Barneveld Implement traces its origins back to a cream station operated by Russell Stenseth in 1938.  Russell started selling Massey Harris tractors on consignment during World War II.  Soon after he took on a contract for Case and New Idea.  Every year the business seemed to grow and in 1958 the dealership expanded into the old Klusendorf's Chevrolet Dealership in Barneveld, WI.

In  1957, a young man named Ernie Aschliman was hired to help out at the dealership. Ernie liked the business so much that in 1963 when he was offered the opportunity to purchase it, he did.  While the first several years were hard going for Ernie by 1967 the dealership was growing rapidly and needing to expand.  An old lumber yard in town was purchased for storage.

Barneveld Implement became a real family business when Ernie's two sons, Charlie and Bill joined the work force.  Charlie started helping out at the dealership in the summer when he was around 10 years old.  Charlie helped to assemble and deliver new Case  garden tractors.  Charlie is still one of the owners today, so his experience and knowledge of Case garden tractors spans decades.  Charlie started full time at the dealership after graduating high school.  Bill started a couple of years later.

With a business that had greatly expanded from the original sale of a few Massey Harris tractors the dealership was once again out of space. By 1984 Barneveld Implement was the largest dealership in southern Wisconsin and the second largest in the state. A 250 acre farm was purchased on the edge of Barneveld.  A 66'x 250' shop was errected for repairing equipment.

On June 8, 1984 the village of Barneveld was hit with an F5 tornado.  The tornado completely destroyed a large portion of the downtown, including Barneveld Implement.  Ernie estimated his business was 85% destroyed. There were 75 tractors at the dealership that were smashed in the storm and about 75% of all the equipment at the dealership was destoryed.

Despite the large tragedy of the storm, which went through on a Friday, by Monday the dealership was open for business working out of the boarded up remains of the few buildings still standing.  The decision to rebuild was not an easy one.  The Village Board would not let Barneveld Implement or many other large businesses rebuild in the downtown.  They wanted to make that area more residential, so a decsion was made to build a new 30,500 sq. ft. building on their farm by the new four lane highway.  The new building was completed in December and became the new service department, display area and storage area.  Barneveld Implement has several major sales accomplishments.  They were the largest skid loader dealer in North America and the largest garden tractor dealer in the world.  (Could you think of anyone better to purchase your parts from now than the largest garden tractor dealer in the world?)

In 1985, Case and International Harvester were merged together and the IH dealership in Barneveld was closed.  By the late 1990's Case-IH was pushing dealers to grow. With threats from Case-IH to not supplying the dealership anymore the decision was made to sell the Case-IH dealership to Ritchie Implement.  The Aschliman's kept the Barneveld Implement name as well as the Ingersoll garden tractor division.

 

 

 

Barneveld Implement, Inc.                                    (608) 924-1662

P.O. BOX 38 3224 Cty. Rd. K,  Barneveld, Wisconsin 53507