Ford Tractor Company was a

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

-based company active from 1916 to 1917, that built

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most common ...

s to facilitate "horseless farming".

History

Ford Tractor Company was incorporated on March 15, 1915, by W. Baer Ewing and Paul W. Ford. Prior to founding the company, Ewing worked in the

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

business. The choice of name has been assessed as deceptive by later commentators. Businessman W. Baer Ewing had hired tractor designer Robert Kinkaid to develop his product line, but named the company after one Paul Ford, a local hardware clerk Ewing had hired, allegedly to leverage the Ford name to take advantage of customer confusion with

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

. The company may have hoped for a quick

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), the distortion or disruption of parts of a building * Closing (real estate), the final step in executing a real estate transaction *Settlement (fin ...

with Henry Ford to acquire the name, but instead Henry Ford marketed his own line of tractors, beginning in 1916, under the brand name ''

Fordson Fordson was a brand name of tractors and trucks. It was used on a range of mass-produced general-purpose tractors manufactured by Henry Ford & Son Inc from 1917 to 1920, by Ford Motor Company (U.S.) and Ford Motor Company Ltd (U.K.) from 1920 to ...

''. On, June 19, 1916, Paul Ford was relieved of his duties with the company but still continued to receive compensation.

Nebraska Tractor Law

An unsatisfactory Ford tractor was partly responsible for the establishment of the

Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory The Nebraska Tractor Test Laboratory (NTTL) is a program operated by the University of Nebraska in accordance with Nebraska law to test the performance of agricultural equipment that is to be sold in the United States for compliance with OECD standa ...

. Nebraska farmer Wilmot F. Crozier's experience with the Ford and other tractors caused him to advocate for the establishment of testing requirements to verify tractor performance. In 1919 a law was passed in Nebraska mandating that tractors be tested on a standardized basis in order to be sold in the state.

Documentary

The company is the subject of a silent educational documentary produced in 1917, ''Horseless Farming With Ford Tractors''.Farming With Ford Tractors - 1917 Educational Documentary
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References

Tractor manufacturers of the United States Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1916 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1918 1916 establishments in Minnesota 1918 disestablishments in Minnesota {{Company-stub