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The history of International Harvester Co. starts back in 1834, when Cyrus McCormick started the McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. to build his patented horse-drawn reaper that cut crops at harvest time. There were other companies in the farm equipment business, and J. P. Morgan financed a merger between McCormick Harvesting Machine and several other companies to form International Harvester Co.
The company built its first light-duty truck in 1907 and continued to build trucks and farm tractors and equipment with their best years starting in the mid-1920s. Raymond Loewy, who designed the Coke bottle and the Studebaker Avanti, in 1939 also designed the Farmall Tractor, which was so successful that it outsold all other makes, including John Deere and Ford.
The beginning of the end came when a new CEO was named in 1979. He cut costs, eliminated unprofitable models and curtailed production. Profits soared, but cash reserves were low. When it was announced that the CEO’s bonus was $1.8 million (more than $6.5 million in today’s dollars) the United Auto Workers union was more than a little upset. The bonus plus the cutbacks led to a strike that lasted about six months. But there were no winners, and the company’s glory days were over.
By 1985, most of the agricultural division was sold to Tenneco Inc. who merged it with their J.I. Case Division, becoming the Case IH brand. The rest of the company, mostly trucks, became Navistar International in 1986. International Harvester made some great passenger vehicles; best known are the International Scout, a Jeep-like vehicle, and the Travelall, a good-looking Chevy Suburban-type vehicle.
One of the most unique vehicles IH produced was this issue’s 1938 three-door, eight-passenger woody wagon. It started out as a D-2 model pickup cab and chassis and was then sent to Moeller Co. in Hagerstown, Maryland, a pipe organ manufacturer, which made the wooden body. The National Park Service commissioned nine or 10 woodies all ending up in either Yellowstone or Yosemite Park.
This one was used at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite to take people back and forth to the train station. The vehicle has just three doors, as the spare tire is mounted where the left rear door would be instead of on the tailgate like most wagons. This makes sense since the IH woody was used to haul passengers and luggage, so easy access to the luggage area was important. Alamo resident and car collector Bruce Campbell found this car in a Merced field in 1980.
“It was kind of rotting away (see photo on the Mercury News website). I didn’t know much about it, but what was left on one of the doors was part of the decal from the Park Service. It was really almost beyond repair.”
To restore it, Campbell bought the right wood for it — seven kinds of wood.
“I started looking around for someone who could do the wood. I had a young friend, Rick Stiff, who used to do reproduction furniture for the Smithsonian.”
Campbell hauled his IH woody to Los Gatos, where Stiff worked to see if he would restore the wood body.
“He thought I was crazy, but I finally talked him in to doing it. I got ahold of some people at Harrah’s Museum, and for about six years they helped me find out all about the car.”
By this time, Campbell had owned the IH woody for 16 years. One of the unique things about the car is it has roll-down windows all around. Most woodies had sliding windows or side curtains. Inside at the very back of the car are 1-by-8 wood pieces to hold the window crank handles. After Stiff had finished the wood work, Campbell looked at the interior and noticed those wood pieces, which were a darker color, had not been replaced.
“I said, ‘we spent all that money and didn’t replace those?’ This 22-year-old kid looked at me and said, ‘My father was a shipwright and before him my grandfather, and whenever they rebuilt a ship, they always kept some of the original timbers so it wouldn’t lose its soul.’ ”
This vehicle has not lost its soul. Over the next three or four years Campbell had the rest of the car restored. Dick Falk in Port Chicago painted it, and the interior was done by Kenny Neminac in Walnut Creek. The owner was asked to bring it to Pebble Beach for the Concours d’Elegance.
“I took it to Pebble Beach, and I am proud to say it is not only the only truck that has ever been at Pebble Beach, but it is the only truck that ever won an award.”
This woody has been in 20 shows and has never lost. Campbell has no plans to sell this rare and beautiful woody but does say that, “It actually belongs in a museum.”
Have an interesting vehicle? Contact David Krumboltz at MOBopoly@yahoo.com. To view more photos of this and other issues’ vehicles, search for “David Krumboltz” at www.mercurynews.com.
