Granddad’s Stover

By Staff
Published on June 1, 1990
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This Stover V model 1 HP engine is owned by my grandfather John H. Williams of Holcom, West Virginia.

1211 Outlook Street, Natrona Heights, Pennsylvania 15065

He bought the engine in 1920, at what we today would call a yard
sale. As Granddad likes to say, he gave a good price for the little
Stover-$15.00. Along with the engine, he was given a grindstone.
Wouldn’t we all like to find one at this price?

In the past four or five years, my dad, grandfather and I have
gone to many steam shows, and we have never seen an engine like
Granddad’s $15.00 Stover.

Three years ago Granddad told my dad and me to take it home and
see if we could get it to run. Of course, we were all smiles on the
way home, but then we remembered what Granddad had warned us about.
One time he had started it, and it was ‘out of control’ as
he says-he thought the thing would fly apart, so he shut it down
and it hadn’t run again until last summer.

Since the engine had been stored in an outbuilding that
hadn’t been used often, the rod bearing cap, governor weights,
mixer, and gas tank came up missing.

Here in Pennsylvania, I found an old German craftsman in
Saxonburgh who cast the governor weights for us. Also, a good
friend, George Matas of Sarver, made a new bearing cap. Granddad
had discovered the cylinder was stuck, so he had soaked it with
kerosene faithfully for years.

Neither Dad nor I had ever started an engine, and we didn’t
know what the mixer was supposed to look like, so we improvised one
with an elbow and old gas regulator. With this, we felt it would
maybe look as original as possible.

Since then, we have found the original mixer and gas tank. The
little engine is all painted and shined up now and proudly taken to
the steam shows when we have the time.

There are now four generations of us to enjoy the little Stover.
My grandfather will be 81 years young this August and my son will
be 7 in September, so you see we go from the 20th century into the
21st with our love of little engines.

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