P.O. Box 333 Holland, Texas 76534
In late August of 1986, I purchased a 25/30 HP 2 cycle Bessemer
gas engine. It was in an oil field and housed in a building
protecting it from the weather. It had not been operated in several
years but seemed to be in very good condition. I was anxious to get
it running but of course I had to get it home first. This turned
out to be quite a chore because of the building location, the
position of the engine in the building, the building wall to
remove, etc. I had a special ‘helping hand’ from Richard A.
(Smitty) Smith from Little River, Texas and my father, Ligie Ivicic
(age 76) served as cook during the engine removal and haul.
We brought the Bessemer to my home in Holland, Texas
approximately one month before our club, the Texas Early Day
Tractor and Gas Engine Association, was to have its annual show
October 4th and 5th, 1986 at Speegleville, Texas (just west of
Waco, Texas). We hauled the Bessemer on a trailer that I built
especially for this type of ordeal, which has four axles. I did
spend all spare minutes the next few short weekends building motor
mounts for the engine so we could run it at the show. I tow the
trailer with my K-7 International truck which has retired from
hauling 20,000 pound loads of grain to market. The truck is a 1948
model. When the weekend of the show arrived, we hauled the old
Bessemer to the show grounds. We didn’t have any trouble at all
starting it up- thanks to the help of a big flat belt and a good
old John Deere tractor. The engine looked and sounded beautiful to
me as it was running-I hope the crowd felt the same way. We
thoroughly enjoyed the entire weekend show as there were many gas
engines, tractors and steam engines present.
