Surrounded by tractors
O’Brien curates antique equipment collection
By Amy Kyllo
STAFF WRITER
MAZEPPA — A peek inside the outbuildings at Dennis O’Brien’s farm reveals a rainbow of tractors representing brands and models going back over 100 years.
O’Brien, who is a 93-year-old retired dairy farmer, has been collecting tractors since the 1980s. Today, his buildings are filled with 46 tractors of every make and model as well as many antique implements.
O’Brien retired from farming around 2010, but he can still be found in the shop fixing and restoring.
“I just like tinkering with them and the challenge to get them running,” O’Brien said. “That’s what I go for.”
O’Brien’s tractor collection is almost 50% restored, and the rest are in original condition.
He has predominantly done the work himself, including most of the sandblasting and painting.
If the weather is bad, O’Brien will stay inside; but with a heated shop that keeps the space at about 50 degrees, he can work in the shop even in the winter.
“If somebody doesn’t find me here (in the house), they’ll come out to the shop,” O’Brien said.
He had all his tractors except one running last summer. This past winter, he worked on a cultivator for one of his John Deere tractors. This summer, he plans to work on a three-bottom plow for his 1919 Moline-Universal Tractor Model D made by the Moline Plow Company.
“I’d putz on them, and if I get tired or had to do something else, I just quit and go do it and let it sit until I get back to it,” O’Brien said.
The 1919 Model D is the first tractor O’Brien collected. He first laid eyes on it riding with friends to dinner in the Rice Lake, Wisconsin, area. The next day, he figured out the tractor was owned by a couple who had recently died and passed the tractor on to their son.
O’Brien stopped out to the owner’s dairy farm and asked if he could buy it. He found out the tractor was supposed to be sold to a buyer from the South. O’Brien gave the farmer his number so he could call him if he changed his mind and the tractor became available.
O’Brien never heard from the farmer, so later that summer, he decided to call. He found out that the tractor was not sold down South and was about to go on auction. O’Brien made the trip to Wisconsin to see if he could buy it before the sale. When he arrived, the farmer said he would have to buy it in cash. The next morning, O’Brien had money in hand, and the tractor was his.
“That (tractor is) what got me started doing this,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien purchased his tractors through private sales and auctions. O’Brien has collected some of his favorite tractors he farmed with as well as others he never used while farming.
“Most of them were different from what I had,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien still owns the first tractor he bought as a farmer, a 1956 Farmall 400. One of his favorite tractors is an International 656, which his wife, Marilyn, who died in October 2023, drove.
“That’s the one she loved,” O’Brien said. “It drove like a car. It was easy steering, and she liked to run it.”
O’Brien remembers Marilyn taking the International 656 out with the hay baler and a throw rack, baling hay while he unloaded another rack of bales in the barn.
“I won’t sell that tractor,” O’Brien said. “That’s her tractor.”
The couple started dairy farming on halves near Dodge Center in the late 1950s. They farmed there for 10 years. When the farmer they were working with became sick with terminal cancer, the farmer encouraged them to find their own place.
“He said, ‘If you can scrape enough money for a down payment together, … I’d go ahead and buy a farm,’” O’Brien said.
The O’Briens found a 240-acre farm near Mazeppa where they moved in 1967.
“We had a nice, Grade A barn (that was) a year and a half old,” O’Brien said. “We could milk 30 cows in the stanchions, and we had a bulk tank.”
They also had chickens for a short time and later added beef cattle and farrowed pigs.
“(Farrowing) was Marilyn’s job,” O’Brien said. “(When) little pigs came, she loved it. She got to help them out.”
It was the residence at the new farm that got Marilyn started with the International 656.
“When we moved up here, I got a job with Libby’s at night, working down for sweet corn pack to get some money coming in,” O’Brien said. “(Marilyn) milked the cows, and … she got into the field work.”
After retirement, O’Brien turned half of the farrowing barn into a carpentry shop for himself and the other half into a greenhouse-like plant area for his wife.
Marilyn has been gone about a year and half, but O’Brien still keeps her many plants alive in her plant area.
O’Brien has other collections besides the tractors. He has over 400 lanterns, which he began collecting in the ‘70s. His collection includes a railroad signal lantern, a miner’s carbide lamp, bicycle lanterns and car lanterns. He also has a wrench collection.
Someday, O’Brien said, his tractor collection will go to his children. Until then, he continues working on his equipment and sharing it with those who visit.
“I love to show people (tractors),” O’Brien said.
