1920 Waterloo Boy Model N 12-25 Tractor

A History of the Waterloo Boy Model N Tractor

Produced from late 1917 to 1924, the Waterloo Boy Model N had quite a fascinating history during what would turn out to be a crucial period for farm tractors. When it was first developed, the Model N was an improved design on the successful Model R, created by engineers at the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in Waterloo, Iowa. From 1915 to 1919, during the first World War, the Models R and N played a significant role in the war effort of the United Kingdom, helping farmers raise food while many young men and horses were away on the European continent. After Deere & Company purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company in 1918, the Model N helped John Deere enter the tractor market with success. And in 1920, the Model N was the first tractor to be evaluated in the new Nebraska Tractor Tests which were created to help farmers make better informed tractor purchases. In this article, we will briefly examine all of these aspects of the Waterloo Boy Model N’s history.

The Waterloo Boy Models R and N

Beginning in 1914, the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company entered their Waterloo Boy Model R into the gasoline tractor market.  Engineers at the company had been working on tractors for several years, tracing their history back to John Froelich, arguably the person who built the first successful tractor in 1892.  Froelich and other engineers at the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company (organized in 1895) continued to work on gasoline engines and possible ways for creating tractors. After failing to reproduce Froelich’s early success, the company focused on stationary engines and Froelich left.¹

Although the Waterloo Company made more attempts at developing a tractor, it was not until 1911 that the company found itself in a situation which would lead to success. In 1911, the company acquired the foundry of the Associated Manufacturing Company, including a tractor project called the “Big Chief,” a project that intrigued Louis Witry, one of the Waterloo Company’s main engineers.² Taking the ideas he found before him, Witry developed a two-cylinder side-by-side engine which, along with other modifications, led to the Models L and LA, and eventually, by 1914, to the Model R. At about 6,200 pounds, the Model R was a single-speed tractor which would allow a farmer to do many jobs on the farm which typically required at least three horses and other hired hands.

The company called their tractor the Waterloo Boy, a play on the name “water boy,” a reference to the company’s early success with stationary engines used to pump water. The company gave the first Waterloo Boy Model R serial number 1026, and priced the tractor at $750. Over the next few years, engineers made several adjustments to the tractor’s design and, by 1916, it was selling well.³

By 1917, the Waterloo Company's engineers had begun working on a new model to replace the R.  They used the Model R’s frame and basic engine design, but they made several minor and one major change as they worked in 1917. As the engineers developed the new Model N, they chose to add a two-speed transmission for the engine which would allow the model N to move forward at about 2 1/4 mph in low gear and 3 mph in high. They finished the first Model N (serial number 8378) near the end of 1917 and shipped it on January 3, 1918 to P. J. Downes, one of the company’s top dealers, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.⁴ The company priced the Model N at $1,050.

For a time, in 1918, the Waterloo Company produced both the R and the N.⁵ In 1918, the company was purchased by Deere & Company (discussed below). By 1919, Deere ended production of the Model R – about 9,000 had been built – and focused much of its attention on the Model N until 1924. After Deere acquired the Waterloo Boy, engineers continued to make changes to the tractor’s design as several thousand units were produced. By 1919, engineers had enlarged the radiator. In March, 1919, they raised the fuel tank 3 inches, trying to address problems that accompanied the gravity-fed engine; in June, they raised it another 3 inches.⁶ By February 16, 1920, engineers had developed a new steering system much like the automobile’s to replace the original “chain and roller” steering system which would wear down over time. Later in the year, beginning with tractor serial number 20834, this new steering system became standard.⁷

In March, 1920, Deere & Company sent a Waterloo Boy tractor (serial number 19851) to Lincoln, Nebraska; it would pass the very first Nebraska Tractor Test (discussed below). In the summer of 1920, the factory produced Stuhr Museum’s tractor (serial number 26963). By September 20, 1920, starting with serial number 28094, engineers decided to rivet the tractor’s frame together instead of bolt it, giving the tractor a more solid structure.⁸ For about four more years, Deere built the Waterloo Boy, ending the main production run with serial number 30400. The company, however, chose to use remaining Waterloo Boy parts to produce another ninety-three Model Ns alongside the new John Deere Model D.⁹ The factory shipped the final Model N on October 15, 1924.¹⁰ During its nearly six-year run, the Waterloo factory built about 21,000 Model N Tractors.

World War I and the Waterloo Boy

Although the factory in Waterloo, Iowa shipped most of its nearly 30,000 Waterloo Boy tractors – Models R and N – to dealers and farmers in the U.S., it also shipped several thousand to Europe, especially to the United Kingdom. The primary cause of this exportation was the first World War. By 1917, with the U.K.’s shipping significantly cut off by German U-Boats, the British Ministry of Munitions was asking for all of the tractors it could get from the United States. After losing so many young men and horses to the war effort, and after having a large portion of its imported food supply severed, the U.K. needed tractors to more efficiently raise its own crops.

