I was checking my local Gravely dealer's website for hours and such. They had a caption for the Gravely story so I opened it. The writeup is pretty long, but there is a lot of good stuff in the story. I had seen parts of it before (example- Benjamin Gravely loading his Studebaker touring car with tractors and selling them door-to-door as he traveled away from the plant). There is also a discussion of the Studebaker purchase of Gravely. The article also mentions the Gravely Club and their first annual Mow-In (equivalent to the SDC International to Gravely owners). I was in the Charleston, WV area that weekend and went to the show near the original factory at Dunbar, WV. There was the same enthusiasm for Gravely at that show as there is at a Studebaker meet. It was stated that there were more than 70 accessories made for the Model L and many of them were there.
One fact that caught my attention in the article was that in the 1970s they found that the average age of a Gravely tractor still in service was 32 years old. Think any of the modern tin tractors could say that?
One fact that caught my attention in the article was that in the 1970s they found that the average age of a Gravely tractor still in service was 32 years old. Think any of the modern tin tractors could say that?
