History
Last Employee
My father, Ken Barnes worked for Aerco Corp. beginning in 1941. He was the last remaining employee when the remaining unsold tractors (300-350), remaining parts, implements and tooling were moved from the Aerco manufacturing facility at Hollydale, CA (now Paramount, CA) to several large storage warehouses at Sun Valley, CA.
Earthmaster had become a division of Adel precision products, which had been the supplier of the hydraulic components used on these tractors. There was an auction managed by J J SUGARMAN, AUCTIONEERS and all assets of Earthmaster were sold to R.J. Bowell a San Francisco investor. Bowell sent my father to Cuba to follow up as a result of interest re manufacturing tractors in Cuba as expressed by the agricultural minister and other govt. officials. As it turned out the Bautista govt. was on its way out and Castro took over so the trip was a waste of time. Earthmaster was next merged with Turner Mfg. Co. Of Statesville, NC. and the remaining tractors were eventually sold at auctions, etc.
Aerco Corp manufactured aircraft components and sub assemblies for various aircraft companies during the war. After the war ended it manufactured fishing reels, feed mixers, molasses applicators, and finally 2 wheel walk-behind and 4 wheel tractors. Some of the export 4wheel tractors had low compression cylinder heads and special intake manifolds as well as a second fuel tank and 3 way selector valve. They would start and warm up on gasoline then switch to kerosene and switch back to gasoline for shut down.
Hope this fills in some of the historic gaps. - Submitted by: Kenyon Barnes - kenyoncbarnes@gmail.com