Handy Herbert Jack Of All Trades

By Staff
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
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Herbert Reese and his bride at their new 12' x 24' home about Sept. 1925. This was built after losing all savings and living in a tent for awhile after honeymoon. Had only ten dollars left after bank closed. Herb says, 'We lived here five happy years
Herbert Reese and his bride at their new 12' x 24' home about Sept. 1925. This was built after losing all savings and living in a tent for awhile after honeymoon. Had only ten dollars left after bank closed. Herb says, 'We lived here five happy years
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726.
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726.
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726.
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726.
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
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Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726
Courtesy of Herbert Reese, Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726

Sr., Greenbush, Minnesota 56726.

I’ll begin with some background on my family and myself. My
father, Nick Reese, came to Sheldon, Iowa, from Germany in 1876. He
worked on farms and got married at Adrian, Minn. in April, 1893. I
was the fourth boy in the family, born January 23, 1900. My father
was farming and owned a hay baler and did custom baling in
1909-10-11. I had to tie the wires on the bales all fall and winter
of those years and therefore I did not get to go to school too long
— only got through the fourth grade. The hay was shipped to market
by rail.

In 1911, my father traded his fine 160 acre farm for more land
to keep us boys busy. He got 320 acres of wild land near Badger,
Minnesota. There were no buildings on it so he rented a place near
Greenbush. He made a poor trade as the land was just brush and
rocks. He had four good horses and bought four more for f 800 and
also two sets of harnesses and two new six foot Deering Mowers

He sent my two oldest brothers, John and Joe, out to start
cutting hay. They had a very bad accident as some hunters were
shooting at chickens and shot near the back team and some of the
shot hit the team. The horse jumped and my brother, John, fell off
the mower. The team ran away and the mower bar smashed into the
other mower and scared the second team and they also started to run
away. Brother Joe fell off and the horses ran into the woods
nearby. Both mowers were smashed and two of the horses had some of
their legs nearly cut off. Father had to shoot them. When he lost
these horses, he decided to buy a tractor to break up the new
land.

Herbert and 12 U.S. customs border patrol agents taking delivery
of twelve new four-door 1929 Model Overland Whippet Sedans in May
of 1929 at Duluth – were shipped in by water from Toledo, Ohio.
Officers were from Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota and
Wisconsin. It was funny walking down the street. Everyone would
look to see who the lone fellow was with the twelve armed guards.
(I am in the middle of the picture.)

He found a used 12-20 Titan about two years old. It was a single
cylinder gas engine with about 8′ piston, had an open
crankcase, crankpin lubricated with a grease cup. Cylinder was
lubricated with a sight feed drip oiler; also a hit and miss
governor. The drive wheels were about 6 feet tall and 18 inches
wide. My three older brothers and myself each took turns helping
with the breaking with a 24 inch John Deere Jumbo breaking plow. We
also did custom breaking for several years with this tractor.

In 1916, my older brothers, John, Joe and William, bought a used
30-60 Rumely and a 36-60 used Aultman-Taylor separator and did
custom threshing, breaking and road building. The next year, they
bought two other rigs — a used 30-60 Hart-Parr and a 40-62 Wood
Minneapolis separator. William got a 15-30 Rumely and a 32-52
Racine separator.

Herb Reese’s big Dragline in June 1952 fording Rostai River
with northwest three yard dragline and 70′ boom through water
6′ deep. Had to take fan belt off big Murphy Diesel engine to
keep fan from drawing water.

I was working for Olaf Dalby, the International dealer in
Greenbush, repairing and setting up machinery and starting out new
Moguls and Titans that he sold to farmers. I got the reputation of
being able to fix or start any kind of a machine. Whenever there
was any kind of engine or car trouble, they would come and get me.
The hardest one to start was an old Rumely. The owner had tried and
cranked and primed for several days in threshing time. I told him I
could not leave as I was running a tractor at that time, but I had
him stay and run the tractor while 1 went and got the Rumely
started. I took the igniter out and pushed rags into the cylinder
to dry it out. I had the farmer get a long hay fork rope and we
wrapped it on the pulley and had him run his horses to spin it.
When it started, it threw gas and oil out the exhaust pipe and it
set fire to the engine and stubble. I shoveled dirt on the engine
to put the fire out while the farmer was beating the fire out with
his jacket. Soon had them threshing again. Several times after
that, I had to help him get his Rumely started. He was not a
mechanic and did not understand machinery.

