Farmer traces tractor's journey from Newbern to New York

A photograph by Bobby Sharp of Dyersburg documents the condition on Joe Richardson's 1931 John Deere tractor in the mid-1980s. An oak tree had grown up inside the tractor and become one with the abandoned farm equipment. Gary Ray of Dyersburg purchased the tractor in 1987. In order to move the tractor, he had to cut the tree above and below the embedded tractor parts. Then, he spent several months painstakingly removing the rest of the tree from the tractor's axle.

No ordinary tractor, mind you. He wanted to find his father's 1931 John Deere tractor. The tractor quit running one day and the family parked it in a fencerow, where it stood for nearly 50 years. An oak tree sprouted and grew between the driver's seat and the right wheel, eventually encasing a portion of the tractor's parts within its stout trunk. Richardson sold the tractor - tree and all - in 1987.

As the years passed, Richardson wondered whether the tractor had been restored and where it might be.

The tractor, now restored and given modern-day rubber tires, is at home on the Long Island, N.Y., farm of Jeff Rottkamp Sr. and Jeff Rottkamp Jr.

With the help of a few friends and old-tractor enthusiasts, the tractor has been found in Long Island, N.Y. Richardson now has photographs and even a video of the long-lost tractor.

"All I wanted to do was to see it again," he said. "It was just a sentimental thing after it had been sitting out there all those years."

He met his goal; but wouldn't he like to take it for one more spin around the field?

Richardson said the tractor's current owners offered to let him sit in the driver's seat again. He's tempted.

"I'd like to go but it's a long way," he said, shaking his head. "I may go. I don't know.

The two-cylinder John Deere Model GPWT tractor, serial number 403627, was shipped Feb. 17, 1931, from St. Louis, Mo., to Newbern Hardware. Richardson's father, L.R. Richardson, purchased the tractor the following year for an estimated $1,000 to $1,100.

Joe Richardson wasn't allowed to drive the tractor for several years. After all, he was only 4 years old when his father brought it home.

Joe Richardson said the tractor quit working in the mid-1940s and it gradually began to rust away in a Newbern fencerow.

In a written account of the tractor's history, Richardson reported that he sold the tractor for $500 to Gary Ray of Dyersburg in 1987. "After many hours of removing the tree from the axle housing, disassembling, and not being able to find parts, he became discouraged and sold it to Mr. George Rice and Mr. Larry Prescott from Murray City, Tenn. Without doing anything to it, they sold it to Mr. Phillip Dillows at Dongola, Ill., who did some more restoring and painting and sometime later, sold it to Mr. Charles Gaede in Limon, Colo., who did some work and put it on rubber. Mr. Gaede sent me some pictures after partial restoration. They were the first pictures I had seen of the tractor since it left here. Seeing the old tractor partially restored made me more determined to find it. Mr. Gaede became sick and later died. Before he died, he sold the tractor to Mr. Paul Harrison in Woodline, Md. Mr. Harrison became sick and was unable to help me find who he had sold it to. His son, Jeff, tried but had no luck.

"Here is where the trail became cold."

Richardson said he placed an advertisement in "Country Extra" magazine.

"Recently, Mr. Bruce Hotchkiss, Senior Editor for the Del Marva Farmer Newspaper, in Delaware, called me after seeing my 'help wanted' sign and asked if he could help me find the old tractor. This was the biggest boost that I have had. He wrote articles and showed pictures of my old tractor in his paper more than once. I call him a gentleman and friend. He did all he could to help but no one answered his call.

"About two months ago a friend and high school mate of mine from 1945, Joe Neighbors, from Tiptonville, Tenn., called me inquiring about the article he had seen in a magazine. Not knowing I was the past owner of the tractor until he called, he offered to help me find. It. He's a member of the Two Cylinder Club in Grundy Center, Iowa. He advertised the lost tractor in his club paper and two days after the issue came out, he got a call from Mr. Jeff Rottkamp, from Long Island, N.Y., saying that he had the tractor identified by the serial number 403627. Joe Neighbors called me and I, in turn, called Mr. Rottkamp. I believe, after talking to the Rottkamps that the old G.P. has its best home since it left the fencerow. ... (Jeff Rottkamp Jr. and Jeff Rottkamp Sr.) told me they bought it from Mr. Bobby Martin five or six years ago in Pennsylvania and he bought it from Mr. Paul Harrison. This is where the 'nomadic journey,' as Mr. Bruce Hotchkiss called it in his paper, ends.

"After seven years of lots of fun, numerous calls, meeting new people in phone calls and the printed page, who were the most genuine, helpful and understanding about the sentimental value of this story, I thank you. My dad would be proud to know that the old G.P. that he bought from the Newbern Hardware - which was the only John Deere dealer in this area at that time - would still be alive and running."

L.R. Richardson would also probably be surprised to know that his old tractor is more valuable now than it was the day he purchased it. Joe Richardson said the tractor's value is now estimated at $17,500 - or about 17 times more than he'd paid.