Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1544539
We have been married 50 years as of June 28, 2025. I tease Sam that his Allis-Chalmers tractor was his first love and now continues to be his second. Sam become acquainted with Allis-Chalmers tractors in his first year of college at Abraham Baldwin College in Tifton, Ga., in the fall of 1972. He was majoring in the Agricultural Equipment Technology Program. He excelled in this program and helped the club build a pulling tractor that was donated in pieces to the program by the Allis-Chalmers Company. After helping other members, the tractor was put together and became a pulling tractor called "Cracker Jack." Sam was hired as a service representative to work for Allis-Chalmers and began his employment on June 1, 1974. His territory was Georgia and some of South Carolina. After a few years, he became a region service manager for the southeastern territory in the Atlanta branch. After much experience, and a great deal of traveling, he resigned in 1984 and began his own business called Thornton Equipment Repair. Sam is a person who knows a great deal about tractors, how they work and how to repair them. He has worked on all makes of tractors, and his business became successful in Monticello, Ga. Sam needed a change from the everyday activities of running his business, so he was hired by his friend, Wylie Hutto, who originally hired him to go to work with Allis-Chalmers but was now working with Takeuchi Inc. Sam went to work as a service representative with Takeuchi but continued to work part time with his business. After working with Takeuchi for 8 years, he reopened his business full time and began a new adventure of custom hay baling that he continues today. He uses his Allis-Chalmers 7000, 185 and 5040 for his business Sam loves to talk tractors to anyone who will listen, locally or nationally. He receives calls from everywhere asking his opinion about Allis-Chalmers tractors. He has been a part of the Allis-Chalmers Forum for several years. He most recently met with the forum in Canandaigua, N.Y. He has made many friends through this forum. We have involved our family with his career and his love for his hobby of pulling his tractor, a 1956 WD45 Diesel Allis-Chalmers that he restored in 1996. Our family consists of our oldest son Luke, who was recently deceased; our second son Andy, his wife Melanie and their two children Ashlyn and Colton; and our daughter Leigh, who is married to James Cunningham, and their two children Jackson and Bradley. We have all been to many tractor pulls as a family. Sam helped begin the local FFA tractor/truck pull fundraiser 27 years ago that is still an important event for our small, local community. Sam loves Allis-Chalmers tractors and has several that are both running and not running. He plans to work with his three grandsons to restore each one of them into a tractor they can either pull or use at their homes one day. We all have a great deal of orange in our wardrobes because orange is definitely our family's favorite color. A man who loves Allis-Chalmers tractors By Joan Thornton, Monticello, Ga. 16 OLD ALLIS NEWS