The first tractor in Westport
Posted on May 29, 2025 by Jenny ONeill
Tractor seat
The First Tractor
In 1921 Julius T. Smith (Turtle Rock Farm) bought one of the first tractors to be used on a Westport farm.
The Fordson tractor was invented for a man “with a strong back and a weak head. We always took a monkey grip on the handle when we cranked the tractor, otherwise if it backfired, it would break your wrist or arm. The fellow who drove the tractor got $1.50 a day.” (Julius Smith, Poor Bill’s Almanac 1975)
Smith farm tractors
“I can remember horses before we had tractors, back when I was about seven or eight years old, and a plow. I’ve had the reins around my belly and driven horses. I was just about big enough for it at the time, and we used to dig by hand and only get a few bushels a day. And now you can go out with a harvester and dig a thousand bushels a day.” (Henry Sampson, interviewed in 1976)
Wes Norman
Tractor Pulling Contests
The power of the tractor is celebrated today at the Westport Fair tractor pulling contests. Tractor pulling originated from pre-Industrial Era horse pulling competitions in which farmers would compete with one another to see whose teams of draft horses could pull a heavy load over the longest distance.
Watch a plowing contest!
Tony Oliveira and George Medeiros, 1998, Westport Matters No.102. https://vimeo.com/162573550