Tuesday 6th September 1892

The first gasoline tractor to be sold in the U.S. was shipped by its builder, John Froelich of Froelich, Iowa. It was sent to Langford, South Dakota, which lacked easy access to a wood or coal supply for steam-powered units. There, it spent a season threshing from this day through to mid-November of the same year. The 16-horsepower machine was geared for both forward and reverse motion. It was powered by a Van Duzen vertical single-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams upon a Robinson running gear. This both powered a J.I. Case threshing machine and propelled the vehicle. Froelich formed the Waterloo Gasoline Tractor Engine Company on 10 January 1893, which was was taken over in 1918 by the John Deere Plow Co.