8315 Amber Lane, Newcastle, California 95658
This engine was purchased about 1912 to pump water at the family
farm in Clarksburg. It had been used about ten years when
electricity replaced it. It stayed in storage in the pump house
until 1953, when Joe moved it to a barn in Nicolaus for storage.
There it lay under miscellaneous boxes, tires, and other debris
until 1994 when I purchased it from him for nine times its original
purchase price.
Joe was 82 years old with a very good memory. He would point to
a pile of debris and say, ‘It’s under there, and the crank
is over there’ (pointing to another pile of miscellaneous
objects) ‘and over there under that stuff is the battery box
and coil.’
After 82 years (62 of them in storage) my grandson Jeff and I
cleaned the valve stems, oiled the piston and other parts, put gas
in the gas tank, cleaned the points on the igniter, hooked the coil
up to the battery using the original wires, one of which was baling
wire, and turned the flywheel a couple of times, made an adjustment
to the carburetor and it came alive, ready to pump water again!
