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After the initial tractor pull in the Stanleyville area in 1955, a second one was held the next year at the Stanleyville School in Fearing Local School District. In the middle class, Raymond Keller placed first. He is shown in the picture on his Farmall 450. Ray Bohl is in the white T-shirt on right and Carl Weppler is far left. The picture is courtesy of Larry and Joyce Keller Schwendeman. Donna Weppler (now Donna Betts), pulling her Farmall M, placed second in this event. Undoubtedly she is the first woman puller in Washington County. John Rech, the John Deere dealer, stood by and coached her. Donna has said, “It isn’t the best tractor or driver, it is how a driver handles the piled up dirt that becomes soft spots deliberately created by previous drivers.” In 1957 another pull was held at the site where the Whipple Grange Hall (now the Fearing Township Community Building) was built the next year. A short time later, the tractor pulls were moved to Heiss Hollow on Upper Rainbow Creek in Watertown Township. They were later resumed at Whipple by the mid-1960s.
In 1959, at the 88th annual Barlow Fair, the premium book for the first time listed the tractor pull as a scheduled event. The event took place on Friday, Sept. 25, 1959. There were three classes: first 4,000-5,500, second 5,501-6,500, and third 6,501-8,000. First place winners received $15, second $10, third and fourth $5. There was an entrance fee of $1.50. Wayne Harra and Neil Milner were on the committee. Harra, who eventually served 31 years on the Barlow Fair Board, and his wife, Doris, attended the tractor pull at the Guernsey County Fair earlier that year. Wayne returned with a positive report which led to the first scheduled pull. The 1959 pull at the Barlow Fair was not reported in The Marietta Times, which supports that earlier ones may not have been.
A newspaper account of a tractor pull at the Barlow Fair was first printed in 1960. On Oct. 1, 1960, The Marietta Times reported: 4,000-5,500 pound class, winner Gerald Moore of Whipple, with Paul Barth of Marietta, Junior Lang of Waterford and K. K. Reed of Vincent placing second, third and fourth; 5,500-6,500 pound class, winner Ralph Dunbarger of Lowell, with Dean Becker of Whipple, Raymond Keller of Vincent and James Lang of Waterford placing; 6,500-8,000 pound class, winner Raymond Keller of Vincent, with Paul Strauss of Stockport, Walter Huck of Waterford and James Woodruff of Vincent placing.
The first Waterford Community Fair was held in 1959, but the now popular tractor pull was not one of the attractions. By the third Waterford Community Fair in 1961, the events were moved from areas south of Virginia Street to the present fairgrounds which were owned by Wolf Creek Local School District, but purchased by the Waterford Township trustees in June 1968. Community Fair, Inc., Waterford, Ohio (1959-2009), a book that skillfully details its history, says the fair quickly became known as “The Home of the Tractor Pull.” There were thirty-seven tractors that pulled in the 1961 fair. There were three classes: 5,200 pounds, 6,800 pounds and 8,000 pounds. First place winners received $15, second place $10 and third place $5. Needless to say they were not doing it for the money! Winners were: lightest class, first Ambrose Arnold, second Paul Barth, and third Robert Coffman; middle class, first Paul Barth, second Raymond Keller, and third Jack Biedel; heavy class, first Raymond Keller, second Gene Fulton, and third Ralph Dunbarger. Harry Cogswell, widely known Washington County agriculture enthusiast, was the announcer.
James “Chicken” Pugh of Watertown Township has called many tractor pulls and other events at local fairs spanning a period well over fifty years. When Jim was asked if there have been changes over the years, his voice became stronger as he stated, “Tractor pulling has changed dramatically over the years. In the beginning farmers unhooked from plows, went to the tractor pull, and then returned to plow. Today this would burn the tractor up in no time because they are so souped-up.”
Tractor pulls in the county steadily increased over the years. There are pulls on July 4 and other holidays, more organizations sponsor them, junior pulls started, and there are different kinds of pulls. Starting in the mid-1960s, the Waterford High School FFA has sponsored an annual pull where local schools compete. Belpre has held junior pulls from the same time period.
Tractor pulling today developed through the gritty, determined efforts of those who came first.
Phillip L. Crane, a Waterford resident and Marietta history teacher for 32 years, will share historical events in the Lower Muskingum Valley.