SIDNEY CENTER — The 15th annual Sidney Center Tractor Parade will be held Sept. 20, as a celebration of farming traditions that have shaped this region for generations.
This year, parade organizers will honor Richard “Dick” Blackman as grand marshal, recognizing a family lineage that has farmed the same ground for more than 160 years.
Blackman traces his roots to his great-great-grandfather, Alexander McGregor, the son of Scottish immigrants who settled in the hamlet of Arabia, near Franklin, in 1863. McGregor began with two milk cows, four calves and a single pig, producing butter, maple sugar and grain from his modest acreage.
Each generation expanded the farm. John S. McGregor, born in 1868, remained on the homestead with his wife, Emeline. Their daughter, Lena, married Clinton Blackman, whose sudden death in a work accident forced her return to the family farm. Her son, Vanley, carried the farm into the mid-20th century, working with horses before purchasing his first tractor, a Ferguson 20, in 1950.
Blackman, who grew up driving tractors by age 9, took over the farm after graduating from A.L. Kellogg High School in 1966. He and his wife, Lois, raised three sons in the original farmhouse, expanding the farm to 300 acres. A fire in 1989 destroyed the barn and forced a shift from dairy to beef cattle, but Mr. Blackman remained tied to the land and to farm equipment, especially Ford tractors, which he began entering in pulling competitions in 2006.
The parade, which last year drew 144 entries, will begin at noon on Sept. 20 following registration at the Sidney Center Fire Station. Organizers promise raffle baskets, a 50/50 drawing and a chicken barbecue prepared by the fire department.
Registration is free and open from 9 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. For more information, call Lynn at 607-369-9074 or Tom at 607-610-4098.
