Restoration complete

Mason Thill (right) finished restoring his family’s Farmall model M tractor in time for his grandfather Gordon’s 91st birthday this fall. Thill started the effort on a whim in 2019 shortly after he graduated from Ozaukee High School. He was walking around the family’s Town of Fredonia farm when his father Paul told him to “start working on that tractor.” The machine hadn’t moved in 20 years, but Mason, shown working on the tractor this summer (inset), put in the time and work needed to get it running again, working on it after his groundskeeping job at Hawthorne Hills Golf Course. Gordon’s father, Mason’s great-grandfather, purchased the tractor new for $1,600 from Wilke Implement in Random Lake. It replaced a steel-wheel model and was used with a two-row corn cultivator to ready fields for planting, as well as for pulling a grain chopper, manure handler and wagons. The tractor was ridden in last year’s Flag Day parade in Waubeka and the annual tractor parade in northern Ozaukee County in July. Mason is studying supply chain management and business administration at the University of Wisconsin-Stout.              Photos by Sam Arendt