As part of this importation of American tractors into the U.K., a man named L. J. Martin, owner of the Overtime Tractor Company, established a relationship with the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and, later, Deere & Company. Martin would import nearly 4,000 Waterloo Boys, assembling the parts shipped from overseas and selling the tractors through his own company.¹¹ From 1915 to 1919, Overtime advertised these tractors, trying to convince U.K. farmers of the benefits of mechanization in agriculture, especially when short of laborers and horses.

Based out of Belfast, Harry Ferguson, an Overtime agent, promoted the tractors in Ireland. Through this experience, Ferguson would become fascinated with agricultural mechanics, developing a three-point hitch, experimenting with tractor and plow designs, and becoming one of the most important figures in 20th-century agriculture.¹² Just as in the U.S., tractor promoters like Ferguson had to work hard to convince farmers that mechanization was the future of farming. Successful use of the tractors when men and horses were in short supply helped contribute to the larger shift from animal and human power to gasoline tractor power between 1915 and 1930.

John Deere Joins the Tractor Business with the Waterloo Boy

As mentioned above, Deere & Company purchased the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company and entered a burgeoning gasoline tractor business in 1918. Deere had done well with the plow, but the company was willing to take a risk moving into a new market. In March 1918, when the owner of the Waterloo Company decided to retire from the business, the board at Deere decided unanimously to purchase his company, acquiring the factory and foundry, the Waterloo Boy Models R and N, and the engineering know-how that flourished in the facilities. Not only did Deere end up buying a successful tractor model that allowed it to compete with the Fordson Model F and other smaller tractors, but it also bought the foundation for the future John Deere Model D, a tractor that would be produced for nearly three decades.

Deere & Company’s purchase of the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company was not a foregone conclusion in early 1918. Frank Silloway, the head of sales at Deere, heard that the Waterloo Company might be for sale and was sent to investigate the facilities in Waterloo, Iowa.¹³ When he returned to Moline, Illinois, Silloway eagerly proposed that Deere purchase the Waterloo Company. He saw the potential in the company and tried to convince other board members to support the acquisition. Willard Velie, another board member, argued that Deere should enter the tractor market with a Dain tractor, a more expensive model that Deere board member Joseph Dain had been developing for the company.¹⁴ William Butterworth, the president of Deere & Company, was afraid that purchasing the Waterloo Company would alienate other tractor manufacturers who purchased Deere’s plows because they did not produce their own. After discussing the potential purchase, Deere ended up taking an option to buy, putting off their decision and producing 100 Dain tractors for their dealers in the meantime.

Weeks later, on March 14, 1918, the owner of the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company called Silloway and told him that Deere had until midnight that night to act on their option to buy. Seeing this as a final chance to acquire the company and its assets, Butterworth quickly called a board meeting. The board, including Velie and Butterworth, voted unanimously to make the purchase.¹⁵ The cost was $2,350,000. After much study and debate, Deere & Company took the plunge and fully entered the gasoline tractor business at an opportune time.

As discussed above, the first World War took its toll on the human and equine populations of Europe, particularly the U.K., leading to a great need for tractors to help farm crops. In response to this need, Deere continued selling Waterloo Boy Models R and N to the Overtime Tractor Company in London. In the U.S., Deere also increased sales to farmers as thousands turned from horse power to tractor power in order to better produce their crops. Although it ended production of the Model R in 1919, Deere continued to make and sell the Model N with great success. When the first World War ended, the demand for tractors was still on the rise, and tractor companies such as Deere benefited from a growing market. By 1920, Deere was among the top five tractor manufacturers, a list which included Ford, International Harvester, Moline Plow Company, and J.I. Case. As many as 181 other companies trailed these five.

When Deere purchased Waterloo, it not only obtained the successful Models R and N, it also acquired some brilliant engineers and a series of experimental tractors which would be of great benefit as Deere moved into the 1920s. Among the Waterloo experiments was a series of tractors which looked different from the Model N. Some of these tractors, designated Model A, may have been developed by Waterloo as early as 1917, while others may have been developed by Deere soon after acquisition.

Continuing the experimental process begun by Waterloo, Deere created a series of seven tractors bearing the serial numbers 200 to 206 in 1921. Although labeled Model As in Deere’s Serial Number Registers, these tractors may have been called Model Bs at the time. In 1922, Deere produced a series of twelve more tractors with serial numbers 300 to 311. Again, the registers refer to these as Model As, but they may have been called Model Cs. Regardless of their designation, these tractors would become the predecessors to the John Deere Model D, which was first produced in 1923.¹⁶ With the Model D, Deere & Company found a tractor design that could replace the Waterloo Boy Model N and would sell consistently for years to come. Thanks to the Waterloo Boy, Deere entered the tractor market with great success and was placed in a position to compete with Ford and other tractor companies during the 1920s and beyond.

