One Gibson In His Collection Is Special

One Gibson In His Collection Is Special It took Ron Brown 47 years from the time he saw his first Gibson tractor until he bought one in 2016...and it was the very same one he had first seen. “I started dating my late wife Nancy in 1969, and her dad had a Gibson,” recalls Brown. “I was into drag racing and thought it would make a good rig with the frame extended out and a big motor on it.” Luckily for Brown, his soon-to-be father-in-law refused to sell it. Later, he sold it to someone else. Fast forward to 2016, and Brown located the guy who bought it. “In 45 minutes, I paid for it, loaded it on my trailer and brought it home,” says Brown. “I restored it, and Nancy recognized it right away. Her dad was in the nursing home, and when she mentioned it to him, he told every little detail about it, although he no longer recognized her.” Brown named the tractor Nancy’s Gibson. In early 2017, he and Nancy took it to a parade. While loading it for the trip home, she noted that the tire treads were dirty. After she died that summer, Brown was determined to keep Nancy’s Gibson clean, so he bought one he could get dirty. Soon he added another...and another. “I now own 30 of them, with 12 in running condition,” he says. “They’re all model As and model Ds. The bigger Gibsons are nice, but I like to stay with the smaller ones.” Many in the collection are in running order, and Brown plans to restore one for each of his grandkids. Meanwhile, he’s still in the market. While Nancy’s Gibson remains his favorite, the Kansas one is also a special memory. “The owner was a very nice man, but he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t help load the tractor,” relates Brown. “The Gibson was in the corner of a 30 by 40 shed packed full of stuff. I had to go to a store to buy come-alongs just to get stuff out of the way. It was still worth it.” Brown is also in the market for attachments. His father-in-law used the Gibson to put in a large garden, and Brown does the same. He has a plow, disc, cultivator, snowplow and dirt blades, as well as a side-mount sickle bar mower he needs to rebuild. “I’d like to have an attachment for each of my tractors,” he says. As he restores the tractors and equipment, he keeps a suggestion from Nancy to heart. “When I restored her dad’s, she told me to make sure the tractor would be child resistant because kids will want to have their picture taken on it,” says Brown. “She was right. If I take it to a show or parade, there will be 50 kids sitting on it or leaning on it, waiting to have their picture taken with it.” Brown built a 40 by 60-ft. building to store and restore his Gibsons and uses a 30 by 40-ft. building to warehouse his parts. With those two filling up, he’s already planning a third. He fires up his Gibsons for shows and parades and just to drive down streets in the neighborhood. “I don’t drink or chase women, so I needed a habit,” he says with a laugh. “I collect Gibsons. They’re addictive.” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ron Brown, 400 S. Grand Ave., El Dorado Springs, Mo. 64744 (ph 417-296-4430).

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