2025 - Volume #49, Issue #2, Page #02
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Family Preserves John Deere Gold
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“Dad always liked the Deere D. The first tractor he bought was a 1930 in 1968,” says Charlie English Jr., noting that was the beginning of 56 years of collecting and restoring the tractors in his Evansville, Ind., farm shop.
After Charlie Sr. learned about a gold Deere D at a toy show and purchased four golden 1/16-scale models, he began a mission to find the gold tractor Deere built in 1937 to celebrate its centennial year. An article in the September 3, 1938, “Implement & Tractor” reported that Francis Gooden won the bid to buy the gold tractor for his Kingfisher, Okla., dealership. Later, he sold it to George Hancock for the same price as a regular Deere D.
Hancock didn’t coddle the tractor while working his land. He put many miles on it just traveling between his two farms, 19 miles apart, until 1955, when he traded it at a Massey-Harris dealership. William Beecher, a farmer and part-time worker at the dealership, bought it and worked the tractor (with a new coat of green paint) hard. Later, he learned about its golden history, and around 1970, he took it apart to restore it. But he never got around to it.
When Charlie Sr. traced the tractor’s history, he contacted Beecher and offered to buy it. Beecher wasn’t interested in selling, but the two became friends, and when Beecher died in 1997, his family honored his wishes to sell it to Charlie Sr.
“Everything was worn out. We figured it had 20,000 working hours. There were grooves under the axle from wheat stubble that rubbed against it,” Charlie Jr. recalls. But there was still gold paint under the rear fenders as proof of its origins and to help match the color to modern paint.
His dad spent 625 hours restoring it, including the engine, and buying new parts, such as the fenders, to make it look like a “showroom tractor.”
“Our idea was never to run the tractor,” Charlie Jr. says. “We’re just trying to keep it showroom new.”
It always attracted attention at the 120 shows his father attended. It was recently on display at the Classic Green Show in Tennessee. The English family moves the tractor using winches, and when not on the road, it’s securely stored in an enclosed trailer in a barn.
Since the tractor would never be driven, Charlie Sr. built a half-scale version for his grandson, Charlie English III. A 3 1/2-hp Briggs & Stratton engine powers the hydrostatic drive rear end of a Deere Model 316 lawn tractor. With help from family and friends, it took about 600 hrs. to complete, and by the time it was finished, Charlie III was almost too big to get in the seat, Charlie Jr. recalls.
However, the young man cherished both tractors and Charlie Sr. gave his grandson the 1937 gold tractor at the Classic Green Reunion in Grand Island, Neb., in 2019.
Charlie III, now 18, hopes to attend Purdue and earn a mechanical engineering degree in honor of his grandpa.
The English family inherited eight Deere D tractors “that we can play with,” Charlie Jr. says. One was painted gold to resemble the original, which Charlie Jr. gave to his daughter Emily.
“I would like for Charlie (III) to pass the tractor down to his kids to keep it in the family,” Charlie Jr. says. “And we’ll do as many shows as we can manage.”
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Charlie English III, 17105 N. St. Joseph Ave., Evansville, Ind. 47725 (ph 812-963-5051; Charlieqenglish3@gmail.com).
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