1951 Oliver to be featured in 2022 Harvest Festival
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the annual Corning Harvest Festival for many people is the antique farm equipment display and demonstrations. Every year a local tractor is featured for the community to enjoy and introduced on the Harvest Festival t-shirt. The tractor to be featured during the 2022 harvest Festival is a 1951 Oliver Row Crop 77 owned by Lee Boyd of Corning. If the tractor looks familiar it was selected as the 2021 tractor, but as t-shirts were not printed last year it was selected to be honored in 2022 with t-shirts currently being sold with its image at the Corning Chamber of Commerce. Boyd and his family have always had an interest in antique tractors and vehicles. He has restored and maintains several vehicles. Lee brought the Oliver tractor back to its original glory after he purchased the tractor in 1990. It was around 1992 when he painted it with the help of his oldest daughter, Janet Marie. Boyd said although his dad, Conrad always had Case International and Allis Chalmers on his farm, he just liked the looks of the Oliver. “I just run across this old tractor and I just kind of liked the looks of it,” he said. I remember a man down there at Knobel lived across the field from mom and dad, he had a 66 that he bought brand new, Oliver. It looked like basically the same tractor and I remember him farming with it all the years he farmed.” Lee said he was told that years ago that Knobel had an Oliver dealership.
