Gold standard

As the featured tractor at this year’s show, John Deere models are all over Jay County Fairgrounds.
There are some painted yellow. A few are orange. Most are the traditional green with yellow lettering.
But the tractor tucked under the corner of the tent at the east end of the featured tractor area for the Tri-State Gas Engine and Tractor Association Show stands out.
The John Deere Gold Leaf D, owned by Charles English, is the only one of its kind ever made.
Acquiring the rare piece of machinery took the Darmstadt resident nearly a decade after he first saw a miniature version at a farm toy show in 1989 in St. Louis.
“Since I had owned over 100 D John Deeres in my life, I said, ‘Man, I’ve never heard of a Gold D,’” English said he told the toy dealer. “He said, ‘Yeah, they built one.’”
So English immediately started on his quest.
He visited a friend who worked for John Deere and they scoured the archives, finding that just one Gold Leaf D was produced in late 1936 as a promotional item to celebrate the 100th anniversary of John Deere building his first plow in 1837. It was displayed first at the company’s Kansas City branch office and then around the Midwest.
English continued to research the history, learning the tractor had been sold in 1938 to a John Deere dealer in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, who had the company’s best sales record during the previous year. That dealer, Josiah Gooden, kept tractor for less than a year before selling it to G.D. Hancock, who for 18 years used it to farm his 340 acres.
It was sold again and continued to be used for farming, but was out of service by the time Josiah Gooden’s grandson helped English track it to owner Bill Beacher in 1991.

Seven years later, English bought the Gold Leaf D.
“It took that long for me to talk that family out of it,” said English, who has been to the Tri-State show about 30 times since 1970. “Bill Sr. died. Bill Jr. died. Then I bought it from the grandson.”
English’s interest in tractors started when he was about 30.
Having grown up along the Ohio River, he had hoped to be a riverboat pilot. But his father, who worked on a dam, urged him in another direction, and after graduating from Reitz High School in Evansville he eventually went to work for a phone company.
However, his passion was with mechanics, which led to tractors beginning with an auction in 1967. English didn’t know of anyone else in the area who was collecting tractors, there was a 1930 John Deere D for sale and he had $170.50 in his bank account.
“I made up my mind I was going to blow that $170 on this old tractor,” said English. “Well I did. I’ve still go it at home in the barn.”
Since then, more than 1,100 tractors have made their way through English’s barns in Darmstadt, a town of less than 1,500 about 10 miles north of Evansville where he has lived for 40 years.
While his job with the phone company wasn’t his favorite — “Electronics wasn’t my ball of wax, but I put up with it,” he said — he loved spending time restoring tractors as well as working on cars, trucks and outboard engines. It became a ritual for he and sons Charles Jr., John and Steve.
“Every night after supper the three boys and I would hit the shop,” English said. “They all had their projects and I coached them and we all worked together.”
At age 78, his own collection has dwindled to 17 tractors.
Among the group are still seven John Deere D models. And he owns a John Deere 4010 diesel he got from the river on which he once dreamed of working.
“It spent 10 years in 40 feet of water in the Ohio River, and we fished it out just to see if we could do it,” English said. “It’s beyond restoration.”
The same can’t be said for the Gold Leaf D.
English, who in 1962 had three-quarters of his stomach removed because “They said I had too many ulcers from worryin’ about too many girlfriends,” spent about 650 hours over the course of two years restoring his prized piece. Since then, he has hauled it in a trailer behind his 1997 Dodge pick-up truck to show it at more than 100 events from North Dakota to New York to Florida and in between.
Displayed with the Gold Leaf D this week is a half-size replica English built from scratch for his grandson, “Charlie No. 3.” That effort, which started about six years ago, took more than 600 hours as he constructed it out of a John Deere 316 rear end, 1984 Mercury Grand Marquis wheels and spokes from of a horse disc, among other things.
The mini version runs, with 8-year-old Charlie, affectionately known as “Charlie Bear,” driving it, but the Gold Leaf D has never been started since it was fully restored. That’s because English prefers to keep it pristine, without the oil and grease that would inevitably mar it when operated.
He plans on passing the Gold Leaf D on to his sons as part of a tradition he has already started.
“For Christmas, I always give ’em a tractor,” said English. “They all three got great big barns build with their own collection. Some of my real good ones, I give them to ’em. That way at least I know where they’re goin’.”