Memories of father restored along with A-C tractor

Andrew Nott stands next to a 1957 Allis Chalmers tractor he is restoring in Gilman to honor his father who died two years ago.
GILMAN -When Andrew Nott remembers his father Ronald Nott, tractors seem to always come to mind.
Whether it be on the family farm near Ferguson doing work with his dad or restoring the machines, tractors were a part of their life together.
Two years ago Ronald Nott, then 72, died suffering a stroke and dealing with other health complications.
To honor his father, Andrew Nott is restoring a 1957 Allis Chalmers tractor that his dad wanted to restore himself.
“It was his plan to make it just like brand new,” Nott said. “He wanted to take it out on tractor rides.”
Ronald Nott farmed for more than 30 years and those are times Andrew Nott looks back to fondly.
He remembers his dad letting him drive a tractor by himself for raking hay when he was 5 years old.
Th tractor Andrew Nott intends to restore has been in the family for decades, but never got any use on the farm. The restoration will not be easy as Nott expects about 500 hours of work ahead of him at a shop in downtown Gilman.
The mechanic of 27 years will disassemble, paint it and try to make sure all the parts are running smoothly.
“It’s going to need a major cleaning,” Nott said. “It will take some time to get everything smoothed out and looking good.”
Nott knows his way around restoring a tractor, which is one of things he learned from his father.
“We did one similar to this when I was 13,” he said.
He has a goal to roll out the restored Persian-orange machine to area tractor rides this summer and has a real big trip planned for the end of the summer.
In late-August or early-September Nott plans to ride the restored tractor to Milwaukee to the Allis Chalmers factory where it was made.
He said several areas of the manufacturing facility are still standing.
Nott’s sister, Peggy Moore, will also be along for the journey in a car as a way to honor her father.
“It would be a memorial to my father,” Nott said. “He absolutely loved Allis Chalmers tractors.”
Nott will travel more than 400 miles to Milwaukee and plans to take back highways and roads, then use a trailer to bring the machine back to Marshall County.
Nott said although he has a mountain of work ahead of him before that ride, he can feel his father looking down on him with every turn of the wrench.
“Anytime I do anything with any of his tractors it’s always a good feeling of closeness,” he said.
Contact Andrew Potter at (641) 753-6611 or at apotter@timesrepublican.com.