1970 John Deere 140 Garden Tractor and Accessories

Gone to the Lord

My father bought this classic John Deere garden tractor second-hand in Holland, Michigan, and was very proud of it. It was only a year or two old when he bought it. It came with many extras, including a pull cart, blower, front blade, scrape blade, fold-away cabin, wheel weights and two instruction manuals: JD 140 Hydrostatic Tractor (Serial No. 22401- ) Operator's Manual John Deere Horicon Works OM-M45023 Issue 40 and 140 Hydrostatic Tractor (Serial No. -30,000) Service Manual SM 2086 (Aug-70) Buying the John Deere and all its nice extras was a bit of a coup for him: He knew of another man who had his eye on it but my dad got there first. My father had an eye for things that would become classic, and today this is a highly desirable jewel. He regretted that he let rain damage the blower and spent a good deal of effort in later years restoring it to working order. He plowed tons of Michigan snow with his John Deere 140 and this plow blade. He used the foldaway cabin help him stay warm while he worked using the tractor in cold winters. Before my father died I asked him if I could have the John Deere, as it was more than my mother could handle. He said yes. But in truth is was a daunting machine to me (I'd seen him wrestle to remove and re-install the mower deck, for example), and I felt I would not be the good steward of it that he had been. So I sought estimates of the value of the package and briefly put it on the market for $2,500. Ultimately we gave the JD 140 to a preacher we knew. So I guess you could say the tractor wound up about as close to God as it could get. I hope one day in heaven I can listen to my dad remenisce about this fine tractor again.