This letter was sent to us by J. E. Pierce, 171 Aspen Drive,
Durango West #2, Durango, Colorado 81301. It was sent by one of the
members of the Durango Antique Power Association to President
Willie Heyen for the club’s newsletter. It should be enjoyable
to readers of GEM.
Dear Willie:
You asked me at the last meeting if I had an interesting story
to send so you could send it out to the club members. Well,
I’ve just told this story twice before and swore I’d never
tell it again on account of the ridicule and haws-haws I got. But
since I joined the old engine club and kind a know some of the
members I know they would believe me. Knowing that members of old
antique engine clubs are truthful and are accustomed to how old
engines operate and how old men remember back over old times, I
gave a lot of thought about what happened to me and an old
engine.
It was in the spring of 1946 that all this happened I had just
come home from the service and thought I’d spend a while with
my mom and pop before I went out to get a job. Well, I’ll never
forget that cold spring morning. Pop said, ‘Son we ort to go
down and help old man Coberly fix his harness.’ Old man Coberly
was up in his 80’s and Pop was about the only man in that neck
of the woods that had any tools for harness fixin’. So we
gathered up the anvil and punches and hammers and went down to the
old man’s house.
Anyway I’m getting a little off of the story I wanted to
tell. But while we was down there old man Coberly sent me out to
the barn to get some spare leather and some extra tugs. By golly
out there in the corn crib was an old gas engine I can’t
remember the name on it but it was an old one. So before we left
that evening I asked the old man if he’d sell that engine.
Well, the old man never liked me very much on account of the time
me and some other boys snow-balled his old Model-T when he went by
the school-house. I remember it splattered up his windshield so bad
that he run off in the ditch right there in front of the school.
Well, they never did pin it on me but he always knew I was one of
the boys who almost caused him to wreck his car.
But back to the engine Pop heard me ask him if he’d sell it.
I saw Pop give me the eye to shut up, so I did. Pop knew the old
man wouldn’t sell that engine to me anyway. So goin’ home I
asked Pop why he wanted me to shut up. He said, ‘Son, I know
where they an old engine older than old man Coberly’s, if
it’s still there.” I thought that was a funny way of
put-tin’ I the knew where it was if it was still there. Well
anyway, Pop said that he remembered an old engine that was in the
sheep shed at old Uncle John James chat’s down close to the
Missouri River there in Missouri.
I forgot to mention that at the beginning Mom and Pop raised us
on a farm in Livingston County in north Missouri. There was three
of us boys and two girls I was next to the youngest but that
ain’t part of the story. Pop said he would call Cousin Albert
James and have him go over to Uncle John’s and see if the old
engine was still in the the corner of the old sheep shed. I said,
‘Pop, lets call Albert right this evening if we can get through
on that old country line.’ Well, Pop got the call through the
very first time he tried. Cousin Albert said he knew that engine
was still there because he saw it there back in the fall when one
of his cows was having a calf in there. Cousin Albert was Pop’s
first cousin, or maybe second cousin, I don’t remember.
But back to the story Pop said we’d be down there soon
if Albert would consider partin’ with the engine. Cousin Albert
said he didn’t want it and Uncle John didn’t either because
he had been dead for about 23 years by then. Well anyway, I told
Pop we sure had to go down there the very next morning after chore
time. We left bright and early the next morning in Pop’s old
’36 Chevy car. He didn’t want to go right that day because
it had been raining for over a week and them roads down there in
that country was all clay and sure slick. But we went and got to
Cousin Albert’s about noon. Figured we would have dinner with
them but they wasn’t home guess they didn’t think we would
come in all that rain. Well, I thought I’d never get Pop
hurried up to go on over to old Uncle John’s and get that
engine. I did the driving because Pop drove too slow-he told me
we’d sure have to watch that last mile of mud up to Uncle
John’s house. Well, I made it alright but I almost slipped off
into a big gully where Pop used to kill copperheads when he was a
boy. When we got up to the barn-lot gate, Pop said, ‘Let’s
put the car right up there on the grass where we can get a good
start when we leave.’
I parked the car and I guess in my excitement I forgot to turn
off the key. I made a run for the barn, and boy was that lot muddy
and nasty! Pop had to stop and go back and turn off the key and
then he hollered at me and said, ‘Not the barn dang it, out
there in the old sheep shed.’ We made it through all that mud
out to the shed and it wasn’t so bad inside, except we had to
chase six old dry cows out so we could get into the back of the
shed. Danged old fool cows spooked and splashed mud and manure all
over me when they came out. You know, that old shed was packed up
so full of old be ddin’ and manure that we had to duck to get
to the back.
‘Pop, I don’t see any old engine in here,’ I said.
‘I think someone else has already beat us to it.’ Pop said
to get that old stubby pitch fork down out of the rafters and to
move some of the mess out of this corner because best as he could
remember it was right here the last time he saw it. He told me that
he and Cousin Albert had to go and help Uncle John one night when
the ewes were lambin’ and they set the lantern up on the old
engine right there in the corner. Well, Pop started moving out some
of the old dirty beddin’ and dry manure it was the only spot in
the shed where the roof hadn’t leaked or old cows hadn’t
peed. All of a sudden Pop said, ‘Son, I believe I hit something
right here.’
Well, I couldn’t stand it no longer so I grabbed the old
fork out of Pop’s hands and really started movin’ out the
straw and stuff. Guess I was kind a excited ’cause I had to
move one pile of fresh cow manure. I gave it a big throw to one
side and back of me and hit Pop right where his overalls was un
bottoned on the side. Pop never did button his overalls on the side
said they gripped him there ’cause they was too tight. Well,
when that pile hit Pop he started cussin’ and said, ‘Dang
it, slow down. That engine isn’t go in’ anywhere and
besides, if you break that old pitchfork, we’ll never get it
dug out.’