In July, 1917, the International Company service man wanted to
help to repair a 15-30 Mogul and a new Racine Thresher that they
had repossessed. It had been sold new in 1913 by Hans Lerum, the
International dealer at Strath-cona, Minnesota. The farmers were
worried they would not get their crops threshed as there was no
other machine around for miles. When the block man for the company
came to see how we were getting along with the repairing, I asked
him what they wanted for the outfit. He figured about $3,200.00
with repairs and wanted $1,000 down. I wanted to buy the machine
but did not have the money. Soon as we got the machine ready, we
tried it out and threshed some rye for a farmer. It seemed
everybody in the county was there — all wanting to get their crop
threshed. I asked the service man if I could use the machine as I
wanted to buy it. I told the farmers I would have to get 1 cent
more per bushel and that they would have to work long days which
they agreed to do. I found a 1914 generator and rigged up lights.
Soon as they got through with the rye shocks, they were ready to
start on the stacks. We started at five in the morning and kept on
until ten at night. They had a good crop in 1917. It was over three
weeks before the company man came back, so by borrowing and
collecting from farmers for the threshing, I was able to buy the
Mogul outfit. We repaired it with a new cylinder and piston,
bearings, cylinder teeth, igniter and everything it needed. It ran
real good and I hired Charlie Schaeffer to run the separator.

This is the first machine Herbert bought -a Mogul in July 1917.
Sold it in 1920 to Louis Grund, for lumber to build a garage. He
used it to power his sawmill until 1940 when he scrapped it. It had
a hand wheel to engage belt pulley. About 1919, Herb put a lever in
cab to put in clutch from cab — made a fork to go around the
inside of flywheel. That’s Herb’s 1918 Model T Ford truck
he bought used about 1920. That’s Herb on the right.

I did well threshing the first year. I threshed long after
Christmas and had to shovel snow out between the stacks to get set
at last. It got so cold we had to put hot water in to get the Mogul
started. When it got to 20 below we had to let it run all night and
cover it with canvas. We threshed over one hundred days. It was the
longest run I ever put in.

I had lost a $1.00 bet the first day as they were feeding heavy
and some rye was coming over the chaffer. I told Charlie he did not
have the chaffer open enough, but he did have it open. We checked
and only had to cut the wind down.

In 1919 1 took a seven mile road job for Pelan township. I got
$300 per mile for a 16 ft. top of road with ditches about two feet
deep. There was a lot of rock and clearing to do before we could
start grading. I got a 10 ft. Stockland Blade, pulled with the
Mogul. I bought three new Fresno horse Scrapers and hired 12 head
of horses. I paid $5.00 a day for man and team. The men boarded
themselves and fed their own horses. Kerosene was 6 cents per
gallon. Got started threshing a little late — the farmers were
waiting. After finishing threshing in 1920, my brothers and I
bought a 27 horse Advance Compound Steamer which we took to the
woods to saw lumber. We used it for many years. In taking the
engine to the woods, I traveled on the road for about thirty miles,
towing a sawmill on separator trucks behind it. In crossing the
Roseau River Bridge, I noticed the bridge sagging when the drive
wheels got on the bridge. I was afraid it was going to drop into
the river, so I jumped off and let the machine go across by itself.
A short time later they had to put in a new bridge. Those years we
always took our road and threshing crews to the woods for the
winter. We operated the sawmill for almost twenty years. Every
winter we sawed out many thousands of feet of rough lumber. Over
those years, the lumber sawed would come to well over a million
board feet. I sold out my interest in the steamer and mill to my
brother, Joe, in 1929.

