Out of the wild: Canadian collector hunts down vintage Hume.(Hume Manufacturing Co.)

Farm Collector, July, 2002

Sherwood Hume, an auctioneer from Milton, Ontario, Canada, first heard of an old tractor sitting in a field in northwestern Ontario in 1978. Fourteen Years later, he finally made it to the field, and much to his surprise, the old tractor turned out to be a Hume.

Hume Manufacturing Co. was established in 1913 in Hume, Ill., by Ralph O. Aikman and John H. Maughmer. Both men had worked in a warehouse owned by local banker and entrepreneur George Hughes, who funded the tractor enterprise.

Aikman, a mechanic and also the husband of Hughes' only child, a daughter named Sarah, became general manager; Maughmer was an engineer. Stocks were sold, a factory erected and a man named Leigh St. John was named salesman and chief mechanic.

From 1913...