By the Salina Journal
DELPHOS -- A tractorcade from Delphos to the North Central Kansas Technical School in Beloit is planned Friday in memory of Lorn Gates, Wilfred Hare and Darrell Ringer.
The three Delphos area farmers were active in the American Agriculture Movement, which is dedicated to improving prices farmers receive for what they produce and to preserving the family farm. Ringer was a former AAM president.
Gates was the last of the three to die, in early 2007, said Mariesther Holbert, Delphos.
The tractorcade leaves Delphos at 9:30 a.m. Friday and proceeds 15 miles north on a county road to Kansas Highway 9, then west less than a mile to the Dean and Mariesther Holbert farm, where lunch will be served.
Larry Mitchell, a longtime farm advocate and former deputy administrator for farm programs at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will speak at the lunch. The meal will be provided by Murphy Tractor & Equipment.
The tractorcade will leave at 2 p.m. to complete the trip to Beloit on K-9.
An auction of cars -- most from the Gates estate -- is at 11 a.m. Saturday at the technical college, by Thummel Auction, Beloit. A listing of cars, with photos, is available at www.thummelauction.com.
Tractors will be staged beginning at 6 p.m. today in the Delphos town square. Anyone is welcome to join in all or part of the tractorcade, Mariesther Holbert said, and you don't have to drive a tractor.
For information, call the Holberts, (785) 243-4356 or Larry Matlack, (620) 727-0333.
©Salina Journal