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 By Chad Elmore  During the summer of 1937 readers of trade publications such as Implement & Tractor were alerted to the fact that Graham-Paige Motors Co., a car manufacturer in Detroit, was introducing a tractor. Management at Graham had high hopes that the tractor would pull the firm out of the Great Depression. Retail giant Sears, Roebuck and Co. believed farmers were ready for a truly advanced tractor. Sears would market the new Graham.A brochure for the tractor described it as the “last word in tractor design and operation. The Graham-Bradley is the most beautiful tractor ever built, and its beauty is more than skin-deep. Sears designers and Graham engineers, with their eyes to the future, produced this tractor design of tomorrow — no clumsy shafts or gears to mar its lines. No extra parts hung on the outside — no protruding axles. Just the best-looking, sweetest running, most powerful two-plow job you ever saw.” The Graham-Bradley stood at the top of Sears’ range of tractors and David Bradley farm implements. Sporting a streamlined Art Deco styling, the tractor offered many features that put it ahead of the competition, including a smooth six-cylinder engine, electric start, hydraulic system, and a 20 mph top speed. In 1938, Robert Graham, executive vice-president of Graham-Paige, announced he planned to step up production to 10,000 units annually over the next five years. Sadly, this never happened. While the tractors did sell, the deal between Graham and Sears quickly soured. The space devoted to the Graham-Bradley in Sears’ general and farming catalogs got smaller until the tractor quietly disappeared by 1940.
With a guest appearance by a full-size Graham-Bradley and colorful flyers, Die-Cast Promotions introduced a detailed 1/16-scale 1937 Graham-Bradley model at the National Farm Toy Show in Dyersville, IA, last November. The tractor follows the Dubuque, IA, firm’s successful Big Bud tractor model, 1/16-scale GMC and Chevrolet 1941 flatbeds, and numerous 1/18-scale cars. “The response from collectors at Dyersville was very good,” says Patrick Valant, product development, Die-Cast Promotions. “People were excited about it because it is something different for their collections.” Die-Cast Promotions’ success with its detailed automobiles sold under the Highway 61 brand has proved that the “lesser-known” or orphan makes have a significant following, too. These fans are often underserved when it comes to models or books. “One of the biggest reasons we chose the Graham-Bradley,” says Valant, “was through the success we have had with our 1951 Studebaker model. It got us thinking that a tractor with a similar past would fit into our business model. Once we learned about the technical advances of the tractor and its popularity today, the Graham-Bradley was an obvious choice.” The two-plow Graham-Bradley tractor is expected to be available in April 2003, just in time for spring plowing.
Tractor enthusiasts have long admired the styling and mechanics of the Graham-Bradley tractor. Unfortunately, there has been a real dearth of historical material available concerning its creation, manufacture, Graham’s relationship with Sears, and the tractor’s quiet end. The good news is that void is planning to be filled. Michael Keller, author of the award-winning book The Graham Legacy: Graham-Paige To 1932, is nearing completion of his next Graham history book. This next volume, The Graham Legacy: Graham-Paige From 1932, will detail Graham history from 1932 to about 1963 — and will include a complete history of the Graham-Bradley tractor. The book, to be published by Turner Publishing Co. of Paducah, KY, will discuss all areas of Graham manufacturing — from its stylish prewar automobiles to Graham-Bradley tractors to amphibious landing vehicles used by the armed services during World War II, to the Kaiser-Frazer connection. The book will give a detailed overview of the Graham brothers’ enviable manufacturing careers. Scheduled for release in 2004, the book will build on previous Graham tractor history. Readers of Keller’s first book learned of the prototype steam tractor created by Graham family patriarch Ziba Graham in the 1890s and the fully-developed Graham Brothers tractor that was announced in 1919, but never put into production. Watch for more information in Belt Pulley when the book becomes available.
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Today, the same unique styling and mechanical qualities that put the Graham-Bradley in a class by itself has made the machine popular among collectors. But until now, precision model makers have overlooked the tractor.