1918 Case 20-40 Tractor

 This tractor (serial #17890) was made by the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company of Racine, Wisconsin. Case manufactured the 20-40 from 1912 to the early 1920s, when the company replaced it with the 22-40 and, later, the 25-45. This particular Case 20-40 was reportedly used on a farm northeast of Yankton, South Dakota, about 165 miles north-northeast of Grand Island.
 The Case 20-40's Nebraska Tractor Test was #7, performed from April 10th to May 7th, 1920. You can view this test as a pdf by clicking or touching here.
 With humble beginnings, Jerome Increase Case began making threshing machines in the 1840s. In 1880, Case reorganized his company as the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company, a company that would be on the leading edge of not only the threshing machine market but also the tractor and other agricultural tool markets. In 1928, the company became the J. I. Case Company. By the early 1970s, Tenneco, a large corporation, had acquired a majority share of the company, and when Tenneco acquired a significant portion of International Harvester in 1984, the corporation merged the two companies together, creating Case International, later called Case IH. In 1999, Fiat acquired the company, which was called Case Corporation, and merged it with New Holland Agriculture to form CNH Global. Just a few miles north on Highway 281/34 is one of Case IH's plants, a plant where axial-flow combines as well as hay and forage equipment are made. You can view a timeline of Case IH's history on their website by clicking or touching here.