Rare tractor here folks. Rare tractor with quite an interesting back story.
The 1969 John Deere 3020 propane, synchro, cab, 3pt., with 158 loader pictured below is up for sale this Sunday (October 8, 2017) on a farm estate auction in Ottawa, KS.
The auction Sunday is by Hamilton Auctions. Here’s a link to the sale bill: http://kansasauctions.net/hamilton/10/08/
According to stats I’ve found, Deere only made a total of 126 propane 3020’s from model years 1969-1972. This 1969 model 3020 propane is a “1 owner” tractor.
Michael Hauger, a Senior Marketing Rep. for John Deere, reached out to me to share the story on this rare tractor. It belonged to his wife’s late grandparents, Bennie and Jean Stinson.
“Bennie and Jean Stinson lived on a small farm by Ottawa, KS,” said Hauger. “From the sale bill you can kind of tell they had three professions. Bennie drove a milk route daily and you can see the amount of milk cans on the auction. Bennie and Jean owned and ran a meat processing plant (Stinson Meat Processing) which was sold several years ago. Notice the lard kettles and some of the meat processing equipment on the auction.”
Here is a link to the auction sale bill: http://kansasauctions.net/hamilton/10/08/salebill.pdf
“Bennie and Jean also farmed using mostly propane equipment,” said Hauger. “The propane equipment I can remember is a John Deere 4020 that was sold privately several years ago, the 3020 on the sale bill, and a Ford F600 truck (gut truck) used to haul the scraps from the meat processing plant. Some of their other farm equipment was sold when they retired from farming.”
Bennie and Jean Stinson purchased this 1969 John Deere 3020 propane tractor new from Underwood Implement in Ottawa, KS. Because it was propane it had to be special ordered. Here are a few more pictures of the 1969 model 3020 propane and of Bennie and Jean Stinson, courtesy of Michael Hauger.
