306 W. Anthony, Corydon, Iowa 50060.
This story goes back to around 1928 when I was a small boy
living on a farm in Northwestern Kansas.
Another boy and I were rummaging around in the attic of the home
where I lived and we came across a number of old ‘Popular
Mechanics’ magazines. In the advertisements we saw in there we
came across an advertisement for a rig made by the Shaw
Manufacturing Co., Galesburg, Kansas for an attachment to convert
bicycles to motorbikes. I remember we each clipped out an
advertisement because someday we planned that when we got bicycles
we were sure going to get one of these attachments. I guess somehow
in our boys’ imagination we thought these motorbike kits were
always going to be available. I remember I kept my advertisement
for a long time but when I finally got an old bicycle around 1931,
I had lost my advertisement and money was so scarce I never even
thought much about it.
I do remember that about this time I had already begun to have
to work in the garden as part of my farm chores and the Shaw
Manufacturing Co. of Galesburg, Kansas was now advertising garden
tractors. These were very appealing to me at this time but again
money was too scarce and 1 never even wrote for one of their
catalogs or folders. No one in our community ever had a garden
tractor of any kind that I ever saw. However, around 1940 I visited
a cousin near Galesburg, Illinois. He lived on a small acreage and
he had a complete line of Shaw equipment that he used on this small
place. This was the only time I ever saw a Shaw Garden tractor.
In these later years I have become very interested in old Gas
Engines, tractors, etc. I kept thinking about the Shaw
Manufacturing Co. and about 4 years ago I wrote them asking for
history of the Shaw Co. but I never received any answer. Around a
vear ago, I wrote to an antique Motorcycle collector in Kansas. I
found out in writing him that Mr. Shaw was still alive and that he
had sold out the plant in 1962 to Bush Hog whose main address seems
to be Selma, Alabama.
This last Easter, my wife and I went to Owasso, Okla. to spend
the weekend with our daughter and family. I saw on my Kansas map
that Galesburg was just seven miles off our route so on returning
home, when we came to Thayer, Kansas, we went on a county road east
to Galesburg. As we came to the town from the west, I saw a large
building to the right that said ‘Shaw Mfg. Co.’
Galesburg, according to my Kansas map, has a population of 126.
It is a nice friendly, pleasant looking little country town. I saw
a new looking, modern grocery store, a small filling station, post
office and the town looked like a town that could meet your average
daily needs. Homes and churches were neat appearing and the people
were very friendly.
I went into the office of Bush Hog and asked one of the office
girls where I could get some history on the Shaw Mfg. Co. She said
‘Go see Mr. Shaw. He lives down the street one block.’
I went to Mr. Shaw’s home and he was the one who came to the
door. I explained to him who I was and what I wanted and he invited
me in, offered me a chair and then began spinning yarns. I learned
he built a steam engine when he was a small boy. I learned later
from an article written in the ‘Antique Motorcycle’
magazine by Robert Deering of Admire, Kansas, that this steam
engine was made out of a couple of bicycle tire pumps and some
babbit and the thing worked the first time he tried it out. Mr.
Shaw told me that one time when he and a brother were working
around a large gas engine in a grain elevator run by their father,
he told his brother that he was going to make a gas engine and put
it on a bicycle. His brother doubted it naturally. However, Mr.
Shaw designed a motor and built it.
At left is Mr. Stanley Shaw, founder of Shaw Manufacturing
Company, Galesburg, Kansas on his 90th birthday. This is the home
of Shaw Motorbikes, garden tractors, etc. There is a larger
building of later years across the road from the building.
Mr. Stanley Shaw’s crankshaft and flywheel of the first gas
engine he built.
After some problems with the bearings, he found he had a
worthwhile engine. In 1903, at the age of 22, he started in
business. He said he ran an advertisement in a new magazine called
‘Popular Mechanics’ and that for a while no inquiries came,
then one came and then 3 and from there on he had business.
In 1911, he went to Kokomo, Indiana and purchased the entire
Kokomo Motorcycle Co. except the building. According to Mr. Shaw,
one reason he bought it was that he needed the tools. However, he
redesigned the engine some and came out with the Shaw Motorcycleas
well as his motorbike attachment.
By 1922, motorcycles, etc. were going out of popularity so he
started making garden tractors. The first ones he made were powered
by his motorbike engines to which he added a fan for cooling. Mr.
Shaw manufactured many items I never knew of including mounted
sprayers, attachments for converting Model T Fords into tractors,
air cooled and water cooled upright gas engines, railway inspection
cars, and in the early ’20s made a small cycle car called the
‘Shaw Speedster’.
After visiting awhile, we went out into his garage and there I
saw one of the original wood forms used in casting the cylinder for
the air-cooled stationary engine. I saw his old desk and various
other items of his early days in the business. He told me the first
gas engine he ever made had an adjustable connecting rod so he
could adjust the compression on it. He said the crankshaft and
flywheel was still out behind the garage so we went to see it and I
took a picture of it which I’m enclosing with this letter. The
crankshaft had originally been a Pitman shaft from a mowing machine
and the flywheel came from a hand corn sheller. To me this was a
thrill seeing the remains of the first gas engine he made.
Mr. Shaw was 90 years old the day I visited him. He said the day
before there had been quite a birthday party for him. I wish I
could have spent the day with him. There were still a lot of things
I forgot to ask him. I don’t know who did his foundry work for
him, casting his engines, etc. There were several other questions I
thought of later but I sure learned a lot of interesting things
about his company just listening to him talk.
Maybe some of you gas engine collectors from down that way can
find out some more and tell us about it. I sure hope so.
1911 to 1914 era International Harvester Company Gas Tractor
owned by Ralph G. Maddox, Purgitsville, West Virginia. Photo by
Dave Egan, R. D. 5, Mech-anicsburg, Pennsylvania at the Berryville,
Virginia Show, 1971.
1929 Minneapolis Cross-mount owned by E. M. Forrest, Box 54,
McLean, Virginia. Picture by Dave Egan, R. D. 5, Mechanicsburg,
Pennsylvania at Berryville, Va. Show, 1971.
1923 16-30 Rumely owned and operated by Mr. John Fenton,
Berryville, Virginia. Mrs. Fenton is passenger.
Photo by Dave Egan, R. D. 5, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
17025.