The Waterloo Boy and the Nebraska Tractor Test

From March 31 to April 9, 1920, the engineers at the Nebraska Tractor Test Lab in Lincoln, Nebraska, put Deere & Company’s Waterloo Boy Model N 12-25 tractor through a series of assessments, trying to gauge whether or not the tractor could perform as advertised. The tests had been created the previous summer when the 37th session of the Nebraska bicameral legislature passed House Roll Number 85. Proposed by Representative Wilmot Crozier and discussed over several weeks of deliberation, the bill was passed and became effective on July 15, 1919.

In order to better inform farmers regarding a tractor’s performance and usefulness in the field, the Nebraska Tractor Tests addressed such issues as the tractor’s drawing power, belt power, fuel usage, and basic maintenance. The law and the test were meant to provide farmers with information about a tractor other than the information provided by the manufacturer or dealer. The law also required manufacturers to stock parts and set up service stations within the boundaries of the state so that farmers had access to those parts and services when problems arose which they could not solve themselves.

In a sense, the Tractor Test law was a form of consumer protection law. Farmers could feel more confident in a tractor purchase knowing that a tractor had successfully passed the tractor test, and knowing that parts and services were located relatively close by. If a tractor did not pass the test, the manufacturer needed to make improvements or else not sell that tractor in the state of Nebraska.

The Tractor Test law also contributed to improvements in the tractor industry as a whole. The tests helped point out defects in tractor design and contributed to the demise of dishonest or mediocre tractor companies. In the early 1920s, when there were nearly 200 tractor companies producing hundreds of tractor models, this test became incredibly useful for manufacturers who could use the test results to make improvements to their models or to tout their designs. Deere & Company, for example, took advantage of favorable test results as they promoted the Waterloo Boy in Nebraska and throughout the United States, using its success in the test as a stamp of approval. If you wish to see a copy of the Waterloo Boy’s original test results and to get a sense of what all was tested, click on the "Nebraska Tractor Test #001" link below. The University of Nebraska has kindly uploaded early test results for anyone to view.

Article Notes

¹ Information for this article comes from a variety of secondary sources, not all of which agree with each other on dates and other details. For example, many authors consulted give 1914 for the appearance of the Waterloo Boy Model R on the market; others give 1915; Orrin E. Miller, in his 2003 article, “Louis W. Witry: The Man Behind the Waterloo Boy,” p.49, and R. B. Gray, in The Agricultural Tractor, 1855-1950, rev. ed. (Saint Joseph, MI: American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1975), p.34, claim it was put out in 1912, although they might be referring to the Model L or LA, precursors to the Model R. I’m including a bibliography at the end for those who wish to read more about the Waterloo Boy and its successor, the John Deere Model D, as well as other tractors. As you may notice, many of these publications are John Deere publications, and many of the authors had access to John Deere archives, including materials dealing with the Waterloo Boy.

² Robert Pripps and Andrew Morland, Standard Catalog of John Deere Tractors, 1917-1972 (Iola, WI: KP Books, 2004), pp.9-10; Randy Leffingwell, John Deere: A History of the Tractor (St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 2004), p.68, says Waterloo acquired the foundry in October 1912.

³ Pripps and Morland, Standard Catalog, p 9; Leffingwell, John Deere (St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Company, 2002), p.33.

⁴ Don Macmillan, The Field Guide to John Deere Tractors (St. Paul: Voyageur Press, 2001), p. 6.

⁵ Authors differ as to when production of the Model R was ended. Pripps and Morland The Standard Catalog, p.12, say 1918; Leffingwell, John Deere, p.38, says 1919; John Dietz, Classic John Deere Two Cylinder Tractors: History, Models, Variations & Specifications, 1918-1960 (St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2008), p.18, and Don Macmillan, The Field Guide to John Deere Tractors, p.6, claim 1917.

⁶ Dietz, Classic John Deere, p.18.

⁷ Dietz, Classic John Deere, p.19, gives the date but not a serial number; Don Macmillan, The Field Guide, p.6, and Don Macmillan, The John Deere Two-Cylinder Tractor Encyclopedia: The Complete Model-by-Model History (St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2007), p. 35, give this serial number but not a date; Pripps and Morland, The Standard Catalog, p.12, say the auto-steer was optional beginning with serial number 19732, and that it was standard beginning with serial number 26174, but they do not give any dates; Lorry Dunning, John Deere Tractor Data Book: Two Cylinder Models Through 1960 (St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 1996), p.16, says the first prototype auto-steer tractor was serial number 19811, that the first auto-steer tractor was serial number 19847 (finished on February 16, 1920), and that the auto-steer was made standard with serial number 20834.

