In Reply to: Re: IDENTIFICATION OF PLOW posted by Wayne N Ind. on July 15, 2017 at 18:03:05:
Henry "Harry" Ferguson and Henry Ford made the handshake agreement in November, 1938, at his Fair Lane estate in Dearborn, Michigan. That deal made Ford the tractor manufacturer and Ferguson the distributor of the tractor and all implements. Ferguson had been in business with George and Eber Sherman, the Sherman Bros, going way back. The new company was initially called the Ferguson-Sherman Manufacturing Company. All implements then said so on their ID Tags. By late 1941 the Shermans became disgruntled with Ferguson and dissolved their partnership. The company then was just the Ferguson Mfg Co. The tags then reflected this name change. I always refer to the early plows as the Ferguson-Sherman Plows regardless to what year they may be only to disassociate the name and models with the later Dearborn Plows and implements. Misunderstanding exists with some people that if it has a Ferguson name tag, it was associated with the Ferguson TE and TO tractors that came later, in 1946 and 1947, but in fact they were not the same Ferguson company at all. The plow was the only implement Ford originally made at the Rouge until they farmed it out. All other implements were procured from farm equipment suppliers already in the business, they simply had to convert their implements to the new 3-point design, with some modifications, which Ford engineers helped them do. Hope this clarifies the picture.
Tim Daley(MI)