Member Profiles

We are compiling Buckeye Oliver Collector member profiles to be published in each newsletter and on this club page.  Larry will be contacting individuals for their story or you can submit your write-up and pictures to be in a future newsletter and posted on this page.  Email your information to us at buckeyeolivercollectors@gmail.com.

Allen & Karen Helle

Allen and Karen live in Gibsonburg, OH on what was originally Allen’s parent’s 110 acre dairy farm. They have been married 55 years and have a son Scott & Leanne and a daughter Bonnie & Jim and three granddaughters. Everyone lives on the farm which now has three homes. Scott also owns the farm next door. Scott helps with the farming and Jim does the restoration work. Allen was born and raised on Oliver tractors and still farms with them. Karen is a big part of the farming. Her favorite job is running the combine. A 1956 Oliver Super 77…

Floyd Hohman

  Floyd Hohman, Martha and I live in McCutchenville, OH where I am retired but always busy with some job every day, especially working on my Oliver tractors and equipment. My son Dan and grandson Zachery help with my collection and Dan has several pieces of his own. Growing up and farming with Oliver equipment made it just a matter of time before my collection started. My collection got started in 1996 with an Oliver 60 when I turned 60. My latest addition is a No. 2 potato digger. My favorite tractor is my 1949 “99”. When I was 12…

Charles Copeland

A retired public high school teacher living in Auglaize County, Wapakoneta, OH. Reading this profile you will see the impact of Dad’s tractors as four of the five tractors that I own were my fathers. This is where the collection starts. My first tractor was a 1936 Oliver Hart Parr 70, a 1941 Oliver row crop 60 with 36” rear wheels, a 1949 Oliver 77 narrow front, a 1953 Oliver 77 wide front, and my last purchase was a 1966 Oliver 1850 diesel. When I was farming my 80 acres the 77 wide front was used to plant, drill, spray,…

Bill Staib

Oliver years on the Farm,  I believe our family’s love of Oliver’s started in 1956 when my Dad, Bob, bought a late model fleetline Oliver 77 diesel from A.J. Boellner in Maumee. He also bought a new Oliver 3 bottom hydraulic lift plow and a new 22B mowing machine that we still have and use to mow wheat stubble. This was in the days of pull type equipment so the 77D got used for all heavy tillage work, running the pull type combine, corn picker, baler, manure spreader, etc. Our MM model ZA was the loader tractor and did some…

Jim Brown

Jim Brown is a Buckeye Oliver Collector member and lives in the Croton – Johnstown area with his wife Vicky. They have two sons and a grandson. Jim cares for his late parent’s farm of 144 acres which has been in the family for 100 years; he is the 4th generation. Jim has had Oliver tractors most of his 59 years with the exception of one orange one. Jim grew up with a WD45 that his dad owned. Jim says “If you ever worked ground with one of those you can really appreciate an Oliver”. Jim’s grand-dad had an Oliver…

Lee & Shirley Smith

Special thanks Lee grew up in Fairfield, Iowa where he worked at his family’s Oliver dealership which opened in 1946. Lee assembled machinery and did some mechanical work, mostly on the 70’s. While in college at Iowa State he worked at the Charles City factory Engineering Department. In the summer of 1952 he operated the test stand to “run in” the two Oliver 77 propane tractors that were later sent to Nebraska for formal testing at the Nebraska Testing facility. In 1955 Lee started wearing an U.S. Air Force uniform were he became an Air Force pilot and engineer. 26…

Wayne & Mary Groweg

 Member’s Profile Wayne & Mary Groweg Wayne and Mary Groweg are Buckeye Oliver Collector and HPOCA members. They live on Wayne’s family farm near Gibsonburg, Ohio. They are the 5th generation living on this 120 acre farm which has been in the family since 1883. This farm is registered with the State of Ohio as a century farm. Wayne has lived on this farm his entire life and been farming it since his dad passed away when he was a junior in high school. Wayne and Mary have been married 48 years with three sons; Bob, John, and Dan, and…

John Martin – Oliver 2255

     Here are some photos we have of our Oliver tractors. Our family photo was taken on John’s 60th birthday, on our 2255 Oliver. The photo was featured in the December edition of Ohio Farmers Fastline magazine as the cover tractor of the month. It is a 1974 Oliver 2255, restored by John Martin of Attica, Ohio. It was captioned “For this is where he planted his dreams…and set the foundation for a strong, hardworking and dedicated family.” I have also included some pics of our tractors at the annual July/October Oakridge Festivals in Attica, Ohio. The show features…

Jim & Janet Fox – Cletracs

Left to Right: 1944 AG-6,   1941 HG-68,    1937 E62 At 75 years of age, I am a 5th generation and still enjoy actively farming a modest 200 acre grain farm in what historically was called the Northern Ohio Great Black Swamp land. As farming changed from the horse to early heavy iron tractors, there was a need for a replacement to allow early season spring working of the soil without compaction. Crawler type tractors were very popular locally and our extended family farmed using six Cletracs during the 1930s thru the 1970s.   My Dad was the last…