72-Year-Old Family Tractor Brought Back From the Dead

Weldon Koenig grinned ear to ear when he walked out of the La Grange Noon Lions Club meeting last Thursday, Jan. 18. Parked outside the Frisch Auf Country Club was his father’s old tractor, a 1952 Farmall Super C, meticulously restored by Koenig’s friend and fellow Lion Sam Wilson.

“It looks like a brand new tractor again,” Koenig said.

Wilson, with some help from his wife Diana and Lion Michael Ahart, spent about 120 hours on the tractor.

“We picked it up in December and it took us about a month,” Wilson said.

“It’s amazing because I didn’t expect to see it in that short time,” Koenig said.

Koenig said he last operated the tractor about 10 years ago. The engine still ran at the time, but many of the controls no longer worked. Wilson rebuilt the Farmall’s unique implement lift system and repaired some cosmetic damages. He said the engine fired up right away. He even got the lights working again.

“I rebuilt the carburetor, generator, starter – all that stuff – before I even tried to start it,” Wilson said.

With a fresh coat of red paint and some new decals, the machine now looks as brand-new as the day it rolled off the Farmall factory floor.

“It was my dad’s tractor out on the ranch in O’Quinn,” Koenig said. “I almost drove this one through a fence one time when I was a young kid.”

Koenig’s father, John H. Koenig, bought the tractor new from the dealership in La Grange in 1952 – “After we got rid of the horses,” Koenig said.

As a kid, Koenig plowed and planted many-a-bushel of corn with this tractor – not to mention all the cotton and milo the family grew as well.

Koenig went off to college at The University of Texas in Austin before embarking on an illustrious career in the U.S. Navy. He retired as a rear admiral in 1989 before moving back to Fayette County.

Koenig said the old Farmall probably won’t plow any more fields, but he does plan to ride it in the Fayette County Fair Parade this year.

Wilson produced a couple of videos about the tractor restoration. You can watch them on his YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@ resto-rat2897, along with many videos about his other restoration projects.