Elnora, Indiana
This picture was taken in about year 1936. I called this the
Mule Cart. On the mule is my brother Harold and my oldest sister,
Maxine. Standing with the dog is my youngest sister, Anna Ruth, and
me in the rear driver’s seat. The Mule’s name was Fred. He
was in his mid 20’s and the dog was named Jack. We went lots of
miles, and had lots of fun, but my father traded the mule in on
some kind of farm machinery, so in top picture I updated the cart
to a gas engine power.
With me in the above picture are the neighbor boys. In the front
is Norman Rader, he adjusted the governors to make it go different
speeds as we traveled, and in the high-up rear is Junior Rader. He
guided it with ropes, that can be seen through the front wheel. In
the center is me holding a wrench. My part was to hold in on the
belt tightener to make it go, and pull back on a short piece of
pipe attached to the brake system to bring it to a one wheel skid
stop. Whoa!. This required too much manpower so – – –
In picture shown above, I redesigned to a one driver machine.
Altogether I used parts from a Model T Ford, buggy wheels, bicycle
parts, a plow seat, combine belt, and powered with a Hercules Gas
Engine. This deal was alright, but one thing was wrong, and that
was when the steering wheel was turned to the right, the thing
would go to the left. Therefore, you always went where you were not
looking, if you were not doing a good job of thinking. Just imagine
what a time an in-experienced driver would have. This was lots of
fun and so happened no one got hurt.
In the above picture, I remodeled again, and at this stage
anyone could run it. This machine went lots of miles making a loud
bang-bang-bang-noise. I drove this apparatus until the town marshal
decided I would have to have a license, and then, I began to lose
interest in it.
My father tried to get me to put this last machine I had made
away in the barn and keep it, but that did not set with me, as I
had just as much fun tearing it apart, and later using the tires
and etc. on my first Model T Ford, as I did in building it. My
father traded the engine in, again on something to use at his
farming. Wish I had listened to him.