Love of IH history inspires guest speaker

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For Vaughn Allen, the past of International Harvester holds as much interest as the present.

“There are so many things I was involved with during that period that are really special to me,” Allen said.

He started his career, that spanned four decades, with International Harvester. He retired with the title of worldwide vice president of customer and product support.

“The most difficult day of my life was, after 41 years, walking out of world headquarters,” Allen said.

For Allen, a career with International Harvester was an easy fit.

“I grew up on a farm and farming is in my blood. I have a real fascination with equipment, how it came to be, how it got developed, so when I joined International Harvester, it was a natural for me,” he said.

Allen worked for the company during many of the major events in its history, including the introduction of the axial flow combine in 1978 and the announcement, in late 1984, that IH had finalized a deal with Tenneco Inc., to sell its ag equipment division to Case Corp., a subsidiary of Tenneco.

“Probably the most profound point in my career was when the company sold the agricultural equipment division. As a lifelong employee, at that point I had 25 years in, I was in total disbelief. I’m not sure I would say it was exciting, but it definitely was emotional,” Allen said.

Allen has turned his attention to history, specifically the history of International Harvester. It was something he started before he retired and since retiring, he’s worked with Tom Clark, the corporate historian for Navistar, to develop a presentation about the company’s beginnings and early history.

Allen is one of the “Harvester Heritage” guest speakers at the 32nd National Red Power Round Up, July 1-3, in DuQuoin. Allen will present his talk, “History of International Harvester’s Ag Equipment Business,” in the morning on July 1 and July 2 at the Red Power Round Up.

For Allen, the story of International Harvester is the story of America.

“There’s a lot of grand history from about the mid-1800s, when Cyrus moved to Chicago and then all the other milestones that occurred. There’s a real connection with the growth of the country and the Industrial Revolution and the play that the agricultural equipment business had on all of that and, in particular, International Harvester, which was the behemoth of farm equipment in the early 1900s,” Allen said.

It wasn’t just the ties with U.S. history as a whole, but to Illinois and the Midwest that kept Allen, a history buff, reading about Cyrus McCormick and his company’s early years, peppered with events that parallel America’s history and growth, from Abraham Lincoln’s early career as a lawyer to the Civil War, the Great Chicago Fire, the Haymarket Riots and westward expansion.

“Once you start reading, it’s hard to stop. There’s just a lot of rich history that weaves between the development of International Harvester, the growth of our country, the expansion of the agricultural industry itself, feeding the world. It’s an interesting story and if you like history, you get fascinated with it and I couldn’t stop reading,” he said.

One of the hallmarks of the Red Power Round Up events is the variety of International Harvester products that are displayed.

Along with those products, Allen said there’s also a depth of knowledge, not just about a specific IH tractor or piece of equipment, but the IH history behind the item.

“One of the profound dimensions at International Harvester is the depth of product. There were literally thousands of products produced. There’s an expert for every one of these products at these shows. They are fanatics about understanding the deep history of everything that we had. It’s almost a religion. They are committed to understanding everything about how that product was made, when it was made, why it works, some of the problems that they had, they have that deep understanding. They love what they are doing and they have a great attachment to history, but it’s a greater attachment to the product and how it works,” Allen said.