609 South First Street, Odessa, Missouri 64076
How did Grandma and Grandpa do things? Years ago two men, Keith
Sunblead and Karl Lind, wanted to show their children how Grandma
and Grandpa did things such as threshing wheat, sawing wood, and
flour milling.
Over the last twenty-eight years, the Albert City, Iowa,
Threshermen and Collector’s Show has grown to the present ten
to fourteen thousand people a year. This year there were over two
hundred tractors, more than two hundred Maytag engines, five or six
threshing machines, and a dozen or so teams of horses.
The 1998 show started August 7, with rain and mud, but Saturday
and Sunday the weather was sunny, the mud dried up, and the show
crowd was great.
Maytag engines and crawler tractors were featured this year.
Many members of the National Maytag Collectors Club and other
people displayed Maytag engines, equipment, and memorabilia. There
were many upright engines, one-half horsepower and one horsepower,
including Stove Legs and rare carburetors. About thirty-eight
exhibitors displayed Maytag items.
Many different washing machines displayed included some of the
following: toy washers, a small hand-operated washer, one wooden
tub washing machine, Model 86 and 56 miniature washing machines,
and a Maytag apartment-size Model 90-M washing machine. There were
several attachments that could convert Maytag washing machines into
butter churns, meat grinders, and iron attachments.
Rare Maytag items displayed were five fruit jar engines, one
battery charger, one wind-power generator, Simmer pumps, one Maytag
cut-away single, one Maytag cut-away two-cylinder, two Blue Diamond
light plants, one air compressor, a Ruth governor, three toy race
cars, and twenty-four lawn mowers.
A 1909 Mason Maytag car, displayed by Don Cleveland from Oneal,
Nebraska, was a big highlight of the show. The car, which is
drivable, was also in the 1988 Wheatland-Columbine Tour, Fort
Collins, Colorado.
Jack Streeter, of Newton, Iowa, displayed a Maytag Express
Coaster Wagon. He said the wagon was a promotional item issued in
the late 1940s. It was not made available to the general public.
Various Maytag memorabilia included a Ruth watch fob, Maytag watch,
milk bottles, and a 1942 Maytag hydraulic cylinder used on landing
gear of B-26 bombers in WWII.
Many Maytag collectors shared how they got started collecting
Maytags. ‘A friend of mine and I had about eighty engines and a
few tractors. Then we had an auction and sold everything except a
few Maytag engines. My wife and I enjoy the shows, the good
fellowship with great people, and we are always looking for
collectibles,’ said Bill Kerns, of Midway, Arkansas.
‘I enjoy seeing everyone again and welcoming new members to
the National Maytag Club. I enjoy collecting Maytag items,’
said the National Maytag Collectors Club president Claudine Rawdin,
of Champaign, Illinois.
David and Chad Snell, of Isle, Minnesota, have been collecting
Maytag engines and related items for the last twelve years. Their
display included a series of upright engines, a fruit jar engine, a
Simmer Pump, a butter churn, a meat grinder, and many other
items.
D.F. Henry, of Earlham, Iowa, started collecting Maytag engines
in 1996. He said he loves Maytag engines, enjoys meeting people at
the shows, and has made a lot of new friends.
‘My father, Andy, had been collecting Maytag engines for
years. I would pick up Maytag cans and other Maytag items for him
at flea markets. And then I got interested,’ said Jim Miller,
of Conover, Iowa.
Andy Miller, of Belmond, Iowa, got interested in Maytag when an
upright and a fruit jar were given to him. ‘I went crazy
getting more,’ he said.
Tom Stevens started collecting Maytag engines at age thirteen,
in 1983.
Aaron Stevens started working on engines this past winter. He
had two Maytags that are valuable to him. They are two
single-cylinders that his grandfather used to pump water with.
David Jorgenson and son Corey bought their first Maytag at a
farm auction fifteen years ago for $45.
Larry Benton, of Monroe, Iowa, brought his beautifully restored
uprights along with many other Maytag items.
Jerry Nance, of Odessa, Missouri, started collecting hit and
miss engines in the mid-sixties. At that time he wanted to get a
one-cylinder and a two-cylinder Maytag. He thought that was all of
the Maytag engines. He was in for a big surprise. His display
included seventeen unique factory-made Maytag power lawn mowers, a
Maytag Blue Diamond light plant, a fruit jar Maytag, Maytag
Allstate air compressor, and a 5/16 scale
Model 72 Maytag. He left many Maytags at home.
The Albert City, Iowa, Threshermen and Collectors Show, August
7-9, 1998, was a great show. Ron Maymon, of Schaller, Iowa, and
many others were instrumental in making this a very organized and
exciting show.