Herbert Reese and his bride at their new 12′
x 24′ home about Sept. 1925. This was built after losing all
savings and living in a tent for awhile after honeymoon. Had only
ten dollars left after bank closed. Herb says, ‘We lived here
five happy years and in 1930 built a new eight room modern
house.’

In 1922, I met a wonderful girl (who later became by wife) by
stopping to ask who was going to thresh for them late in the fall.
I knew there was no other machine in the area and 1 was moving by
on my way to put my machine away for the season. The husband was in
North Dakota helping thresh there. The lady thought it would be
nice to get threshed. I got my man to help and also some of the
neighbors. A few days later I went to church services and a
stranger came up to me and said he wanted to pay me. I said I did
not know of anything he owed me. He told me I had threshed for
him.

Later, while standing on the street, I was talking to my man
when the girl I mentioned before and some other girls were walking
on the other side of the street. I bet him a dollar I could take
that girl to a show that night. A new silent movie place had just
opened in Badger. I won the bet. She asked me to write sometime,
when I told her I was going to Milwaukee to work for the winter in
a factory. We did correspond. In the summer of 1923, my girl worked
in a cook car on a road job helping my sister cook for a bunch of
our men. It was a very dry year. I got done early with threshing
etc. as the crops were poor.

Early in September, I decided to go up to Canada as I had heard
they had big crops. I got to Arcola, in Saskatchewan, in Sept. of
1923. A farmer and store owner, Harry McNeal, had two machines — a
30-60 Ilumely with a Sawyer-Massey Canadian Separator and a 25-75
hp. Garr-Scott double cylinder steamer with a 36-60 Red Special
Separator. Two fellows riding with me hired out to run the Rumely
and I helped them get started. I then asked Harry, the owner, if he
wanted to hire me to run the Garr-Scott. He said he had enough
trouble with the Rumely rig because the fellows were doing a poor
job of threshing. They had trouble getting started in the mornings
and the only help to get were young English boys sent over to help
with the big harvest. He finally told me I looked too much like a
kid. He said he was going to let the rig stand if he couldn’t
get better help. I then told him I would go 50-50 with him. I would
run the rig, hire all the help and give him half.

Herb and William Reese stuck near Grainard on way to Minneapolis
in 1920. Knocked out piston and rod. Had to patch block and
straighten rod. Used leather bearing.

We had to have eight bundle teams, a tank water team and fireman
for the big rig. I would run the engine moving and separator, while
threshing. He said I should pay all the help, do all my own hiring
and collecting from the farmers — and anything I did not collect
he wanted me to take out of my half. As I had a few hundred dollars
along, I agreed but he was to furnish parts needed to get the
machine in shape to start. 1 got the tank and fireman that McLean
had the year before. In checking the engine I found that the boiler
was all scaled up and three flues leaking. We worked three days
putting in the flues and repairing the machine. The fourth day we
were ready to try the engine out and found the red rubber handhole
packing was poor. It blew out two handholes and we wasted nearly
two days. We could not get any better packing, so I put window
screen on each side of the packing to make it hold. Started
threshing by the bushel with only four teams. I would have to meet
the Canadian Pacific passenger train to see if any men were on
there looking for work — when the train stopped for water at
Arcola.

About Herb Reese’s job — in 1928 building a township road
with Best 60 doing finishing with a scraper – a 70 gas on blade and
Holt 10 ton on blade. Job about 10 miles west of Badger, Minnesota.
Anton Johnson on Best and Herman Messenbuk, foreman. Herbert Reese
is watching on right.

Finally, I got eight teams and two spike pitchers together but
those green kids did not know how to harness a horse, much less
drive or take care of them. Some turned so short, they broke the
wagon poles and tipped the racks off. 1 was losing money, so told
the farmers I had to have $25 an hour or quit– which was a
mistake. I should have stuck to the bushel price as the second
week, we were really threshing the wheat as we were averaging over
35 bu. per acre. I would have made much more by the bushel. We
threshed until Nov. 10 and it got down to 10 below and there was
snow in the shocks — I was glad to quit. I had to get up at 3 A.M.
and walk out to the rig to get steam up. The fireman was always
late. It was pitch dark and the coyotes used to howl and give me
the chills.