⁸ Lorry Dunning, John Deere Tractor Data Book, p.16; Don Macmillan, The Field Guide, p.6.

⁹ Don Macmillan, The Big Book of John Deere Tractors: The Complete Model-by-Model Encyclopedia (St. Paul: Voyageur Press, 2005), p. 19, says these tractors were serial numbers 31320 through 31412; Pripps and Morland, The Standard Catalog, p.12, say serial numbers 31321 through 31412; Robert Pripps, Great American Tractors: John Deere, Farmall & Ford (St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 2003), p.26, says ninety-two but gives no serial numbers.

¹⁰ Dietz, Classic John Deere, p.18.

¹¹ Pripps and Morland, The Standard Catalog, p.11; Don Macmillan, The Bigger Book of John Deere Tractors: The Complete Model-by-Model Encyclopedia (Minneapolis: Voyageur, 2010), p. 20.

¹² Holly Bollinger, John Deere Tractors: The First Generation of Power (St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2004), pp.22-23.

¹³ Ralph W. Sanders, Ultimate John Deere: The History of the Big Green Machines (St. Paul: Voyageur Press, 2001), p.54; Pripps and Morland, Standard Catalog, p.9.

¹⁴ Ralph W. Sanders, The Farm Tractor: 100 Years of North American Tractors (St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2007), p.134, says the Dain cost $1700 at this time, the Waterloo Boy $850.

¹⁵ Pripps and Morland, Standard Catalog, p.9.

¹⁶ Brian Rukes and Andy Kraushaar, Original John Deere Letter Series Tractros, 1923-1954 (St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Company, 2001), p.11.

Bibliography

Beemer, Rod. Two Cylinder Tractors. St. Paul: MBI Publishing Company, 2003.

Bollinger, Holly. John Deere Tractors: The First Generation of Power. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2004.

Dietz, John. Classic John Deere Two Cylinder Tractors: History, Models, Variations & Specifications, 1918-1960. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2008.

Dunning, Lorry. John Deere Tractor Data Book: Two Cylinder Models Through 1960. St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 1996.

Gray, R. B. The Agricultural Tractor, 1855-1950. Revised Edition. Saint Joseph, MI: American Society of Agricultural Engineers, 1975.

Leffingwell, Randy. John Deere. St. Paul, MN: MBI Publishing Company, 2002.

Leffingwell, Randy. John Deere: A History of the Tractor. St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 2004.

Macmillan, Don. The Big Book of John Deere Tractors: The Complete Model-by-Model Encyclopedia. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2005.

Macmillan, Don. The Bigger Book of John Deere Tractors: The Complete Model-by-Model Encyclopedia. Minneapolis, MN: Voyageur Press, 2010.

Macmillan, Don. The Field Guide to John Deere Tractors. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2001.

Macmillan, Don. The John Deere Two-Cylinder Tractor Encyclopedia: The Complete Model-by-Model History. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2007.

Miller, Orrin E. “Louis W. Witry: The Man Behind the Waterloo Boy.” In The John Deere Tractor Legacy. Edited by Don Macmillan. Stillwater, MN: Voyageur Press, 2003.

Pripps, Robert. Great American Tractors: John Deere, Farmall & Ford. St. Paul, MN: Motorbooks International, 2003.

Pripps, Robert and Andrew Morland. Standard Catalog of John Deere Tractors, 1917-1972. Iola, WI: KP Books, 2004.

Rukes, Brian, and Andy Kraushaar. Original John Deere Letter Series Tractros, 1923-1954. St. Paul, MN: MBI, 2001.

Sanders, Ralph W. The Farm Tractor: 100 Years of North American Tractors. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2007.

Sanders, Ralph W. Ultimate John Deere: The History of the Big Green Machines. St. Paul, MN: Voyageur Press, 2001.

Wendel, C. H. Standard Catalog of Farm Tractors 1890-1980. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2005.

Waterloo Boy Video Links

A video showing the process for starting a Waterloo Boy tractor, including how to check and adjust the valves, throttle, and gas line.

A video showing a Waterloo Boy pulling a three bottom plow through a field.

Links to Documents and Other Information

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Nebraska Tractor Test #001 (pdf)

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1040&context=tractormuseumlit

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's other Waterloo Boy Images, Brochures, and Manual.

A wonderful web page showing examples of The Waterloo Boy on Steel-wheels.net. It has photos of Waterloo Boys from the U.S., the U.K., and continental Europe.