it “Over There,” but some remained in service through the 1920s and others were converted to civilian use on the farm.
At 84, Bowers Jr. is retired, but the fourth generation of the family has joined Howard L. Bowers Contracting. And Bowers still goes in every day to his own special spot on the company’s property where his father used to work on old machines.
“I got what they call a ‘toy shop’ where I work on these antique tractors,” he says. “This is my ‘golf course’ over here in my own shop.”