I surely liked that Garr-Scott engine. We were moving up a steep
grade to save a couple of miles move and just as we were about to
the top 1 blew the whistle and the pipe broke off at the dome. Two
of the English kids had tied their teams behind the separator and
were riding on the engine. When the pipe broke, they jumped and
ran. The steam dropped very fast and the rig started rolling back.
I hurried to find some rocks to block the wheels and was calling
them to help, but they never came. I was lucky to find enough rocks
to keep it from rolling back. The tracks in the ditch showed they
made steps at least six feet long going down hill.

I had made about $3,000 for myself. We threshed long days, moved
about 4 p.m. and set fire to the straw stack for light, then
threshed until nine. Just as I got the machines and help all
working fairly good, the Mounted Police came and wanted to see my
Engineer’s license. At first, I did not know what to say as I
only had a Minnesota license and did not dare tell him 1 was from
the States. I only had a Tourist’s permit. I told him I was
working for Harry McNeal. He made me shut down until I got a
license. I went to see Harry and drove to Regina that night to see
the minister of Public Works the next morning. After questioning
me, he said he would give me a 60-day permit to operate and that if
the Mounty checked again, he would give me a license.

Ever since I can remember, I was always repairing and making
over or wishing for something. In 1911, I wanted a bicycle but
could not afford to buy one. I made one out of a couple steel
wheels, chains and sprockets with a wooden frame. It was so heavy I
had to push it up hill and then ride it down. About the second trip
down I ran into a fence post. I was thrown over the top of the post
and lost my pants. The bicycle contraption was all smashed up.
Later that year my Dad promised me a new bicycle if I would stay
home and tie wires. I had threatened to leave so I could go back to
school. I stayed and helped and later I sold the bicycle and bought
a share in a big Twin Indian Motorcycle with my late brother, Joe.
After getting tired of the Motorcycle we decided to buy a car.

We found a 1908 two speed four cylinder Overland. We traded the
motorcycle for it in 1913. Had a hard time getting the old car to
run to get it home. The valves were leaking and the magneto was
weak. We took it all apart and it seemed we worked a whole month on
it. We got it running good in the shed and had it sitting up on
blocks. My brother, John, speeded up the engine with it still on
blocks and in gear. It fell off the blocks and went right out
through the single board wall on the back of the shed. John did not
even get a scratch as he had laid down in the seat. The car had no
windshield or top so it was not hurt too much. It ran good and we
used it a couple of years.

In 1915, I got my own car, a Grey Dort with four cylinder
Lycoming engine. It had Fisk red top tires. After I had finished
threshing and with road jobs I decided to go to Minneapolis for the
winter. The trails were all ruts from rain and snow in early
November. We were stuck many times and it took a week to make the
trip. Near Brainard, the motor was knocking, but thought we could
make it by going slow. The rod bolts broke and threw the piston and
rod out the side of the block. We ran it on three cylinders to a
blacksmith shop, had the rod straightened and got a couple new
bolts, put a tin patch on the block, made a leather bearing out of
my shoe sole and tightened it up so it burnt the leather. Then we
oiled it good and retightened it. It was still running when we got
to Minneapolis. There I traded it in on a 1917 Buick 6
Roadster.

I took a job in a boiler shop at the Minneapolis Threshing Co.,
but the air hammers, calking chisels and the pounding on the plates
and rivets was so noisy I could not hear at night. I was told that
it was the last year they built steam engines. After a week, I told
the foreman I wanted to quit. Then they gave me and another fellow
a job hauling coal with Wilcox hard rubber tired trucks (truck made
in Mpls.). We shoveled several four ton loads each day and
delivered to different shops and homes for officials. After
Christmas they shut down for inventory. I decided to go back to
Milwaukee.

