MURRAY GAS-UP

By Staff
Published on January 1, 1979
article image
A York Flinchbough engine owned by Merlin and Mary Schrier.

306 W. Anthony, Corydon, Iowa 50060

Take a small friendly town with a nice shady park, mix in around
100 old gas engines and a lot of enthused gas engine owners, and
you have the formula used at Murray, Iowa, for four years to
produce a successful annual ‘gas-up.’ I learned there were
three commanding officers behind this gas-up that made it a
success; Leland and Wilbur Ries and Jerry Kleinbeck, all of Murray.
I also learned that they were not only the officers, but were also
the privates of this army, as they are the ones who do the work
getting things set for this gas-up get-to-gether.

The gas-up this year was June 10-11. I was not on hand on
Saturday but I learned there were a number of engines that could be
there only for the one day. Sunday I found a lot of engines on hand
and a few late comers trickling in.

One of the first engine men I talked to was Pearl Myers of
Winterset, Iowa. Pearl had a nice restored 9 HP Hercules engine on
trucks. He left this engine in his pickup truck and I thought, as I
watched this engine bang away, what a neat way for some pickup
company to test shock absorbers!

Ted Brookover of Kansas City, Missouri, brought two rare
engines, one a Industrial Works of Clinton, Missouri. There are
only 4 of these engines known to exist. The other rare engine he
brought was a National made in Sagino, Michigan. Ted does some nice
cartoons for the Central Hawkeye Club newsletter ‘The
Gasser.’ The editor, pressman, and general flunky of ‘The
Gasser’ Duane Parsons, of near Kansas City, said that he and
others had been traveling around in Kansas City photographing old
buildings that were once factories of gas engines, tractors, etc.,
John Deere, Fairbanks-Morse and Monitor engines, for example. Duane
said most of the buildings but they still had the large painted
signs visible.

Roger Yeager of State Corner, Iowa, had a Gade engine belted to
Kelly Mill no. 50 and was grinding meal. He had a nicely painted
sign which said, ‘When this little mill was made OSHA was not
yet born. The FDA was sampling another use for corn. This mill
won’t suit OSHA, not safe in other words. FDA won’t approve
the meal. It’s strictly for the birds.’ Roger also had
another engine belted to a Rube Goldberg attachment, which in turn
cranked an ice cream freezer. He made a batch of ice cream and
handed out ice cream cones to a long line of people.

Years ago lots of people went to California in search of gold.
Dave Campbell of Lamoni, Iowa, parted with a bunch of gold in
California for a Scott Brothers gas engine. Marvin Natrie of Des
Moines, Iowa made the trip there and back with the engine for Dave.
At this time, there are only 12 of these engines known.

Wilbur Ries brought his steam engine and miniature
merry-go-round and also brought an air-cooled Chore Boy engine
which was belted to an old furnace fan. This blew air onto a
whirlagig which Wilbur had made which was a man cranking a gas
engine.

Merlin and Mary Schrier of Cumberland, Iowa, brought a rare
engine, a York Flinchbough made in York, Pennsylvania.

For anyone who came to this show and was struck with enginitis,
George Webler of Deep River, Iowa, had a truck load of old engines
for sale.

There was a good lunch stand on the grounds and good fiddle
music in the afternoon, and lots of flea markets. There was a
button for this show and pictured on it was an oil well engine made
by the National Transit Company, owned by Jerry Kleinbeck of
Murray.

This was another good show and we will be looking toward next
year and coming back again to Murray.

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-624-9388