ANTIQUE MACHINERY

By Staff
article image
Carey K. Attkisson
Carey Attkisson and crew, on the old machinery. (Courtesy of Carey K. Attkisson, Pine Needle Christmas Tree Plantation, Box 242, Rockville, Virginia 23146).

Carey Attkisson, who owns the Pine Needle Christmas Tree
Plantation near Rockville, Virginia has sent us a cross-country
story about the way an old binder and threshing machine were
transferred from his place to a new owner’s site in
California.

Carey tells us the transaction started with an ad he ran in GAS
ENGINE MAGAZINE. The story was written up by Steve Clark in the
Richmond News Leader, and it makes an interesting tale.

The metal binder and threshing machine had been the property of
Carey’s uncle, Shepherd Lloyd, who operated a threshing
business many years ago. Shepherd’s father, Joseph Lloyd, had
preceded him in the business. They served farmers in Goochland and
Hanover Counties.

Shepherd Lloyd got the cooperation of neighbors. Carey recalls
that about 15 people were needed, with several teams of mules and
wagons. He remembers the big meals that the farmers’ wives
would prepare for the threshers. ‘They would save their best
hams for the laborers,’ he comments.

Shepherd used wooden machinery for about 30 years, then bought
new metal equipment in 1940. He kept this until he retired in 1960,
and at his death it was inherited by Carey Attkisson.

Carey was sentimental about the binder and the thresher. So
several years ago he put it in working order, and with some fellow
Virginians who remembered the old days, threshed and bound some
grain. From Attkisson’s farm, they moved to the Virginia State
Fair, where they could show a new generation the way it used to be
done.

Last summer, Carey decided to sell the machinery-but he insisted
that the person who bought it must be really interested in it. He
did not want it to go to someone who ‘would put it in the woods
and forget it.’

So, he advertised, not only in GEM, but also in farm magazines
and a newspaper.

What happened next is told very ably by Steve Clark in the
Richmond News Leader article, which is an excellent piece
of writing . . .

One day the telephone rang. The caller was a California rancher
and owner of an aircraft components manufacturing firm. He had seen
the ad and wanted to know more. Atkisson described the machinery
and related its history.

‘You’ll be getting a check in the mail from me
soon,’ said Dave Williams of El Monte, California.

In a few days, Williams’ check for $750 came in the mail.
Now came the logistical problem of moving the two pieces of
machinery from Virginia to California. Williams found out that a
moving firm would charge about $4,000.

‘Hold that machinery for me. I’m sending some men to
pick it up,’ Williams told Attkisson over the phone.

One Saturday afternoon in late summer, two men showed up at
Attkisson’s farm in a pickup truck pulling a gooseneck flatbed
trailer. It was too late in the day to load the machinery, so they
decided to wait until Monday morning. They wanted to go sightseeing
on Sunday since they never had been to Virginia.

Monday morning came and the old cooperative spirit Attkisson
longs for was in evidence as friends helped to load the machinery
on the flatbed trailer. Attkisson’s wife, Nellie, painted a
sign reading, ‘California or Bust,’ and stuck it on the
thresher. Mrs. Attkisson fed the Californians sandwiches and iced
tea, and off they went.

Recently, the Attkissons got a letter from Williams. He said the
old binder and thresher had arrived and were resting comfortably on
his ranch. ‘Next year,’ he wrote, ‘I’m going to
plant a little barley or wheat and use the machinery to harvest
it.’

Carey Attkisson said he never would have thought his uncle’s
binder and thresher would wind up on a ranch in California. But, he
added, it sounds like the machinery has found a mighty fine home
out there.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1982
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