President, Owensville Threshers Assn.
Owensville Threshers Association takes this means of welcoming
you to their annual reunions, put on in the spirit of a day gone
by, a day when people had time for one another.
It is in the spirit and remembrance of these days that this
association was formed in July, 1962. We are a nonprofit
association.
We readily admit that we are not professional showmen, so if we
pull a few boo-boos, perhaps they too will be amusing and
entertaining. We intend to give you more show for your money than
you are accustomed to.
We started our show with the Gasconade County Fair in August,
1962. We had three steam engines; two were owned by Roy Alexander
of Bourbon, Missouri: one was an Aultman-Taylor which was operated
by Floyd Ruesan, the other was a Greyhound operated by Roy himself.
The third was a 22 HP Keck-Gonnerman owned and operated by John
Holiday of Wellsville, Missouri. Also there was a sawmill owned by
Frank Scego of Owensville, Missouri; a Keck-Gonnerman tractor owned
by Floyd Schlottog of Bland, Missouri; an 8-16 International
tractor owned by Ferd Aufder Heide of Owensville, Missouri; a 22-36
tractor owned by Ed Roethemeyer of Owensville; a Twin City tractor
owned by Ervin Schneider of Owensville; and a number of old gas
engines. One model engine was shown by Paul Heidbrink also of
Owensville. Two loads of wheat furnished by Floyd Schlottog were
threshed by a threshing machine furnished by John Roethemeyer. They
were assisted by members Ed Roethemeyer and Jim and August
Wacker.
Our main objective in having this show is to let the
‘youngsters’ see the ‘oldsters’ demonstrate how
these old steam tractor engines were used to supply the power for
plowing, threshing, sawing, grinding, etc.
Old-timers will tell you that the threshing of wheat and oats
were the good old days.
Many hours of work by members have gone into the restoration of
these steam engines so that you could see and enjoy some of their
performances, which are now a thing of the past.
