Restored tractor has become a family heirloom

— Crystal Brummels Laurel Advocate DIXON — Family heirlooms are a way for one to look back into the past, remembering deep family roots. Josh and Joe Grone, sons of Jeff and Tricia Grone, are proudly preserving their family heirlooms. The Dixon brothers are the fourth generation to own family tractors, not just from one parent’s side but from both parents’ side. The boys’ maternal grandmother, Pat Bathke, was one of 15 siblings. It was Pat’s sister Eleanor Sanders who gifted the boys a Farmall 230.

The Farmall 230 had been purchased by Sander’s father-in-law Carl Sanders. Carl farmed with it, then Eleanor’s late husband, Alan Sanders, farmed with it. The Sanders family owns a farm near Wall Lake, Iowa. In 2016, Eleanor, along with with her sons Dean and Darin, wanted to find a new home for the tractor. Eleanor and her sons one request was to have the tractor stay in the family. The boys were eager to take the tractor. The tractor had been left outside during the many years it’d been used. When the boys got it, they knew it would need to be completely restored to its original luster.

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