New Boston Historical Society
New Boston, New Hampshire

1939 International TD-35 crawler tractor with Sargent snowplow

Plowing New Boston's Roads

Snow roller in northern Vermont — courtesy of the Glover Historical Society

How were roads cleared of snow in the old days, when winters were cold and New Boston got lots and lots of snow? Until a Fordson tractor with snowplow was purchased in 1928, our town's roads were rolled by horse-drawn "snow rollers" after a heavy snowfall. The wooden roller packed down the snow for sleighs and sleds. We don't have a photo of a New Boston snow roller so I had to borrow one from Vermont, where my wife's grandfather drove a snow roller as late as 1941.

In a 2017 interview I asked Jim Dane what he remembered of New Boston roads in wintertime. He said, "I never saw any roads rolled. That was before me. They plowed the roads with a cleat track with a wood plow, a V-plow with wings, so they’d have three guys: one guy driving and one guy on each wing to hold the wing down." Jim laughed. "That must have been fun! Cold!"

TD-35 crawler & steel plow — plow wings are not attached

International TD-35 — New Boston NH, November 2021

I got to see (and hear) an old tractor and plow in action in November of 2021, although there was no snow at the time. The Town of New Boston bought this 1939 McCormick-Deering / International TD-35 crawler tractor from R. C. Hazelton, Co. for $5,000 in 1940. It's equipped with a Sargent plow made by Union Iron Works in Bangor ME, a company that had been making snowplows for over 100 years.

The Town sold the tractor and plow at auction in 1964. When the top bidder failed to show up, Frederick "Bing" Chancey got the tractor for $575. He used it for many years hauling logs out of the woods.

The 4-cylinder engine starts with gasoline then switches itself to diesel fuel.

The 40-horsepower engine drives the tractor at a top speed of 4 MPH. Our town has 100 miles of roads... how long would it take to plow all the roads, if nothing broke? What was it like to plow for hours and hours in the cold, as the tractor bounced along unpaved roads with the wind blowing snow every which way?

Note the open sprockets and the holes in the track plates.

The mechanic told me that the "snow sprockets" and "snow pads" kept snow from getting packed into the tracks. You really do not want your 5-ton tractor to slide off the road!

The tractor is steered by changing the speeds of the left and right tracks.


A cab placed over the tractor provided some protection from cold winds and snow.


The Sargent plow


The crawler tractor and plow will be restored by the Double D Living History Farm in Roxbury CT.

Story & video by Dan R. 2021

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