Dozens of red tractors are on display at the Museum. Many have been restored by Chapter members.
The outside of the Bartlow Prototype IH Dealership building, which was built in 1947 on Chestnut Street in Millville.
The Daisy Reaper, which dates to the early 1900s, came from the McCormick Farm in Steeles Tavern, VA via Virginia Tech.
Tracto the “talking” robot measures eight feet tall and was introduced by IH in July 1960 for county fairs. It is made from 227 tractor and implement parts.
The IH dealership features the original counter and parts shelves, which have been painstakingly cleaned and repainted by Chapter members.
A collection of kids’ peddle tractors is on display at the Museum.
Navistar donated three 1830s reapers to the IH Museum — one of which is assembled. The reaper was assembled this past winter by Ben Trapani and Jim Ulrich.
A scale model of the 1947 IH Prototype Building was built in 1948 by Roland Shingler from Bloomsburg, PA with the help of Frank (Tubby) Bartlow Jr.
Dozens of red tractors are on display at the Museum. Many have been restored by Chapter members.
MILLVILLE, Pa. — It has been 12 years since International Harvester Collectors (IHC) Chapter 17 took ownership of the Bartlow Prototype IH Dealership Building, 47 S. Chestnut St.
The outside of the Bartlow Prototype IH Dealership building, which was built in 1947 on Chestnut Street in Millville.
Since then, the chapter’s 270 members have worked tirelessly to raise funds to pay off the mortgage while also completing necessary renovations to the electrical system, windows, pylon and roof of the historic 1947 building — all while adding enhancements, such as a library.
Their museum, which is open 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on select Saturdays from May through October, houses International Harvester tractors and equipment, farming implements, refrigeration, memorabilia and much more.
“A lot of people think IH just made the Farmall H, but they made a lot of other things,” said Chapter 17 President Ben Trapani.
The Daisy Reaper, which dates to the early 1900s, came from the McCormick Farm in Steeles Tavern, VA via Virginia Tech.
Many of the items are on display in the museum, including an 1831 reaper, an IH Scout vehicle, a Daisy Reaper from the early 1900s, a 1962 bulldozer used in IH’s Melrose Park factory, refrigeration units and case after case of IH memorabilia — all in addition to dozens of red tractors.
The museum also houses the first Cub Cadet, which the Bartlow dealership sold for $695 in 1961, and Tracto the “talking” robot.
Several of the items on display were donated as long-term leases by Navistar, an American holding company created in 1986 as the successor to International Harvester. Navistar operates as the parent company of International brand trucks and engines.
A few of the museum’s showpieces from Navistar include the 1831 Reaper. According to Trapani, Navistar donated three 1830s reapers to the IH Museum, one of which is assembled.
Trapani said the Reaper on display was made between 1831 and 1834, identifiable because of a change made to the design in 1834 when the machine was patented.
Tracto the “talking” robot measures eight feet tall and was introduced by IH in July 1960 for county fairs. It is made from 227 tractor and implement parts.
“(The Reaper) is the machine that started International Harvester — without this machine, the company probably would have never been. It’s that simple. They claim without this machine, we would have all starved to death during the Civil War because it took so much manpower to harvest a field of wheat. Two guys would pull it with a horse and rake the stuff into a pile. This was the beginning of mechanized farming,” Trapani said.
The IH dealership features the original counter and parts shelves, which have been painstakingly cleaned and repainted by Chapter members.
When Chapter 17 received the reapers, they thought they were receiving reproductions that IH made for festivities. They were surprised to receive original machines.
The reaper was assembled this past winter by Trapani and fellow member Jim Ulrich.
“We were like two kids in a candy store,” said Trapani, grinning.
Another museum showpiece is the Daisy Reaper, dating to the early 1900s, which is another long-term lease item that the IH Museum acquired about four years ago. The piece came from the McCormick Farm in Steeles Tavern, Virginia, and was given to Virginia Tech, according to Trapani.
A collection of kids’ peddle tractors is on display at the Museum.
He said, “A friend of mine, Larry Kerns, wanted to do something in memory of his father who was an International (Harvester) restorer, so he took this project on himself. This was one of the first steps in harvesting grains. You could use (it) in the field. It’s ready to go.”
Another highlight is the museum’s 1962 dozer. Donated by Navistar, the 1962 dozer was used in the Melrose Park factory and features an IH property number on the side. Its rubber tracks are made to push and pull heavy items on concrete floors.
The dozer is one of Trapani’s favorite pieces: “Most of the tractors that are here, you can drive down the road and see them, but a piece like this is really unique.”
Navistar donated three 1830s reapers to the IH Museum — one of which is assembled. The reaper was assembled this past winter by Ben Trapani and Jim Ulrich.
He said the dozer has very few hours on it and purrs like a cat.
