24W – 57 Lake St. Roselle, Illinois 60172
I am only 48 years old but I remember some of the old-time ways
of doing things. Our neighbor had a 16 hp. Brown engine and a
6-roll Appleton corn shredder. I would leave for school about 8
o’clock in the morning and they would have the engine going no
matter if it was 10 above zero or 40 above zero.
It was a side shaft engine and it took three men to get it
going. The engine had a water pump on it and he used a big steel
tank which he had on a wagon for cooling.
I also remember threshing with a 16 hp. bevel gear drive Aultman
Taylor engine and an Aultman Taylor separator with stacker. The
engine was bought in 1903. About 1925 they junked the Aultman
Taylor Separator and bought a 36-60 Reeves.
There were about twenty farmers in the ring. About 1927, the
ring broke up and we got the engine. They said you couldn’t get
flues anymore so my Dad and I junked the engine. Much to my sorrow,
had I known what I know today, we would have kept it. I have the
whistle, pop valve and a few other parts left.
My father started out with a Moline tractor but he did not use
it very long when he traded it off for a 1927 Fordson and a
Ferguson plow. I started to work with the Fordson in 1936 and we
used it until about 1941 when we got a 10-20 McCormick-Deering.
Everybody around us had no use for the Fordson but the one we had
gave us a lot of good service and did a lot of hard work. We used
60 oil in it, summer and winter. In winter, we would put a pail of
hot water in the radiator and we would have no trouble in starting
it. It had a Pierce governor on it and one day I was plowing when
the fan belt broke. Then the governor wouldn’t work and I had
the wits scared out of me. I shut the gas off until it ran out of
gas.
My 10-20 and John Deere Model 40 plow. I still have both but
they are not in working order any more.
We did not have electricity so we ran the washing machine with a
gas engine. About the time my Dad would get out in the field, the
engine would stop. My Grandfather lived across the road and every
so often he had to come over with his horse and buggy and tell my
Dad the engine wouldn’t start. We did not get the electricity
until 1949, so I had to keep the engines going for quite
awhile.
I now have a 1927 I) John Deere, with which I do most of my
plowing. It is on steel. 1 pull two 16 inch plows or three 14 inch
plows. I use fuel oil and water mixture.
Shredding com with my Model U Minneapolis Moline and 6-roll
Appleton Shredder. Ariel Lee of Morris, Illinois, and his 1909, 20
hp. International Mogul Tractor on a Sandwich Baler at the Northern
Illinois Steam Power Show in 1967. Threshing with my 1927 28 inch
McCormick-Deering thresher.
Each engine has been completely restored and in excellent
mechanical condition as well as completely repainted and each
engine has had primer paint used on it so the paint stays on them.
I want to state that I am not a collector. My gasoline engines are
strictly a hobby with me. I have had some of them the better part
of twenty years. I do enjoy them and have an excellent place to
store them so when I have them running they don’t bother
anyone.
I do enjoy the G.E.M. I have to do with material handling for
the Geo. A. Hormel and Company for my livelihood. I always look
forward to the new issue. Top left is a 9 hp. Galloway, mfg. 1920
and a 5 hp. Galloway, mfg. 1910. These engines are mounted on an
International farm wagon. Both engines are in excellent condition.
They are pulled with a 1941 VAC Case tractor that is like new.
In center of picture from I. to r. is a 1?hp. John Deere, mfg.
1927, 3 hp. John Deere, mfg. 1930 and a 6 hp. John Deere, At the
right is a 5 hp. Galloway, year 1908 with the original Galloway
horse-drawn wagon and saw mandrel. This is a great old engine.
My 1927 Model D John Deere pulling two 16 inch plows, eight
inches deep.
I have a 1937 Allis Chalmers tractor and a F 12 but neither one
is in very good shape. I have a 1917 Model T motor which is on a
truck for use as a power unit. A 1? hp. Challenge engine made in
Batavia, Illinois, 1? hp. Fairbanks Morse, 1? hp. John Deere
engine, Sears Roebuck engine on a drag saw, 1? Busy Boy, air-cooled
and a 3 hp. Alamo, Blue Line.
I have an Appleton 6-roll shredder which I use just for fun and
a 28 inch McCormick Threshing Machine and other odds and ends.
If anybody has an extra rocker arm for my 3 hp. Alamo Blue. Line
Engine, I would like to know about it. I also have Prairie Farmer
magazines in book form from 1912 to 1921 – Comfort magazines and
lots of other old books. I enjoy the G.E.M. and I.M.A. very
much.
