Contraption returns to show

Joe Dear is back.
Not John Deere.
Joe Dear.
Back in about 1967 or ’68, soon after the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association show made the Jay County Fairgrounds its home, a newspaperman by the name of Joe Fahnestock showed up with a homemade contraption he’d put together from a little of this and a little of that.
It was an instant hit.
Fahnestock, who lived at that time in Union City, had built a small tractor powered by a Delco light plant engine.
It had two seats, and it was painted in classic John Deere green. But he’d fashioned his own label, dubbing it “Joe Dear.”
“This thing always led the tractor parade,” former Tri-State president Ken Doherty remembered. That was the case for several years, he added.
Fahnestock was a regular contributor to Gas Engine magazine and often promoted the Tri-State show in his columns. But after his death, Joe Dear stopped making an appearance in Portland.
Doherty contacted Fahnestock’s widow at one point and tried to buy the little tractor, but she wanted to hang onto it.
Now, after being absent from the Tri-State show for years, Joe Dear is back.
Doug Thornhill of Rossburg, Ohio, acquired the little tractor at an estate auction after Mrs. Fahnestock’s death.
And he knew immediately he wanted to bring it back to the Tri-State show.
“We haven’t missed a show since it came to Portland,” said Thornhill, who was serving in Vietnam when the first Tri-State show was held in Fort Recovery.
He’s only owned Joe Dear for two or three months, but the homemade tractor’s in good shape. “We just cleaned the points on it,” he said.
Doherty’s delighted to see a piece of the show’s early history return. “There’s very few exhibitors that know anything about this tractor,” he said.
Joe Dear is located just east of the Oil Field Engine Society display.[[In-content Ad]]