The Holdeman family has been into gas engines, tractors and old cars for the last 100 years. My dad and brother, Paul, own The Tired Iron Farm, which makes tractor fenders, hoods and sheet metal parts.
My grandson, Logyn, loves to help me work on my 1914 Perkins 1-1/2 HP engine. I restored it about 35 years ago, and it’s time for it to be redone and put on a new cart.
Almost 2 years old, young Logyn is already following in the family tracks, helping granddad Chuck restore his 1914 1-1/2 HP Perkins. Great-great grandfather Ira Holdeman started the family passion for engines, making Logyn the fifth generation of Holdeman engine lovers.
Built by the Perkins Wind Mill Co., Mishawaka, Ind., the engine was originally bought by the Becket family to pump water on their farm. After electricity came in 1930 they set the engine off under an old shed. My dad and Paul went to the Becket farm one day to buy an old car, and Paul saw the old Perkins sitting upside down under some wood in an old junk pile. We didn’t think it would ever run again, but we thought it would make a good mailbox stand for the farm. That was 1965, and I paid $100 for it.
Contact engine enthusiast Charles Holdeman at: 26924
Aspenwood Dr., Elkhart, IN 46514-6055.