I tried to slow down and about that time I told Pop that there
was some kind of rubber sheet or something over the engine and Pop
looked at it and told me he remembered that was the same old rubber
slicker Uncle John had in there the night the ewes were
lambin’. It was all stiff with age figured that night they was
helpin’ Uncle John was back in 1916 or 1917. You can see why
that old raincoat was stiff. Well, I finally started pulling it
back over the water tank on that old engine and was just beginning
to peek under it, and danged if a whole pack of mice started
running out right in my face. I squalled out and jumped back
’cause I first thought of all those copperheads Pop used to
kill right close. My feet slipped out from under me in the
excitement and I sure did mess up my good GI woolen britches, not
to mention the mess I’d already made of my new GI shoes they
had issued me when I was discharged. I took some dry straw and
wiped off my britches best I could and went back to the engine. By
that time Pop had pulled the old slicker plum off and was just
standin’ there. And I couldn’t believe my eyes that old
engine looked as new as if it had just been covered up the day
before.
‘Pop, did you ever see anything like that?’ He said
he’d see if the flywheels would turn over. He took hold of one
and felt it turn real easy. He said, ‘By golly, it still has
good compression.’ I still just stood there with my mouth open.
Pop told me to hand him a crank and he’d see if it would turn
over all the way. He had a time gettin’ that old rusty crank on
the shaft the crank had been laying out from under the rain coat
and was in bad shape. He finally got the crank in place and told me
to hold my hand on the intake valve so it would turn over easy. I
did and he gave her a spin and I accidentally put my hand on the
spark plug. With those wet knees of mine from all that fresh cow
manure I got the goldurndest shock I ever had. But that wasn’t
half the story. That old engine fired just as soon as I jumped back
from that valve. Pop fell over backwards and squalled out that he
had broke his arm for sure. That old rusty crank wouldn’t let
loose and when it came around it hit Pop’s arm.
The next thing, Pop was hollerin’ to shut her off.
She’ll set the shed on fire. Well, danged if I didn’t get
my hand on the spark plug the second time. But I did get her shut
down real quick. Course I had to go over and help Pop up. He had
sure messed up his overalls and jacket when he fell backwards in
that old wet manure! I started hollerin’ about how that old
engine started after all those years and Pop said ‘Dang that
engine get me in the car and to the doctor.’ There was a town
about 10 miles west so I helped Pop out to the car.
Well, I finally got him to the doctor’s office. When we went
in there was a couple of men and one woman in the waiting room but
I told the nurse there behind the desk that we sure had to see the
doctor right now. I guess I was talking pretty loud ’cause the
old doctor came out in the waiting room and asked what the matter
was. I started to tell all about Pop crankin’ up that old
engine out at Uncle John James’ sheep shed and how it started
after all those years and the crank busted Pop’s arm. Well he
said ‘Come on in the back room’ to Pop but for me to stay
out there on account of the shape of my shoes and britches guess he
hadn’t seen Pop’s overalls yet. Anyway he brought me out
one of those old iron back chairs like they had in the soda
fountains but this one didn’t have no bottom in it guess
he’d been usin’ it to hold a flower pot or something. Well
I noticed about that time as I was scraping my shoes with my pocket
knife that that woman and them two men got up and left. I just
supposed the smell there in the waiting room was botherin’
them. Anyway in about a half-hour Pop came out of the back room and
the doctor had put his arm in a sling. Said it weren’t broke
just hurt some. Pop looked like he was dying but I wasn’t
worryin’ too much about him as I was about gettin’ back out
there to that old engine. So I told Pop to hurry and we’d get
back out to Uncle John’s and load that engine and get back
home. I knew it would be in the dark getting home and I sure hated
doing the chores by lantern.
Well it didn’t take me long to make that 10 miles back out
there to Uncle John’s house well not house just barn and sheds
the old house had burned up about 20 years before that. Cousin
Albert said some tramp likely burned it down or it could have been
‘coon hunters sometimes they get all liquored up and get pretty
careless. Anyway back to the story I drove up that muddy road real
careful past that copper-head gulley and right up to the barn lot
gate. I told Pop I’d try to back up as close to the shed as I
could and I was sure I could load that old engine by myself. I
knowed Pop wouldn’t be any help with that one arm in a
sling.
Well now, here comes the saddest part of the story and I guess
the saddest thing ever to happen to me when I went inside that
shed, you know, that old engine was gone! There wasn’t nothing
left there but that old yeller slicker and that old busted fork. I
had sense enough then to see those tracks. Two fellers with feet as
big as # 14 4-buckle over-shoes on had carried that old engine out
of there and right out to the lot gate where they had loaded it in
a car and gone. Well I never felt like bawlin’ so much in my
life as I did right then. It was sure a long old trip back home
that evening.
Well I went back down in that country a number of times asking
around if they’s anyone who knew anything about an old engine
and I never heard nothing ever a time.
Now like I said at the beginning, Willie, I wouldn’t have
told this story except I knew there was someone, sometime who would
believe me in the old engine club. In case there’s anyone who
don’t believe me I can take them back there and show them the
old shed where the engine was dug out. And I bet that old slicker
is still there as more proof.
Willie, I sure hope you’ll print this true story cause it
has been cooped up in me so long it was hurtin’. So long and
I’ll see you at the next meetin’.
Old Warren Grace
P.S. Right after this true story happened, I told a feller about
it and he said he believed it ’cause if old Warren Grace was
that full of gas he sposed that old engine would have been
also.