As I was getting ready to leave, my brother said he had sold the
30-60 Hart-Parr to a party in Madison, Wisconsin. He was to pay the
balance when the machine got there by freight, but could not get it
started and refused to pay the balance. I stopped on my way and
unloaded the Hart-Parr and drove it five miles out into the country
out of Madison in Dane County. This was in December 1920 and in
1936 1 had to make a trip to Milwaukee again and thought about the
fellow with the Hart-Parr. 1 drove out to see how he was doing and
found the old 30-60 Hart-Parr standing right where I had left it 16
years ago. He said that he did not get any threshing or plowing
jobs like he had planned and had tried several times to start the
tractor, but it would not run. I tried to start it in the evening
but could not because it was really stuck. I took and soaked the
valves and pistons in oil and kerosene mixed. Next morning, I had
him take a team and a long rope and wrapped it on the pulley. 1 had
him drive the horses. It started right off and ran good. Had him
drive it himself around the yard. 1 showed him again how to start
and stop it. Have often wondered if he ever used the machine.

We were married June 10, 1925 in Minneapolis. We had enough
savings to build a new home and start housekeeping. We took all our
savings out of the Minneapolis Bank and sent it to a Greenbush
Bank. When we got back from our honeymoon, found the Farmers &
Merchants Bank closed. We had only ten dollars left. As we did not
want to live with our folks, we pitched our honeymoon tent and
lived in that until I got started threshing. My new bride helped
the farm women where I threshed. We were soon able to build a
12′ x 24′ two room home. From 1926 to 1930 I had the
Overland car agency at my shop in the old Creamery Building that 1
had bought in 1924. I quit custom threshing in 1929 as there were
too many small machines coming into the area. In 1930, I traded off
my Mogul and Racine Separator to Louis Grund at Pitt, Minnesota,
for lumber. He used the Mogul for several years to power a sawmill.
He sold it for scrap in 1940. I am sorry I did not buy it back —
sure would like to have it now.

Maynard Peterson and Harold Grill in 1929 at Herbert
Reese’s. Both men are now deceased. The gas tractors are 30
Caterpillars. They were pulling stumps to clear gravel pit when
picture was taken.

From 1926 to 1930 my salesman and I sold about 500 Whippets,
Over-lands, Willys and Willys Knight Cars. I sold the Border Patrol
twelve new Whippets in one order. In 1930, the Overland Co. went
broke during the depression. 1 had to take back over thirty cars.
Nobody had any money and times were hard. I was glad 1 could get a
few township and county road jobs. I had an Austin Western
Elevating Grader and the Stockland 10 foot blade. It was made in
Minneapolis and had a Best 60, a 10 ton Holt A.C. Model L.gas 6
cylinder Cat and an Ateco Scraper. Work picked up by 1934 and in
19351 took my first State Highway job on Highway 59 between Halma
& Lake Bronson, Minnesota. I got $18,000 for the six miles of
new highway which included culverts, clearing and graveling. I
bought two Cat Wagons, a Diesel 75 and a Cat 48′
power-controlled elevating grader and a used D & H Dragline for
the job. Had good luck and made a little money. 1 kept buying more
machinery and got bigger jobs. By 1942 I had two D8 Cats and
Scrapers working on Wold Chamberlin Field, St. Paul. Also, had a
Dragline, trucks and other equipment putting in eleven miles of
train sorting track grade in Laurel, Montana, for the N. P.
Railroad. Had Highway 32 Oscan Schenky between Red Lake Falls and
Thief River Falls to finish in 1942.