IH also made appliances for the home, specifically refrigeration products such as air conditioners, refrigerators, freezers and dehumidifiers. The museum has more than a dozen on display, including an air conditioner that was bought new at the Bartlow dealership in 1953.
Last summer, the museum acquired IH’s “one millionth refrigeration product,” which features a plaque that says, “Evansville Works January 1952.” The item is on permanent lease from Navistar.
The item was found by a member of the national organization in a lunch room at Navistar’s plant. The member took it home, painted it green and reached out about bringing it to the Millville museum, according to Trapani.
Another unique museum item is Tracto, the “talking” robot, which measures 8 feet tall and was introduced by IH in July 1960 for county fairs. Tracto is assembled from 227 tractor and implement parts, and its predecessor was Harvey Harvester, which didn’t move like Tracto.
A scale model of the 1947 IH Prototype Building was built in 1948 by Roland Shingler from Bloomsburg, PA with the help of Frank (Tubby) Bartlow Jr.
Tracto was owned by Darrell and Kevin Darst. Kevin approached the chapter about ownership when her husband passed away shortly after the Red Power Roundup in 2019.
Now, Tracto travels. The IH chapter plans to take it to the Ohio Roundup in late June.
A sign near Tracto states, “International Harvester’s district office personnel had a hand in delighting fairgoers by manning the robot’s amplification system for conversation. When Tracto spoke with fairgoers, his eyes lit up and his head and right arm would move.
A Ford dealership bought this Tracto from the IH company auction in the 1970s. They painted Tracto Ford blue and stored him outside. Tracto has been fully restored to his former glory.”
The building was purchased by the chapter for $155,000 in the summer of 2010. They needed to raise almost twice that amount to do some much-needed repairs and renovations to the building. It needed to have the electrical system brought up to code, and the pitched metal roof needed to be replaced with a flat one.
Over the years, the chapter has hosted three IH Red Power Roundups at the nearby Bloomsburg Fairgrounds. Each has proved to be an excellent revenue source.
The chapter’s 270 members (254 in Pennsylvania, 4 in New Jersey, 10 in New York, 1 in Maryland and 1 in Ohio) have worked together to raise the money needed for the building’s purchase. They also raised approximately $106,000 from 2010 to 2021 for building repairs, including updates to windows, heating, electrical and roof.
Chapter Treasurer Shirley Bordner said they have received donations from club members, National IHC members in the U.S. and Canada as well as donations from strangers at the museum.
According to Bordner, the chapter has also received a $10,000 grant from its local tourism agency, Columbia-Montour Visitors Bureau, twice. The money went toward advertising the 2007 and 2019 Red Power roundups.
Trapani said during renovations, the chapter strived to keep the building like it was in 1947. “We were really lucky that this building was never turned into anything else, like a pizza shop, and that stuff wasn’t thrown out,” he said.
The building’s appearance is unique because the International Harvester Corp. began the process of creating a uniform appearance for its dealerships following World War II, wanting the public to instantly recognize any IH dealership.
In addition to fixing the electric system and roof, they also created a unique Plexiglas storm-window system over the building’s front windows to protect them from weather.
In 2019, members noticed that some of the windows above and between the showroom and the shop area were in need of replacement, but they didn’t have the necessary funds since they were concurrently planning the Red Power Roundup.
Trapani said they sent a letter to all of the members explaining the project, which was estimated at $15,000. While they hoped to raise half of the funds, they received a few hundred dollars more than the project’s total cost.
“I was flabbergasted. That was really something. This Harvester thing is something you grew up with. The members want to be a part of saving this,” Trapani said.
Another large undertaking was restoring the pylon on the front of the building. The chapter partnered with students at Columbia-Montour Area Vocational Technical School. Students removed the porcelain tiles from the chimney surface and then sandblasted, repainted and reinstalled them.
Trapani said that while the porcelain probably could have lasted longer, the IH dealership burned coal as a heat source, and over the years, the coal soot ate away at the porcelain.
The project enlisted three trades from the school: the body shop to paint, carpenters to work at the building and welders to build a cover.
“The kids did a nice job,” Trapani said.
The most recent project, largely led by chapter volunteers, is a library and small meeting room that houses a conference table, chairs and bookshelves.
“A lot of people collect a lot of stuff, but not many people have the opportunity to go in and look at it, and that’s what we want the library for, so people can look at the pamphlets that were produced back in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. I hope people take advantage of it. It’s a unique thing,” Trapani said.
Through all of the fundraising and building renovations, Trapani said the members feel fortunate because they are one of the only IH chapters in the country that has a space like this.
“This has been quite an undertaking. It takes a lot of effort on a lot of people’s parts to make this work,” he said.
IHC Chapter 17 is always seeking new members. They host six general membership meetings a year and a fall festival.
For more information about the chapter and the museum, visit IHCC17.org or contact one of the officers by phone, as listed on their website.
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