A Durand farmer’s history search of a Pecatonica business

DOUG SCHRODER PHOTO The Gazette
Jake Palmer drives one of his Minneapolis-Moline tractors while displaying the Hilbert Implement sign in the Pecatonica Memorial Day Parade this year.

By Doug Schroder
CORRESPONDENT
For about three years now Durand diary farmer Jake Palmer has been searching for, and finding, items related to the Pecatonica business that was known as Hilbert Implement,
Hilbert Implement was a Minneapolis-Moline tractor dealership that was situated on Pecatonica Road just north of Rt. 20 for around 40 years, and was owned by George Hilbert.
Palmer’s grandfather, Bob Palmer, bought a new M670 Super tractor from the dealership in 1966, a tractor that is still in the Palmer family to this day. Many years later that purchase would become a catalyst to Jake Palmer becoming a collector of all things Minneapolis-Moline related.
Jake started his search for Hilbert Implement items by going to different auctions. At one such auction Palmer ran into Pec resident Mike Freier. Palmer knew Freier had purchased a few Hilbert Implement items a year earlier at a previous auction. Palmer had offered to buy the items, but Freier decided to keep them. The two talked and Freier said he would keep an eye out for any items at this auction
Palmer went home, and the next day got a call from Freier, who had found a pen and note pad imprinted with Hilbert Implement.
“He [Freier] gave them to me. [That was] kindly of him,” said Palmer.
With his newfound items Palmer took to the Internet and posted the pen and note on a Facebook page for Minneapolis-Moline collectors worldwide asking if anyone else had anything pertaining to the Pecatonica dealership.
Palmer struck gold almost right away as someone responded they had the original 4’x8′ metal sign from Hilbert Implement. The sign had somehow found it’s way all the way to another Minneapolis-Moline collector in the small town of Fulda, MN, which is about a four hundred mile drive from Durand.
“The guy I bought it from said it’s a rare one to find. Most dealership signs were 3’x5′,” Palmer stated.
Palmer purchased the sign this past March, and he and the seller agreed to meet at the big Mecum tractor auction in Davenport, Iowa to make the exchange.
Jake Palmer was in the recent Pecatonica Memorial Day Parade displaying the sign on a hay wagon he pulled with one of his Minneapolis-Moline tractors. His father, David, followed behind in the M670 Super originally bought at Hilbert Implement by his father, Bob.
Other items Jake Palmer has come up with from Hilbert Implement include two photographs.
One photo is an aerial view of the business in a picture taken in 1973. In it you can clearly see the sign along the road out in front of the business.
The other photo Palmer has is of a parade that took place somewhere close by in northern Illinois. It is of a man and boy on a Minneapolis-Moline tractor with a Hilbert Implement sign affixed on the front. Possibly the same sign Palmer has acquired. Being pulled behind the tractor is a wagon with the big statue of Millie the Muller-Pinehurst cow secured on top. The photo belonged to another man from Minnesota and was featured in the 2018 Minneapolis-Moline collectors calendar. Judging from one of the parked vehicles in the back left of the shot it looks to have been taken in the early 1980s. If you know anyone in the shot, or where and when it might have been taken, contact Jake from information given at the end of this article.
Jake Palmer has also searched local resources for information regarding Hilbert Implement. He talked with George Anderson at the Stone Wall Cafe, hoping there might be some old photos in the archives kept there. Anderson wasn’t aware of any.
Palmer has contacted the Nehrings, current owners of the property at 2605 N. Pecatonica Road where Hilbert Implement was. Palmer talked with Mrs. Nehring asking her if there were any other items left from the Hilbert business. She stated that there was nothing left from Hilbert when they bought the buildings. NIEAA Sanitary Service now occupies the site.
Palmer has also been to the History Room at Pecatonica Public Library where he spent an afternoon looking through film rolls of old newspapers and only found a small ad.
Lastly, two years ago Palmer called someone from the Pec Historical Society. The lady he talked to by phone said she didn’t grow up in the area so she didn’t really have knowledge of the business.
To help Palmer continue in his quest in finding out more about Hilbert Implement, or if you have any information you’d like to pass along to him he can be contacted by phone at 815-297-4242, or email at [email protected].