Club keeps Naperville's farm heritage alive

It's appropriate that Naperville-area resident Tom Kuhn lives in a subdivision called "Green Acres."

When he takes his 1951 John Deere B tractor for a spin around the block, neighbors come out to watch and kids ask for rides.

Kuhn, the founder and mayor of the Good Old Toys tractor club, is glad to oblige. Unlike the star of the TV sitcom "Green Acres," Kuhn is no city slicker transplanted to the country.

Instead, the city moved to him and he and his fellow members of the Good Old Toys club are aiming to keep Naperville's heritage as a farming community alive.

Club members will showcase their "portable agricultural museum" of tractors and hit-and-miss engines from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville. The display is one the 19th-century museum village's Settlement Sunday events, during which visitors can receive a free ice cream sundae while viewing the exhibit.

Prior to the exhibit at Naper Settlement, they'll have their tractors lined up near the farmer's plough monument on Eagle Street near the DuPage River from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

"There'll be all colors of tractors there," said Kuhn, who explained that unlike some tractor clubs, his doesn't specialize in green John Deere tractors, red Farmalls or any other make.

Members kid each other about whether red, green, orange or gray tractors are best, but mainly they just like the old machines.

"It takes all colors of tractors to make the ground black," Kuhn says.

Virtually any tractor can produce smiles when members take them out to parades, shows and nursing homes. Kuhn recalled one nursing home resident who walked up to a running John Deere, closed her eyes and said, "Oh, that's music."

"The look on her face was a beautiful sight," he said.

Another lady at a retirement community kept coming up and kicking a tractor's tires until Kuhn finally asked what she was doing.

"Well, if I'm going to buy it, I got to kick the tires first," she told Kuhn with a smile.

Some club members also take their tractors to Danada Forest Preserve in Wheaton, where member Bill Borghoff is the volunteer manager of the 1950s-era farm. Borghoff said 10 to 12 club members help out at the farm during planting and harvest season and by giving hayrides during the fall festival.

"We like the old equipment and use it when we can, which makes Danada Farm an ideal location," he said.

Borghoff's the owner or co-owner of three tractors, including the first-built 1963 Farmall 806 that appeared on a classic tractor calendar this year.

But he said he'll probably bring his 1951 Farmall MD, the tractor he uses at Danada, to Naper Settlement.

"Naperville was a farm community. When we came in the early '60s, there were farms all around us," he said. "We just like to keep that heritage alive in this area."

Club marks 20 years

Kuhn himself grew up in a farming family in Naperville. He started the club 20 years ago after acquiring his 1951 John Deere when his father-in-law, Al Lisson, passed way. Kuhn's wife, Marianne, grew up on the Lisson farm on Lisson Road, but the tractor was used on land her father farmed in Virgil.

Kuhn completely refurbished the tractor and also has acquired a log saw from Kansas, a 1914 hit-and-miss engine from New York and another 1925 hit-and-miss engine from Indiana. The engines can be hooked up to do any number of tasks such as running a water pump or grinding corn, Kuhn said.

"The hunting around for old pieces of equipment is unending," he said.

The oldest running tractor in the club is from the 1930s, Kuhn said.

Over its 20 years, the club has grown to about 50 members, stretching from Morris on the south to Elburn on the north and from Countryside on the east to Somonauk on the west.

Membership is loose-knit. With the help of his daughter, Carolyn, Kuhn puts out a newsletter three times a year.

"He makes sure everyone in the club knows what's going on during the year," said Jim Walsh, an original club member and the owner of a 1941 International Harvester H.

Members meet occasionally and participate in county fairs, parades or other special events they're inclined to attend.

"Our club is almost more of a supper club than a tractor club," Kuhn said. "To hear the stories from the old times is so much fun."

Kuhn is proud to see children of club members getting involved. His own daughter, Lauren, a student at College of DuPage, helps out at Danada Farm and participates in club events. A favorite has been Naperville's Labor Day parade.

"I think it's cool for kids to see what real tractors are," she said.

Lauren's own tractor education came early.

"By 4 or 5, I was definitely sitting on my dad's lap. By the time I was 9, I was driving myself," she said.

Her favorite memory of the tractor club is a plowing match she competed in at age 15. The only female in the group and much younger than her competitors, she plowed with the best of them and received the "Lady of Day" award.

"I feel very lucky, I've been able to learn these things," she said.

Changing times

Kuhn, a technologist with Packer Engineering in Naperville, said he would have gone into farming himself, but his dad said he should finish his education first. His father, who also worked full-time at Moser Lumber, leased farmland at I-88 and Warrenville Road and later on River Road. The family's farming ended when the land owner sold the property for development in the early 1970s.

Kuhn, 55, remembers riding his tricycle on I-88 before the toll road was opened to traffic. Like other farm kids, he was expected to take off school to help with the crops. But when a big snowstorm came one winter, his dad didn't see it as any reason not to attend classes. He loaded his son on the back of the tractor and dropped him off at Naperville High School even though hardly anyone was there.

"We had to take off to plant corn, but in a snowstorm we had to go to school," Kuhn said.

Mechanically inclined, Kuhn's interests aren't confined solely to tractors. He still owns the first car he ever bought, a 1958 Berkeley from England, and has restored a 1923 Ford T-bucket.

He builds picture frames for his wife, an artist who paints historic Naperville scenes, and serves as a "roadie" when she shows her work.

But bliss is going out to the garage to tinker.

"The actual putting together and restoring is fun," he says.

• Do you know someone with an unusual job or hobby? Let us know at sdibble@dailyherald.com, (630) 955-3532 or 4300 Commerce Court, Lisle, 60532.

If you go

What: Good Old Toys club shows off old tractors and engines

When: 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday

Where: Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville

Cost: Included with admission of $8 adults, $7 seniors 62 and older, $5.50 youth ages 4-7, free 3 and under

Info: (630) 420-6010 or napersettlement.museum