It only takes a spark...or a Sparky...to get an old tractor going
Jesup banker has restored more than 200 vintage tractors
JESUP — Walking into one of Albert “Sparky” Duroe’s out buildings on his land northeast of Jesup is like walking back into time.
You’ll see vintage tractors in various stages of repair and restoration. You’ll see signs from long-defunct ag equipment manufacturers. And you’ll see contraptions like “hog oilers,” that hogs would play with and rub against to dispense medicated oil to protect their skin and ward off insects.
And they’re not just your garden-variety hog oilers, but designer ones shaped and painted like a watermelon, an ear of corn or a globe filled with stars resembling a van Gogh painting or a Moody Blues album cover.
Preserving and collecting ag equipment and signage has been an avocation for years of Duroe, a 1967 Iowa State University alum, U.S. Marine Corps veteran and a longtime executive at Farmers State Bank in Jesup. He was president for years and still sits on the board of the institution, founded in 1879. It’s still locally owned, with locations throughout the Cedar Valley and also one in West Des Moines. A son and daughter are now in leadership at the bank as president and vice president, respectively. He also helps his son-in-law farm.
Spend any amount of time around Duroe, and you’ll understand how he earned his nickname. He is a man in motion.
And he’ll give you an extensive history of any piece of machinery he’s working on, right down to the chassis. For example, he points to one rare tractor under restoration — an Oliver 2150 — and notes it has the same type of Hercules engine as in the trucks he used to haul artillery while in the Marines.
He has a special interest in Oliver Farm Equipment Co. tractors and its various predecessor and successor brands. That includes White Farm Equipment, which acquired Oliver but ceased operations in 1993 at its historic plant site in Charles City, once home to the predecessor Hart-Parr Gasoline Engine Co.
An Oliver/White dealer in nearby Independence had been a good FSB customer. In fact, Duroe has some large White Farm Equipment pole signs on the property, giving the appearance of a dealership or repair shop as one approaches from a distance on the gravel road.
“I do primarily Olivers, but geez, I’ve done 200 tractors over the years,” said Duroe, who turned 80 this month.
He also has a non-tractor pet project he’s been puttering away on — a 1948 International pickup truck.
His skill in restoring tractors has been renowned for decades. According to Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier files, in 2006 his restored 1956 Oliver OC-6 High-Crop tractor was featured on the “Ageless Iron” calendar by Successful Farming magazine.
In 2008, Duroe auctioned off his collection of 50 restored Cleveland Tractor Co. “Clectrac” tractors, attracting bidders from Idaho to the United Kingdom. It was the largest auction of multiple Clectrac tractors ever seen up to that time. The company began operations in 1916 and was purchased by Oliver in 1944.
Once he sold off that inventory, he started again, restoring a new crop of tractors.
Farming and tractor restoration both kind of “grew” on him.
“I was working at the bank and I bought a farm, and I bought another farm. And eventually the guy who was tenant farming for me one year got sick. So I helped him farm one year. Next year, I bought a tractor and started doing my own. Then I hooked up with another friend. I supposed I farmed 25-30 years. And ran the bank.
“And then towards the end of that, when I still had sheep, about 1998, I restored a tractor or two and just kind of kept going,“ he said.
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Similarly, when a company held an equipment auction in Wisconsin that included ag equipment company signs, “there was hardly anybody in there towards the end (of the auction) and they had all these signs,” he said. “I think I bought 20 signs that day for 25 bucks. That kind of started me, and I just kept going.”
Other large collections of Oliver-White equipment may exist. “Oh, there’s probably some around,” he said, but when it comes to restorations, “the thing they can hardly believe is that I’ve done 200 of them.”
But Duroe, who also has been very active in Scouting, 4H and other youth activities locally over the years, is passing on his passion for tractor restoration to a new generation. This past school year, he said, he had students in Jesup High School’s industrial tech program restore an Oliver 1955 tractor.
“They did it all in my shop,” he said. “The school was building a new shop so they didn’t have shop space for the year.”
The tractor was shown at the Buchanan County Fair and will be displayed at the Iowa State Fair Aug. 7-17
”They did it all out here. I helped them. And they can be pretty proud of it,” Duroe said. One of those youth is helping him this summer.
“I’m running out of energy,” for restoration, Duroe said “I haven’t got much (inventory) left, but geez, I’ve done so many of them.”
Despite professing he’s running out of energy, he gets satisfaction out of the restoration work.
"I’m the type of person that needs something to do,” he said. “This gives me something to do.”
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed here. Clink on their individual links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription. Thank you.
What a great article. It's great to see "Sparky" teaching others (high school students) the art of restoration.