20601 Old State Road Haubstadt, Indiana 47639
This story centers around a 1 HP model S Hercules engine with
serial number 374563. The main frame casting date was August 1,
1929.
In 1973 I began collecting gas engines. During my travels as
district sales manager for Pioneer Seed Corn, I was able to find a
lot of engines out in the countryside.
One day I asked my dad what had happened to the gas engine that
we had there on the farm in the ’30s and early ’40s. After
WWII most everything around the farm was electrified and the engine
was no longer needed. It had been used to run the homemade ear corn
elevator, the Clipper fan mill, the corn shelter and the pump jack
at the barn. The engine was taken to a nearby community sale where
it brought $12. Reportedly, it was back at the sale the next year
where it brought $3. I also asked Dad when they got the engine. He
said that it was shortly before I was born. That put it in the fall
sometime before November 23, 1929.
Many years later, in the fall of 1977, an auctioneer friend
called about eight o’clock one Saturday morning. He told me
about a sale later that day where there were a couple of old
tractors and a gas engine. For some unknown reason, they were not
on the sale bill. I went over to the sale site which was some seven
or eight miles away. The tractors turned out to be two old
four-wheel style Co-ops which didn’t interest me at the time.
As I looked around, I came across the gas engine, and remember
saying to myself, ‘It’s just another Hercules
engine.’
After looking at other items to be sold, I came back past the
engine again. This time I recognized some familiar features. The
original skids had a home -made wheel arrangement on them. The rear
axle was attached with U bolts and had six-spoke cast iron wheels.
The square front axle had two smaller three-spoke cast wheels with
badly chipped rims. Then came the clincher. I had gone to an auto
junkyard with Dad where he purchased two oil bath air cleaners to
put on the two old 1927 International trucks that we had. He also
got a smaller air cleaner to put on the gas engine. The air cleaner
was attached to a board nailed to the skid. A curved hose
arrangement was used to attach it to the engine mixer. In order for
the hose to fit well, Dad had sawed the tip off where the choke
flap had attached so the hose could be easily slipped on. The air
cleaner was gone, but the sawed off tip was there! It was my lucky
day, I had found the engine that had been gone for 30 years.
A friend of mine was standing nearby when these discoveries were
being made. He asked me what the engine would bring. My reply was,
‘I don’t know what it will bring, but I know who is going
to buy it!’ A couple of hours later, it was mine for
$110.00!
As much as I thought the engine had been used, it turned out to
be in very good condition and looked like it had never been used
since it left home some 30 years earlier. It was complete and still
had the non-original swing top lever oiler. My granddad used to
tell me to leave that oiler alone because he had it set just
right.
My Uncle Harold worked at Servel, Inc., the successor to
Hercules. He purchased the engine for my granddad for $75.00
including the pump jack. The pump jack is gone. It was destroyed
when a nearby barn burned several years ago. The homemade ear corn
elevator is gone along with the Clipper fan mill. Luckily, the best
part remains, and I had the lucky opportunity to get it back.
Engine number 374563 still lives!
