Farmers, Ranchers, and Suburbanites Find Essential Home and Business Needs at Tractor SupplyThe year 1938 was an unusual one for Charles Schmidt Sr. of Chicago, Illinois. That was the year he opened a farming and tractor supply business through the mail. Ordering tractor parts and other farm necessities through the mail was a novel as well as needful idea; it helped farmers and ranchers get back to work faster so they could turn a profit in an economy that was trying to dig out from sagging farm prices and an unemployment rate that was well over thirty percent.Schmidt's business grew quickly so he decided to open a retail store in 1939. That store was in Minot, North Dakota. At that time Minot was a small farming area in the north central part of the state. Founded in 1886 during the const