President, R.R.2, Box 143, Leavenworth, KS 66048.
Hello Folks! Many more miles to Branches and some real good
shows. By the time you read this the shows will be over and we can
talk over all the things we did and should not have done. As usual
we made a lot of new friends.
I didn’t get to Branch #28 show at West Plains, Missouri,
but met the president and his wife at Branch #32, at Clarksville,
Arkansas. (Branch #16 Ozark Show at Republic or Springfield, as
some call it.) Anyway it is in the Ozarks of Missouri. That is the
branch that charters a bus and goes to the National at Oak Creek.
They have done this several times I know of. They are the branch
with the large stationary steam engines. They have a real good
large boiler to power them. I think Charles told me this boiler was
made in the forties. Looks like it is
5/8‘ plate and butt strap. Had good
weather at #16 and a big show. They had something new there this
season- Ron Sevart from #17 had his Townsend tractor running. It is
quite a showpiece and a lot of people had never seen one nor heard
of one.
This writer had a bit of luck at #16 show. I purchased a real
nice 8 HP Witte cut off saw rig and, I may add, with no money! I
had no checkbook with me as I had no intention of buying anything,
especially good size. But another good old branch friend vouched
for me that I was trustworthy so I got the rig. Thanks, Charles.
The boys at #16 took care of it for me as I had no way to haul it
home. I understand the man, Raymond Plaster from Arkansas grew up
on a farm with engines and he sure did a beautiful job on this one.
Another display at #16 was the biggest, nicest display of Maytag
equipment I have ever seen. It belonged to Jerry Nance of Odessa,
Missouri, my home town. (I was a few years ahead of him.)
We had to pull out of Springfield about 3:30 in the
afternoon-had a 40th wedding anniversary to go to next day. J.B.
Groff told me my Huber engine belonged to Earl Hood at Miller,
Missouri. I looked at the map and figured we could go by Miller and
not go out of our way. J.B. said that all the Hood family had left
the town of Miller.
Well, when we pulled in, we saw a man at a shop working on a
lawn mower. We told him what we were interested in. He sent us to
another man and that man told us of another who could tell us about
Earl Hood’s engine. As we were going to find him, we stopped at
a Dairy Queen to get refreshed. We saw four ladies at a corner
table; one of them was running the place.
I went over and asked if they had ever heard of Earl Hood. One
lady really came to life. She said ‘I sure have, my father
worked for him!’ She said he lived ‘right up here in Possum
Holler.’ I asked her if she remembered the engine. She said,
‘I sure do, Dad worked with him on it.’ So a little
investigating can sometimes produce some surprising results. Mr.
Hood had carved his initials in the platform of the engine and they
are very readable. By the way, J. G. Groff came up and ran the Hood
Huber in the McLouth parade this year. It is always so good to see
the smiles on the faces of these fellows running those old steamers
that they love to pull throttle on.
Even a young man, Stan Hobbs, who I am teaching to run the
engine, gets quite excited to hear that old engine chuckle. His
grandfather had a 22 HP Woods engine and a Minneapolis separator.
We had been trying to find information on that engine. We finally
heard it had been scrapped, and sent to Japan. That is where the
old 16 x 30 Hart Parr I grew up with went also. I have the Hart
Parr watch fob that had the serial number on it that Dad
carried.
Well, I might tell you of a few pickups I did lately. Got an
18-36 Hart Parr and a 18 x 27 Oliver Hart Parr and a 1947 LA Case,
always been in shed, never sat out. I have to get a front tire for
it. One original tire was still on it. It is a rough one to get
7.50 x 18.I have three tractors that use that size.
Had a real nice surprise a couple weeks ago. John and Mildred
Lease from Washington pulled in with a big fifth wheeler. I think
they told me they belonged to three branches of the National: #12,
#20, #23 or #26. They were here a couple of days and I took them to
McLouth and showed them where we have my Huber engine. Also took
them to the Ag Hall at Bonner Springs, Kansas, ten miles from my
home. They said they really enjoyed it and hadn’t ever seen it
before. They got to see our 45 Case Special that is in the Ag Hall.
Took them to see some private collectors also, so they had an
interesting two days with us.
Branch #32, Clarksville, Arkansas: We got in about 10:30 Friday
night. We pulled our van under a tree and just as I shut it off I
saw what I thought was Bennie Warren’s pickup go out the north
entrance. I found out the next morning he had seen us and went home
and told his wife Barbara, ‘I think Del and Vi are here. I am
sure I saw their van.’
Friday it rained and things were wet but the next morning the
sun came out and it was a beautiful day. We even had a pleasant
surprise when Helen Case Brigham came in. We had not seen her since
National. Brig was at home working on Case-Heritage Eagle magazine.
Well, they put on a nice show, not a big show, but it sure had
quality. There were some unusual things such as an apple peeler run
by gas engine, and a man playing a dulcimer-boy, could he play it!
There was a man who collected Case tractors. He had a 1937 RC and
an SC and a VAC. I have a few Case tractors, a couple of DCs and
one DI and the big LA.
They sure like their cars down there. They had a real car show
with some rare cars such as a ’67 Galaxie XL like my nephew had
and sold, un-restored by request, to a man from Chicago for $8,000.
That helped my nephew nicely since he has a new son! It seems there
are quite a lot of restoration people in Arkansas. By the way, that
XL is a convertible. That Ford was the same color as one of our
Cadi convertibles, a Flamingo Red.
Well, now to the afternoon: the kiddies charged head first into
the straw piles in a loose change scramble, followed by more games
like the fan belt throw, which I don’t remember ever seeing
before.
Bennie was everywhere trying to make sure everything went well.
I saw a couple other real workers, men and women. Barb worked in
the kitchen most of the day, but when she heard those tractors
starting she said goodbye to the kitchen! Orin Sanders pulled a JD
B from West Plaines. I’ll bet that was 250 miles! I think
Bennie is going to fix Orin up with some lighter wheels than the
cast type. Bennie had three tractors, the Oliver 70, WC Ollin, and
JD B. That old war-horse 70 Oliver is some tractor. Bennie and
Barbara and Russell all drove it in one class or another. That old
70 just kept on going. I have a 77 diesel that I may pull. We sure
pull some loads here at home with it. We got to see a JD R top them
all, again. 730 JD couldn’t touch it, but a G got pretty close
to it. I have a 49 R and I couldn’t believe it when I pulled my
TD 6 and loader sideways from a bank.
Well Bennie will have another puller, my 80 Oliver. I sold it to
him after I got the 18×27.
So we head for Fort Scott next weekend, as I have to run a 50
Case engine.
So long folks!