In May of 1942, the U. S. Government wanted me to take a job on
the Alaska highway to work with the Army. In order to handle the
job, I took in a partner, G. A. Olson from Marshall, Minnesota. He
had 38% and I 62% in our joint venture. He brought men from
Marshall and other places. I recruited most of all my old crews
that wanted to go and hired many more. At the peak we had about 300
men in our camp. We shipped over 20 carloads of machinery and
supplied to Dawson Creek, B. C., Canada. We had to walk our
machinery over a hundred miles to the beginning of our job. We had
to ferry it across the Peace River. The crew lived in tents, the
same as the Army men. The work moved into the wilderness further
every week as the road was built. We helped build about 118 miles
of the road the first year and helped put in many culverts and
bridges. The Army had a new sawmill and asked us to get it started.
We began in October, 1942, and sawed lumber to build our winter
camp. The Government and everyone needed lumber. They kept us busy
sawing day and night until June of 1943. We sawed approximately ?
million board feet. We used a D-8 Cat with power take off to run
the sawmill. We had a light plant. It was a 30 KW Cat Diesel. It
was not stopped from October, 1942, until about a year later. Many
of the men in camp had radios and would holler if the plant was
shut down even for a minute. The kitchen had several electrical
appliances too. So, we decided to let it run all the time. We
filled in fuel and changed oil while running. It got down to 60
below zero some days. We changed crews every four hours cutting and
skidding logs in the daytime, as we had to get enough logs ahead to
keep the mill going at night.

Our camp consisted of fifteen buildings made out of the rough
lumber we sawed and they were covered with tar paper. We used
fifty-five gallon empty fuel barrels made into wood stoves for
heating. We burned slabs and other wood — some days it took up to
seven cords of wood to keep the camp warm. We had two full time
Firemen on in the daytime and two at night. They also had to get
water from the river. The ice in the river got as thick as four
feet. The camp buildings were twenty-four feet wide and one hundred
twenty feet long. We had two of the highest flag poles on the
Alaskan Highway. We flew the American flag on one and the Canadian
Flag on the other. The three hundred men living at our camp were
all busy logging, sawing, repairing and maintaining the winter
road. They also helped build housing for the piers for the Muska
and Nelson River Bridges. The cement piers were fifty feet down in
the coffer dams and fifty feet above the river ice when finished.
The Government shipped three old railroad bridges, pieces marked to
be put on these .

Ole Bemtson & Lorain taking truck out of ditch on Alaska
Highway in 1942. Herbert Reese’s machine, Lorain 40, bought new
in May 1937. It had a Waukesha gas engine. Ran this machine double
shift for three years. Rebuilt it twice. Believe it was operated
about 20,000 hours before we scrapped it in 1948.

The Peterson Bros. from Montivedo, Minnesota, had the bridges
assembling job and the pouring of the cement piers. These old
railroad bridges were taken down when the railroad had to be
relocated for the Shasta Dam and Lake. Some men, who took the
bridges down, came along to help Petersons assemble them. They were
rough, hard, whiskey drinking steel workers. We sure had trouble at
our camp to keep them in line. We boarded their crew of about 100
men at our camp. We had to put out four meals daily for about five
hundred people, on an average. Many were truckers and others were
contractor’s men. We were the only camp with women cooks. It
seemed everyone wanted to eat at our camp. I never saw so many big
eaters.

On January 19, 1943, we nearly lost our camp. Everyone was
eating supper and it was 55° below. Fire broke out in our supply
store building at the front of the camp. No one noticed it until
the fire was throwing tar paper pieces onto the other buildings.
The men tried to put it out. In doing so, several froze their ears
and hands. The fire was starting on the roofs of other buildings,
as the wind was right over them from the end. If it had not been
for Harold Grill, a Cat Operator, who had a D8 dozer in the shop, I
am sure all would have been lost. He ran the dozer up to the
burning building with the blade up a foot or so and let it go
through by itself. It took most of the burning building with it.
Then they caught the Cat after it got out in the open, turned it
around and sent it back. Several of the men had to get up on the
roofs of the other buildings to put out fires that were burning on
the tar paper roofing. All but the supply building were saved. We
finished on the Alaskan Highway on November 19, 1943, and shipped
the machinery back to Greenbush; Olson shipped his equipment to
Marshall, Minnesota.

