This letter was written by Marian Tucker Springer describing the famine in China and letting her father, Joseph M. Tucker, know hard it was to feed her family. After reading this letter Joseph Tucker was inspired to write a proposal to the War Food Administration to began the Harvest Brigade.
This 1939 Organization Chart is for the Sales Department of VP & GSM. Joseph M. Tucker was in charge of the Organization Budgets Operations and Control.
A mat framed copy of a joke that was printed in the Farm Implement News poking fun at Joseph M. Tucker.
This article is a history of the Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade.
This article is about Joseph M. Tucker announcement of his resignation from the Massey-Harris Company, Inc., Racine, Wisconsin and how he was accepting a major executive position with a leading prefabricated housing company.
This is a speech that Joseph M. Tucker where he was introducing the "Famine Fighters" Program after World War II.
This pamphlet explains America's dwindling food stock in 1943 and how "Massey-Harris foresaw the critical situation of the 1944 harvest - a record crop production with too few men and combines to handle the vast acreages." Recognizing the seriousness of the situation the government approved the plan for a Harvest Brigade (a fleet of 500 Self-Propelled Combines) that "pledged to harvest more acres with less fuel, manpower and equipment than ever before in the history of the world."
This is an advertising booklet for the Massey-Harris Self-Propelled Combines. This booklet explains how the combines work and how they will save manpower, grain, fuel, and provide farmers with more crop.
This booklet is advertising for the Massey-Harris tractors. It explains the design, features, and attachments of the tractors. It also includes advertising for the Model 21A Self-Propelled Combine.
This booklet is a postwar planning guide for farmers. It includes a guide to farm tax management, a checklist of machine and equipment repairs and/or what can be sold and/or what is needed, and a 5-year farm inventory sheet.
This is a photocopy of a directory that lists service and supply depots for the Massey-Harris Self-Propelled Harvest Brigade.
This Owner's Manual for the No. 21 & 21 A Self-Propelled Combines explains how each part of the combines work and how to store the combines.
This manual lists all the parts needed to repair the Massey-Harris No. 21 & No. 21A Reaper-Thresher.
This article gives a brief history of the Massey-Harris company. Joseph M. Tucker was the Vice-President of the U. S. company and James Duncan was President of the Canadian company.
This is the original job application that Joseph M. Tucker filled out when he applied for a position with the War Food Administration on November 27, 1941.
This is a photocopy of a conditional sale contract and order for a new #21 SP - 12 foot Massey-Harris combine. This was purchased by Roy Kluck. He made a downpayment of $1,500 and was to pay $1,495.91 upon delivery to Enid, Oklahoma.
This is Emil H. Kluck's customer order for a new #21A SP Massey-Harris Combine. The cost of the combine was $3,866.75, the tax was $77.34, with the total price of $3,944.09.
The business card is for Emil, Roy, Ray, Harvest King's, Kluck Bro's, Custome Combining. According to the business card, the brothers had over 22 years of experience.
The sales slip is a blank Massey-Harris Self-Propelled Harvest Brigade sales slip no. 33671. This type of sales slip was used during the 1940s as indicated on the slip as _194.
This is a photocopy of the front of a Massey-Harris Self-Propelled Harvest Brigade Official Receipt Book. It has a photograph of the combine and someone has written numbers on it. There is no indication as to what these numbers are for, although it appears to be some type of calculation and/or totals.
This story was written by Donald L. Kluck. It is about three brothers, Emil H. Kluck, Roy Kluck, and Ray Kluck. The story follows the brothers as they worked on the Harvest Brigade beginning in 1944 through 1954 and beyond.
This article is about Emil H. Kluck's self-propelled combine. It was the first combine in Codington County, South Dakota. Included in the article is a page from Emil H. Kluck's 1944 expense record book, a photograph of equipment on display, and a photograph of Emil H. Kluck's self-propelled combine.
Fern Letnes gave the photograph and news clippings to Judy Horsch, daughter of Joseph M. Tucker.
This includes a mini-biography of Lawrence John Letnes who was in charge of the Harvest Brigade during the summer of 1944. The story states that Letnes "was the aerial liaison man who kept a fleet of 20 self-propelled combines rolling across the state of Kansas northward to the Canadian border to harvest grain that may have remained uncut because of the critical shortage of manpower and machines during WWII."
The photograph is of John Letnes standing in front of his airplane. The side of the airplane reads, "Self-Propelled Combines, L. J. Letness, Representative, Grand Forks, N. D."
This is a portrait of Joseph M. Tucker.
This is a photograph of Joseph M. Tucker standing next to a vehicle in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt sits, in front of a Massey-Harris Self-Propelled Combine and several other people.
This article is about Judy Horsch, daughter of Joseph M. Tucker, continues to share the family's story about the Harvest Brigade.
Joseph M. Tucker wrote this memorandum to outline his "ideas as to how the emergency harvest brigade should be organized."
This is a photograph of the medal, Order of the British Empire given to Joseph M. Tucker by King George VI.
This booklet has information on the Harvest Brigade that includes the plan, advertising, pledge of the Harvest Brigade, how the 1945 Harvest Brigade differed from 1944, the Brigade operators, service and parts supply depots, and how the Harvest Brigade had the full cooperation of the government.
This proposal was presented to the War Food Administration in August 1943 and approved on September 15, 1943. Massey Harris asked to be "permitted to build an additional 500 Self-propelled Combines to assist in the harvesting of 14,000,000 additional acres of wheat in 1944."
War Production Board Certificate of Service and War Production Board Industry Advisory Committee certificate.
This is a plan for the 1944 Harvest Brigade.
The photograph that accompanies the month of June, Custom Cutters-Colby, was taken by Look magazine photographers when they did a story on farming in western Kansas in 1946. Photograph courtesy of Jim Deibert Harvesting.
Tucker, Joseph M.This pamphlet opens to poster size. It has information on both front and back about the Hammtown, The Traveling Harvest City combine caravan and its history.
This article is a mini-biography of Joseph M. Tucker and how he was the mastermind behind the Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade.
This is poster contains samples of press content about the Harvest Brigade, how they operate, and problems they face. Names include Joseph M. Tucker, L. D Skinner, Joe Skinner, A. C. Ruthenbeck, Fred Ash, and L. J. (Lawrence John) Letnes.
In this article, Donald Wendt takes a reader through buying an M-H 21 combine and working with the harvest brigade in 1944. This article also includes a photo of Joseph M. Tucker who was Massey-Harris vice president and United States Sales Manager who masterminded the Massey-Harris Harvest Brigade. It also includes a photograph of Judy Horsch and Lenwood Holo on the Brigade trail; re-living the operation conceived and planned by her father, Joseph M. Tucker.
This poster contains samples of several news advertisements about the Harvest Brigade. It's Big News! announces "The Massey-Harris Self-Propelled Harvest Brigade is now well on its way towards harvesting a million acres of America's victory grain crop..."
This article is a min-biography of Joseph M. Tucker.
A photograph of the proclamation by King George VI appointing Joseph M. Tucker "to be an Honorary Officer of the Civil Division of Our Most Excellent Order of the British Empire."
7 photocopy of unidentified photographs (undated), 1 unidentified photograph (undated), 1 photograph of Emil Kluck (1949), 1 photograph of Ray Kluck (undated), 1 photograph of Willis Borns (undated), 2 photographs of Emil H. Kluck’s self-propelled combine, the first in Codington County, South Dakota (circa 1940s).