Mobile Lindeman Archives

For those who have never been at a tractor show that I was able to attend with my mobile Lindeman Archives trailer.  A peek inside to see what you have or haven’t been missing.  Most of the photos but not all that are displayed in the trailer can be seen on the History pages on the Lindeman Archives site.

It all started back in about 1998 when I had all of these photos displayed in the building directly behind my trailer.  It is a very nice building that was the coolest place to be during our show that is held the 3rd weekend of August each year, put on by CWAFEC at Fulbright Park in Union Gap, Washington.  It had a lot of wall space to display the photos along with floor space for my Lindeman Crawler.  We usually have a very good turnout but it got me to thinking that the only time anyone could see the Lindeman history was at the show or if they were able to find someone to let them in the building all the other 51 weekends.
The next year the Two Cylinder Expo IX was going to be held in Missoula, Montana.  I completed the restoration of my Lindeman Wide Tread, gathered up some of the duplicate photos along with the 1/4 scale models of tractors an equipment that were built by the pattern maker at John Deere – Yakima Works along with the scale model of the Lindeman crawler I built and headed East along with my brother, sister and brother in law to Missoula.  Along the way we stopped at a truck stop for fuel and food, there we met Buz Fine and some of the other members of the Oregon Two Cylinder Club, who had a forty or fifty foot trailer loaded with his and other members  tractors heading for the show.  They invited us to set up next to them.  We did and they shared their canary with us.  There was someone there most of the time that wanted to go through the Lindeman photos and asking questions.  I got to know the Oregon Two-Cylinder Club members better, they invited us to come to the Brooks, Oregon Show, the Oregon Two Cylinder Club, was featuring the Lindeman Crawler that year.

    Now here I go thinking again,  I took everything out of the building, my brother and I went to their show, set everything up and had a very good showing there also.  I put everything back for our show the following month.  That winter I bought a 20 foot enclosed trailer, took everything out of the building and put it in my trailer and started going to other tractor shows.

    Now more people have been able to see what the Lindeman Brothers were all about.

In 2004 my brother and I went to North Carolina to help build a church that had been destroyed by Hurricane Andrew with the Lindeman Trailer in tow filled with items from our church.  I had let all of the Lindeman owners that I had e-mails for that we were headed across country and if they would like to see the archives to let me know.  I revived some responses so on the way back we went to the ones we could and had mini shows in North Carolina, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Illinois and Nebraska. I would like to do it again but sad to say my brother passed away in 2010 so it would only be me and my dog Charlie.

Now we can go through the trailer,  I do apologize for the glare but you will get the feeling of what it would be like to walk through it.  Once you do I hope you will come to one of the shows I am attending.

As you come through the side door you will see the first implements that Jesse designed and built, the Ditcher, Extension Disc then the Orchard Sprayer. 

Turn to the left there are photos of the Model DI Crawler. 

Next is the Model GPO Crawler.

Then comes the farm machinery section from Hop Pickering machines to Rollover Plow. 

The other side shows the inside of the Lindeman Power, Show room, Machine shop and Assembly.  

This brings you to the swing out pages on the wall, first is the “BO” Crawler. 

This page has the early Lindemans known as the Flat Backs, they were built until October of 1941 totaling approximately 100 units.  No Lindemans were officially built in 1942 due to the war, a few were converted from wheel tractors over to the crawler. This gave Jesse a chance to improve on the design and develop what was to be the most successful model, in late 1942 he was able to get permission from the war department to allow John Deere to start the “BO” tractor line and ship chassis to make the crawler to produce food for the war effort. 

Before the war started there was one “BI” Lindeman developed to try to get a government contract for the military, this was also a Flat Back. 

Some of the Implements for the crawler.   

The foundry and machine shop with Jesse doing a photo op at the drill press.   

Brokers would come from Nebraska and the Dakotas to Yakima and buy truck loads of scraped Lindemans for the scraped price, take them back, selling 2 to a collector, he then would make one restored crawler. 

Now we go back in the time line to 1947 when John Deere bought Lindeman Power Equipment Co., the Model MC was refined by 1950 when they started shipping, anything for the West Coast was assembled and shipped from John Deere – Yakima Works and units for the the East Coast were shipped from JD back East.  All MC were eventually built back East at JD, all parts were built at the Yakima Works and shipped back East for them to assemble. 

Once John Deere closed the Yakima plant in 1954, Jesse and Joe elected not to go back East with them instead took over operation of Northwest Equipment Co. Jesse and Joe started NWE Co. in 1947 due to the government starting a anti-trust suit because they didn’t want JD making implements for Ferguson so Jesse and Joe started the new Company to complete the contract they had for the Thys Hop Pickers and the one with Harry Ferguson for the Lindeman Rollover Plow.

Jesse mainly concentrated on the farm machinery and Joe worked more with the Fruit Processing part of the company.  The company grew, in 1982 they sold the company to a couple of guys that didn’t know anything about manufacturing and ran it into the ground, broke it up and sold it off.  Jesse had to take the property back.  Jesse’s wife Jane wanted him from underfoot so she suggested (strongly) he and his son Bruce do what he had been taking about and start another company.  They did and called it Lindex (Linde dropping the man and using and x) and built a Three Point Hitch for Caterpillar and John Deer crawlers, it survived for a year or two after he passed away when the family sold it to a company back East.   

The only thing that is missing from these photos is the 1/4 scale model of the “BO” that I normally display.

Now I hope this peek has given you the incentive to attend one of the shows that I am attending.