By Amy Kyllo
STAFF WRITER
MAZEPPA — A peek inside the outbuildings at Dennis O’Brien’s farm reveals a rainbow of tractors representing brands and models going back over 100 years.
O’Brien, who is a 93-year-old retired dairy farmer, has been collecting tractors since the 1980s. Today, his buildings are filled with 46 tractors of every make and model as well as many antique implements.
O’Brien retired from farming around 2010, but he can still be found in the shop fixing and restoring.
“I just like tinkering with them and the challenge to get them running,” O’Brien said. “That’s what I go for.”
O’Brien’s tractor collection is almost 50% restored, and the rest are in original condition.
He has predominantly done the work himself, including most of the sandblasting and painting.
If the weather is bad, O’Brien will stay inside; but with a heated shop that keeps the space at about 50 degrees, he can work in the shop even in the winter.
“If somebody doesn’t find me here (in the house), they’ll come out to the shop,” O’Brien said.
He had all his tractors except one running last summer. This past winter, he worked on a cultivator for one of his John Deere tractors. This summer, he plans to work on a three-bottom plow for his 1919 Moline-Universal Tractor Model D made by the Moline Plow Company.
“I’d putz on them, and if I get tired or had to do something else, I just quit and go do it and let it sit until I get back to it,” O’Brien said.
The 1919 Model D is the first tractor O’Brien collected. He first laid eyes on it riding with friends to dinner in the Rice Lake, Wisconsin, area. The next day, he figured out the tractor was owned by a couple who had recently died and passed the tractor on to their son.
O’Brien stopped out to the owner’s dairy farm and asked if he could buy it. He found out the tractor was supposed to be sold to a buyer from the South. O’Brien gave the farmer his number so he could call him if he changed his mind and the tractor became available.
O’Brien never heard from the farmer, so later that summer, he decided to call. He found out that the tractor was not sold down South and was about to go on auction. O’Brien made the trip to Wisconsin to see if he could buy it before the sale. When he arrived, the farmer said he would have to buy it in cash. The next morning, O’Brien had money in hand, and the tractor was his.
“That (tractor is) what got me started doing this,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien purchased his tractors through private sales and auctions. O’Brien has collected some of his favorite tractors he farmed with as well as others he never used while farming.
“Most of them were different from what I had,” O’Brien said.
O’Brien still owns the first tractor he bought as a farmer, a 1956 Farmall 400. One of his favorite tractors is an International 656, which his wife, Marilyn, who died in October 2023, drove.
“That’s the one she loved,” O’Brien said. “It drove like a car. It was easy steering, and she liked to run it.”
O’Brien remembers Marilyn taking the International 656 out with the hay baler and a throw rack, baling hay while he unloaded another rack of bales in the barn.
“I won’t sell that tractor,” O’Brien said. “That’s her tractor.”
The couple started dairy farming on halves near Dodge Center in the late 1950s. They farmed there for 10 years. When the farmer they were working with became sick with terminal cancer, the farmer encouraged them to find their own place.
“He said, ‘If you can scrape enough money for a down payment together, … I’d go ahead and buy a farm,’” O’Brien said.
The O’Briens found a 240-acre farm near Mazeppa where they moved in 1967.
“We had a nice, Grade A barn (that was) a year and a half old,” O’Brien said. “We could milk 30 cows in the stanchions, and we had a bulk tank.”
They also had chickens for a short time and later added beef cattle and farrowed pigs.
“(Farrowing) was Marilyn’s job,” O’Brien said. “(When) little pigs came, she loved it. She got to help them out.”
It was the residence at the new farm that got Marilyn started with the International 656.
“When we moved up here, I got a job with Libby’s at night, working down for sweet corn pack to get some money coming in,” O’Brien said. “(Marilyn) milked the cows, and … she got into the field work.”
After retirement, O’Brien turned half of the farrowing barn into a carpentry shop for himself and the other half into a greenhouse-like plant area for his wife.
Marilyn has been gone about a year and half, but O’Brien still keeps her many plants alive in her plant area.
O’Brien has other collections besides the tractors. He has over 400 lanterns, which he began collecting in the ‘70s. His collection includes a railroad signal lantern, a miner’s carbide lamp, bicycle lanterns and car lanterns. He also has a wrench collection.
Someday, O’Brien said, his tractor collection will go to his children. Until then, he continues working on his equipment and sharing it with those who visit.
“I love to show people (tractors),” O’Brien said.