I did a lot of township work in 1944 and 1945. There was a
scracity of machinery, so I bought up used equipment from the Dust
Bowl of the Dakotas. I sold the John Deere agency and building in
1947. I did road work on the They were to deliver the machine in
ten days and it took them forty five days. I sued the Railroad
Company as I had to pay out $6,000 rent for another machine. We had
to walk the machine twenty miles to the job. The bridge was not
safe so we had to walk the machine through six feet of water in the
Roseau River. We chained matts to the tracks to pull them under the
water to get them under the tracks. Some of my sons were in the
water helping to move the matts around. When the machine got on the
other bank, the operator walked off the matts and got about a
hundred feet from the river bank. The machine dropped into the
swamp with the boom sticking straight up and the rear counter
weights about eight feet in the mud. There was only about two feet
of the twenty foot long tracks sticking up. I was on my way around
and over the bridge to tell him to stay on the matts, but did not
get there in time. I did not sleep a wink that night — I was just
sick! We had been waiting six weeks for the machine and now it
seemed hopelessly stuck.

The next morning I had timbers and a Cat hauled out. We put down
a timber dead man and put a fifty foot cable to boom point hoist
cable. Then we put another cable from Cat wench to boom point and
chained a matt to front of the tracks sticking out of the ground.
We then started the big 200 hp. Murphey Diesel, but it just killed
every time we tried to start it. The machine was really sucked down
in the muck. Then I had cables pulled as tight as possible and held
the governor on the engine. I moved a few inches and started to
pull the matts under. Finally, after several more reefs we had it
on the matts. 1 was afraid of breaking something, pulling it so
hard. It sure was a nice feeling to see the machine moving again.
It was a two year job, but we finished the excavations from June 13
to January 3. We ran two shifts day and night, right through. When
the ground started freezing we ran three eight hour shifts. Finally
we were breaking a foot of frost the last couple of days. It got
down to 30° below when we were moving the machines back across the
river and the ice was thick enough to carry the machines. The lakes
now have fine fishing and lots of ducks and geese. It is a game
refuge now where several hundred ducks and geese winter there and
raise their young. In 1954 and 1955 I bid in over a million dollars
of State Highway work in Minnesota. I had five jobs and was
employing over two hundred men. I had #59 from Lancaster to the
border, High-way #2 from Grand Forks to Crookston and Highway #53
at International Falls, south. Another job was Highway #1 at Red
Lake and also a job from Roosevelt to the Lake of the Woods. From
1954 to 1956 we got heavy rain. on all these jobs, which washed out
many culverts and heavy fills. On the hit solid granite. The cut
was over fifteen feet deep in that hill which was about two hundred
feet wide and fifteen hundred feet long. In drilling and blasting
the rock, several homes nearby were damaged, costing me several
thousands of dollars. The rock cost me five dollars a yard to move.
Over the three years 1 paid out approximately two hundred and fifty
thousand more than I took in. 1 had to mortgage my machinery and
borrow money in order to get the jobs completed. With the rising
costs in labor and materials, I was unable to meet all my bills and
had to turn everything over to a receiver.

Emerson Flour City Big 4 – one like Herb bought in 1922 at
auction. Used it couple years breaking with 2 24′ John Deere
Jumbo breakers. This picture was in 1968 with my niece, and
nephew.

Reese & Olson & Peterson Bros. job in spring of 1943 on
Muchwa Bridge on Alcan Highway before we have deck planks and
railing all put on. The steel was three old railroad bridges taken
down when railroad was relocated. Pieces were piece marked and
reassembled — nearly lost this bridge in flood in spring of 1943
as the water rose to 34 feet in ten hours. Piled trees and debris
against bridge steel.

North Dakota Highways, with machinery and labor prices going up
each year and bidding more competitive. I had a payroll from 200 to
250 thousand per year. In 1946 I got the First Place Safety Award
from A. G. C. for employing most men and having the most hours in
the nation without any loss of time due to accidents.

