15th Annual Show
15700 Santini Road, Burtonsville, Maryland 20730
Sawmill in operation. All at the Show drive Massey-Harris
gets ready for the parade; on display comes through the parade.
Note motor in the center of the wheel. held in Berry ville,
Virginia.
I will attempt to write up a report of the Shenandoah Valley
Show for GAS ENGINE MAGAZINE, although I am a steam engine man with
not to much experience with the old gas engines and tractors. My
experience with them, despite the fact that I am only 42, is
limited to model A Fords, a couple of old trucks, a pair of
10-20’s and a 22-36 McCormick-Deering. However, I will attempt
to report on the whole show with the emphasis on
‘Gasoline’, or ‘Bang-put-put’ Alley. For the
benefit of those who do not take the IRON-MEN ALBUM I will try to
cover it all in general. As most of you know we have our show at
the grounds of the Ruitan Club in Berry ville, Va. There we have a
good grandstand, restrooms, many buildings, and enough huge shade
trees to park all our exhibits in the shade. This also leaves
enough room for operating the engines and tractors in the shade.
Only our sawmill, shingle mill, and thresher are out in the sun all
the time. There is also adequate ground for parking for the
crowd.
We had pretty much the same names in steam, Frick, Case,
Russell, Geiser, Farquhar, and Aultman-Taylor. The size of our
steam engines varied from Joe Newton’s 10 hp. bevel gear
A&T to Ralph Lewin’s 30 hp. double cylinder Geiser ZZ. We
had single and double cylinder Frick and Geiser, portables, and
homemade engines, some made from scratch and others from portables.
Of course, sawmill, shingle mill, thresher and a small rock crusher
were in use from time to time each day. Mr. and Mrs. Schaefer were
there with their books, magazine subscriptions, and souvenirs. Our
membership booth and souvenirs stand was also doing business as
usual. We also had our steam train ride, model table and on Sunday,
the steam calliope. Our flea market was the biggest ever and our
foundry and blacksmith were both there. The helicopter was back
giving rides over the show grounds and the area.
We were blessed by wonderful weather for the entire show. Many
of our neighboring shows have had rain for at least part of the
show, with one having a total flood that just about stopped
everything. As I write this we have one more show to go in the
area, and I hope them the best of luck. After having had such good
weather in the midst of the bad luck of so many others, our bad
days are bound to come. Our crowds were by far the largest ever,
and I think this is a sign of growing popularity as much as the
good weather.
A threshing picture in the late 1920s. I was a service man for
the Waterloo Threshing Machine Company at that time. We were called
exports at that time. It is a Rock Island tractor and Waterloo
Separator threshing at Sedgwick, Alberta Canada.
The 30-60 is an older tractor and the serial number 623. It has
a Keck Gonnerman motor and Mt. Vernon, Ind. on the side and front
of the radiator. This old tractor needs some work done on it.
It’s not near as nice as the 25-50, but I would like to know
the year and color, or any other information. The picture is of the
25-50.
Courtesy of Dean Gerdes, R.R., Blake Lane, Warsaw, Illinois
62379
And now to get to the Gas Tractors. When we first adopted a
charter and a legal name after several informal shows, it was
decided to include ‘and Gas Engine’ in our name because of
the presence of several tractor men. That handfull has sure
multiplied. Our small engine and Tractor section has grown by leaps
and bounds, until this year it was almost too big for the area. I
have no idea as to the number of makes or the number present, but
the total must have been over a hundred. They varied in size from
May tags up to 5 to 10 hp. or more. Several garden tractors were
also on display, some even running in the parade. One was a very
unique one wheel with the motor in the center of the wheel. One of
our dependable gas tractor men, ‘Cookie’ Cornett, was here
with his 4 wheel drive Massey-Harris which is in beautiful
condition. We also had a Quincy 6 hp. and a Moline, amongst others.
Mr. Bob DeBoskey and his son, John, were here with some of their
International Farmalls, from their collection. We also had a nice
Waterloo along with many other makes. Our Vice President had his
Fordson here with a mower attachment. This attachment was bolted on
to the opening in place in the belt pulley, and I believe the
cutter bar has two speeds. We are going to have to have more room
for the gas engine and tractor display next year, but we hope we
can get it by restricting visitor parking in the exhibit area, and
some rearranging of the camping. Also maybe we will buy somebody,
in the gas engine section, an extra gallon of gas. Then he can run
his Delco plant a few extra hours and you will get this written by
a ‘Gasser’ and not a ‘Steamer’.
The picture was taken at Willard Moore’s show at Jamestown,
North Carolina, 1974. Minneapolis cross motor in foreground and a
Fordson in background. They were both in excellent shape. The
Minneapolis was owned and operated by Howard McCollum.
I recently added this F-20 [Regular] McCormick Deering to my
collection. One of my friends and I had it running within 1/2
day’s work, changing the mag and repairing the carb. It is the
very early type with the open gear steering mechanism. Of course, I
have more work to do on it before it is in show condition.
Also, at this year’s show we had a new and added attraction
on Saturday. It was a horse pulling contest, held just after the
parade Saturday, and I was not able to get over to it; so I do not
know any details. It must have been very good judging by the
comments I heard from everybody. We were not able to get out much
advance publicity as we were not certain we would be able to have
it until a couple of weeks before show time. All of the people I
talked to wanted to know if we would have it next year, as they
wanted to be sure and come back if we did. The answer is Yes, if we
can, we will, and we hope with more advance publicity.
We have also been trying to help other groups and gain publicity
for ourselves by putting on small displays during the year. These
have been mostly at colleges, schools, fairs, etc. We also plan to
sponsor a bowling team this fall, to help keep people aware of our
existence during the winter months.
I know that I need correction on a lot of things pertaining to
my report, and I have left a lot of things out. However, there is
one thing I can’t leave out and that is the praise and thanks
to all of our officers, directors, members, and all others whose
work makes this show possible.
We all hope to see you at the same time and place next year.
That’s Berryville, Va., on Rt #7 one mile west of U.S. Rt.
#340, on July 24th, 25th, and 26th, 1976. Come on out, have a good
time and see a good show.
