John Gruber received his first toy tractor from his parents when he was born in 1947. Today, that toy is the oldest of the more than 1,000 pieces of toy farm equipment he and his wife Kathy recently donated to the Dickinson County Historical Society.
The collection fills the new Farm Toy Museum at the Society’s Heritage Center, 412 South Campbell Street, Abilene, Kansas, that will be open to the public free of charge Oct. 5 during an open house for the toy museum, the society’s new Heritage Hall event center addition, and a mural that highlights Dickinson County history.
“I really got started when I was about six years old when my grandma got my brother and me a whole set of John Deere toys in the 1950s,” Gruber says of the birth of his collection. “A lot of my toys are from back in the 1950s and 1960s.”
As they grew, the brothers received more toy farm equipment pieces. When they became adults, the twosome agreed the toy farm equipment would go to Gruber and his brother would take another collection of items in which he had a greater interest.
“I moved to Abilene in August of 1989 and went to work for Shouse Implement,” he says of the former Abilene John Deere dealership. “Ertl® came out with a collector’s series after we moved here and that’s when we really started collecting.”
Ertl® farm toys recreate agricultural machinery in miniature for children and collectors alike with their detailed tractors, implements, and farm equipment, according to the company’s website.
Gruber’s collection came from farm toy shows, implement dealerships, garage sales, and through trades with collectors and other individuals. He likely saved farm toys from the trash bin by giving them an overhaul.
“You can refurbish them and make them look like they were new,” he says. “When I retired, I couldn’t redo them anymore.“
That’s when a couple of area farm toy enthusiasts stepped in with an idea.
“Ron Shouse and Greg Wilson talked to us one day about donating them to the historical society if they would figure out a way to put a building up,” he says. “We had a little meeting with my family and they all thought it was good deal that the collection would all stay together and a lot of people can come see it.”
The three families – Gruber, Shouse and Wilson – funded the construction of the Farm Toy Museum, built to resemble a vintage tractor dealership, according to Austin Anders, Dickinson County Historical Society (DCHS) director.
“When Austin (Anders) and Andrew (Pankratz, DCHS archivist) came by and saw what we had, their jaws dropped,” Gruber says, adding the collection filled one entire room and a “couple of closets” in their home.
Although visitors will not be able to touch the toys, Anders says there is a kid’s area where children can push around some toy farm equipment and learn agricultural history.
The Grubers also contributed signed and numbered reproduction posters John received at John Deere meetings that they framed; three hang in the museum and another 10 will hang in the Heritage Hall event center until replaced by another art exhibit from the museum’s collections.
“They were still rolled up in the can,” he says. “This way people can see them.”
Kathy Gruber is excited the collection will be kept intact.
“I am very pleased Ron Shouse and Greg Wilson offered to do this for us so that John could keep his collection together for people to see for years to come,” she says. “When this opportunity came along, it was good for our family and good for Abilene.”
There is only one other such exhibition in the country, the National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville, Iowa.
PHOTO: Farm Toy Museum in Abilene, Kansas. (Photo courtesy of the Dickinson County Historical Society.)
