The 1988 Sandwich Show

By Staff
Published on June 1, 1989
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Gordon Ferguson's IHC Famous 10 HP.
Gordon Ferguson's IHC Famous 10 HP.
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Art Titzel's freshly restored Minneapolis-Moline Z.
Art Titzel's freshly restored Minneapolis-Moline Z.
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Bud Waite's 5 HP Hercules.
Bud Waite's 5 HP Hercules.

Box 43, Somonauk, Illinois 60552

Seventeen years! That doesn’t seem very long to a young
‘ole man’ like me, but to some of our younger collectors
it’s a lifetime. In that 17 years, our show has grown from a
small local show to the point that when we say ‘Sandwich’,
they say, ‘We’ve been there’!

While Mother Nature tried her best to cook us out this year,
everyone came through for us. Exhibitors were down a little, but a
good number of those that decided it was too hot to haul iron came
anyway to enjoy an air-conditioned drive and a stroll under our
beautiful oak trees. We still managed to get over 300 engines, 50
tractors, and 155 model engines on the grounds.

With Minneapolis-Moline as our featured tractor, Roger
Baumgartner of Walnut had to bring one of his Prairie Golds to
display. Calvin Tonak of Fort Wayne, Indiana stopped by with his
1937 M-M Waterloo and Art Titzel of our club displayed his freshly
restored Z.

Gordon Ferguson’s IHC Famous 10 HP was our featured engine
and sat in the front row along with his other nicely restored
Famous engines. Also to be noted was Bud Waite’s Hercules
restoration. Bud also operates our 25 HP Bessemer Oil Field engine.
Naturally, we are known for our Sandwich engines, being less than a
mile from the old plant, and Ralph Schlough of Bangor, PA brought
his engine along to see where it came from. I think Ralph enjoyed
visiting with us almost as much as we enjoyed visiting with him. A
total of 186 exhibitors from six states made for a varied
display.

One sad note during the show, and something we should ALL be
very careful of, was that while gassing up his engine, Dave Harris
of Creve Coeur, IL was badly burned. We all need to remember that
gas is very, very dangerous, even more so when the temperature is
in the 90’s. Dave has been a regular exhibitor for quite a few
years now, and we are looking forward to seeing him and his
Caterpillar 1 cylinder engine this year.

The backbone of our Model Corner is Cliff Eichelburger of
Sandwich. Cliff keeps trying to corner the steam model crown for
himself, and I think he’s succeeding with 96 models. Gas models
were also up with 34. They must be easier to handle when it’s
hot!

Our raffle engine, a 1? HP Sandwich, was won by Frank Bogden of
Sugar Grove, IL. Frank and his boys have been tractor exhibitors
for several years with some good-looking John Deeres. Now he has
another color of green to look after.

Our barbed wire, corn hooks and pegs, and farm toys got to move
right into the middle of the show as the Fair Board saw fit to
build a new building right where it worked out for us.

For our 1989 show, we are looking for items made in Sandwich and
plan on a separate display area for them. Sandwich Manufacturing
Co. wasn’t the only company in Sandwich, and we welcome any
other products for this display. Featured tractor will be a ? scale
Case steam engine and (due to a major mistake on my part!) the
featured engine will be Root & VanDer-Voort. We are planning to
expand our farm toy show and a special invitation is issued to all
collectors. 1989 show dates are June 24 and 25 at the Sandwich
Fairgrounds, Sandwich, Illinois, ? mile north of Rt. 34, on the
west side of town. Exhibitors, arts & crafts, and flea market
are always welcome. Come spend a day or two with us at our
beautiful, historic, shaded Fairgrounds.

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