25 Years!
 In 1969 my Uncle Gerard happened upon an 8N through a friend. It had been in a barn fire (it probably was the cause of the fire) and had been towed out to the manure pile. My uncle didn’t need a tractor, but a student at the high school, Luke, convinced my uncle that it was too good a deal to pass up. It was almost free - although it did need new front tires and rewiring.
 My Uncle Gerard took on the project of bringing the 8N back to life and with help from Luke, the tractor came around. And my uncle used it all the time. It turned out to be the best wheelbarrow he ever owned! As he learned more about what the tractor could do, he also became fascinated with the history of mechanized agriculture. Luke helped inspire Gerard to pay attention to the 3-point hitch and how that hitch changed farming.
The N-News is entering its 25th year and soon we will have produced our one hundredth issue. I personally had a hand in pulling together half of those issues, and soon I gained a firm grasp on the N-News. Today I publish the magazine.
Twenty-five years after the first issue of the N-News came together on an old PC, it finds you on the Internet today. It's been a long journey. And it is you, the reader and subscriber, who has been the most important part of the N-News experience. Now, let’s work together and shoot for another twenty-five.
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Features from the N-News
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A Piece of History Slips Away |
 Harold Brock • Chief Engineer of the 9N Tractor • 1914-2011 By Robert Pripps
Harold Brock, Ford tractor icon, passed away January 2, 2011 at the age of 96 years. Harold was the engineer in charge of the design for the famous N-Series Ford tractors. These tractors, introduced in 1939, are considered by many to be the most significant and influential farm tractors of the twentieth century. Harold worked beside Henry Ford (both the first and second), Edsel Ford, Harry Ferguson, and Charles Sorenson. Both of Harold’s wives, Juliette (who died in 1990) and Kathleen (who died in 2010), also worked at Ford Motor Company and were close associates of Henry Ford.
Rob Rinaldi’s video interview was shot a little less than two years before Harold Brock’s passing and is especially poignant on that account. Rob visited Harold Brock at his home in Waterloo, Iowa, where he sat down with Dr. Brock and led him to recall his time at Ford Motor Company and of his early life.
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 Tim’s father, Cornell, combining beans circa 1970. By L. Timothy Knutson
My first memory of our tractors was from 1951, when I was about four years old. I was in the kitchen of our north Iowa farm home, watching out the window as a truck delivered a new tractor to our yard. It was the second 8N for our farm and the last tractor my dad would buy. Mom recalled that there had been a tractor on the farm when they were married in 1942. From her description, it must have been a 9N. It was probably traded for the first 8N.
As was true for many farmers of that era, these tractors replaced a team of horses. Growing up on the farm, most of my friends were from farm families, too. It seemed that they all had the big tractors: John Deeres, Farmalls, Massey Fergusons, Minneapolis Molines, and Olivers. I desperately wanted Dad to buy a bigger tractor, but he insisted the 8Ns were just right for our eighty acres.
But time spent working on the farm at an early age seemed like forever, and a tractor that could only pull a two-bottom plow or a one-row corn picker seemed much too small. I wanted to be done and off fishing, swimming, or hunting. Every summer at the county fair, I would head to the machinery display and look at the newest tractors. I was convinced that we needed a bigger model, but those 8Ns served us well.
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More about coming of age with Ns...
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 Jasmine, 11 years old, out for her first tractor ride! By Galen Mommens
One of the biggest problems facing N series fans, and all other lovers of old iron, is that they can’t help but wonder what will happen to their machines when they can no longer keep them. Not only are the tractors getting older, but so are the men and women who run them. Farms in general, are slipping away, and along with them, replacement tractor enthusiasts.
While some are lucky enough to have children and grandchildren to pass things on to, many, like my wife and I, do not have that option. It’s a good thing that we have nieces and nephews. We do our best to instill in them good Midwestern values and a need to know how it used to be done. Recently, my wife and I were delighted to have our 11 year old great-niece, Jasmine, spend over a week with us on our farm. She has been a city girl living in Lincoln, Nebraska all her life, but she was willing to try new, different, and exciting things during her stay.
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