I always wanted an airplane, but thought they were too high
priced. So, I decided to build one in 1929. I used a 1928 Whippet
motor for power, but it was too high speed and too heavy — also
not enough power. After breaking a couple of Hamilton Special made
wood propellers and breaking the landing gear I had made out of old
motorcycle wheels, I gave up and sold it to Arnold Habstritt at
Roseau for $25. I kept the Whippet motor and helped him put on a
Model A motor. He finally got it to fly, but landed in some woods
after a few short flights and wrecked it. I bought a new Taylor
Craft, then an Arconic Chief and a Luscome. Later, I got a Stinson
165 Station Wagon 4-place with radio and all. That was a nice
plane. After a few years I sold it and bought an all metal Cesna
with radio and extras. I did a lot of flying to the scattered jobs
in Minnesota and North Dakota. I sold my plane in 1956 to help pay
my bills. I would liked to have kept it, as I liked flying. Even
though I was a fair weather pilot, will relate some of my
experiences during my years of flying.

In flying out to Cannon Ferry Dam to look at a job in Montana, 1
did not realize the high mountains near Home-stad. 1 was up over
twelve thousand feet in snow squalls at times and could not see the
wing tips. Now and then a mountain peak would come into view. I was
hoping and praying to make it through the storm. Then all of a
sudden there was sunshine and a green valley ahead — sure was
relieved.

Another time I took off from a road job in Red Lake Game Refuge
that was all timber. I got up two thousand feet and all of a
sudden, the engine broke a valve and busted a piston and cylinder.
The engine vibrated so bad 1 was afraid the wings would fall off. I
shut it off, but it would not quit wind-milling — had to almost
pull it up into a stall to stop the engine. Then, I let it fall
into a glide, looking for an opening in the timber. I happened to
see a roof top in the distance. When I got near, I saw a cattle
lane through the trees. I was down lower than the top of the barn
— limbs touched both wing tips, but got landed and stopped. I was
just a few feet from a big ditch full of water. As I went past the
barn, a couple of small boys were standing there. They ran and told
their Dad and before I could get out of the plane, they were out
there. The boys were all excited and wanted to know how I could fly
with the propeller standing still.

Another time, I flew into a heavy rain and thunder storm and got
caught in an up-draft, went up several thousand feet. Then all of a
sudden, I had no control of the plane. I started falling or being
pushed down by a down-draft. When I got down to a couple hundred
feet, the air was bouncing back upwards. I thought I would fall
through the seat. There was a 45 or 50 mile wind on the ground. I
was pushed around and landed into the wind and rain behind a grove
of trees. I had to dodge rock piles in the plowed field to get up
to the trees. I had a hard time to get the plane tied down. Soon as
I cut the power, the wind wanted to take the plane. 1 used my belt
to tie the controls ahead and left the engine on part throttle,
then 1 finally got it tied down. 1 walked around the grove to the
house to ask to use their phone. The central office in Viking did
not open until eight a.m. and this was about seven. I asked the
people their name and the woman told me Ranum. I then asked her if
she knew Oscar and Maynard Ranum. She said they were her sons. I
told her they were working for me. She exclaimed, ‘You are not
Herbert Reese, are you?’ I told her I was and that the boys
worked for me for two seasons on Cats and Scrapers on North Dakota
jobs. She got her husband up to drive me home. It was still raining
and blowing. I finally got a call through to my wife and she came
down to get me.

In 1952 the Game and Fish had Ducks Unlimited Big Bog job up for
bids for the second time. The job was to inclose 38,000 acres to
make three artificial lakes. It required three spillways and
130,000 yards of Dragline excavating. I went into a 50-50 joint
venture with Barnard Curtiss. We each put on two large Draglines. I
flew to Pennsylvania to buy a large three yard machine. I was
having it shipped back by rail and the Railroad Car broke down in
Ohio. They had to reload the machine, then lost it for two weeks in
the Chicago yards.

  • Published on Jul 1, 1970
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