Dayton Daily News & Radio’s ‘Joe’s
Journal’
Single and thirty years of age — you could hardly call that old
enough to be classified as an antique, if we were talking about a
gas engine. But Spark Plug David Shearns of Marion, N. Y., all of
thirty and as yet unhitched by beltpower to the
‘brake-wheel’ of man’s severest testing — matrimony —
is proving there are other thrills in life as great and rewarding
as saying, ‘I do’ to a woman before a bald-headed preacher.
(Sorry, Brother Elmer. Maybe the next guy.)
But, although Spark Plug David Shearns lives alone with his
folks, minus the ‘joys ‘n jolts of connubial bliss,’ —
the feminine touch to cook his morning oats, and or the
tongue-lashing he could get every time he drags another engine home
— there are those inalienable rights enjoyed only by the single
species of homo sapiens who go prowling the countryside in quest of
antique gas tractors and engines.
Indeed, it was far more rewarding for Spark Plug Shearns to
fetch home and introduce to his parents, a heap of conglomerate
iron which once was known as a 30-60 Rumely Oil-Pull than had his
latest bounty been merely a smiling bride. The difference being
that man can bend and shape a piece of iron to his own liking — a
fact that has not always proven true concerning that unpredictable
element in a man’s life, known as woman. And, although it
usually takes a lot more work to get an engine in shape — before
costs taper off and the fun begins — a woman can get worse and the
expenses spire skyward conversely once the honeymoon is over.
At any rate, wrestling with a 9-ton Rumely is much more
predictable to Spark Plug Dave — and after all his troubles of
hauling, re-building and hoping, it was much more rewarding when he
drove it over the grounds of the ’69 Pioneer Gas Engine Assoc.
Grounds than merely flashing a gold band on the fourth finger of
his left hand.
‘David Shearns is our nomination to a Spark Plug of the
Month,’ said Dorothy and Paul Smith who had fetched along some
of their photos and facts about the tireless director of that show,
which they handed to me while visiting the Tri-State Gas Engine and
Tractor reunion at Portland, Ind., this summer. ‘We feel that
David has done so much for our New York show that he deserves a
niche in your Spark Plug Hall of Fame.’ (And rightly so, we
concur.)
Spark Plug Shearns does not operate in the orthodox manner of ye
Spark Plugs who hire out low-boys to go far a field to tow in their
rare bounties so they can re-furbish junk into gems in
well-appointed workshop with indirect lighting, turret lathes and
the gamut of modern tools lining their walls in alphabetical order.
For David Shearns, it meant the rather discouraging spectacle of
tearing down his ancient 1949 Ford Truck and replacing the Ford
engine with that of a ’56 Buick (he calls it his Bu-Ford) to
get the necessary power to haul his iron trophies home. And once
the tractor-heap is ‘safe at home’, there remains the heavy
task of unloading ‘the thing’ onto the ground floor of his
‘sunshine workshop’ where he works at rehabilitation as
long as the weather’s nice. But when the weather gets bad, and
the task runs on into winter, there’s his back-porch workshop,
also on the ground level, into which he shuttles his heavy,
unassembled components. And when the severest of weather arrives,
there yet remains the rather dingy, unlighted basement shop heated
by a wood furnace, into which he hibernates with his odd-lot
assortment of tractor and engine parts to continue operations till
spring.
This is the restored Rumely Oil Pull 30-60, after David Shearns
assembled it, also made cam-gear cover, fuel pump, oil pump,
magneto and other parts in his cellar workshop. It’s shown
strutting its stuff at Pioneer Gas Show. Photo by Paul Smith.
But, though the transformation from a heap of what appears to be
only a megalomania of scrap and junk into a superb restoration of
an antique tractor finally emerges, by the time the robins and
wrens are chirping — like April showers that bring May flowers –
out chugs the pride and joy (the first love) of Spark Plug David
Shearns, ready for the next Pioneer Gas Engine Show.
The latest of this ‘single-30, unbrid-aled’ engine
hunter’s sorty wound up deep in the tall corn state of Iowa
where, near the town of Kingsley, he came upon an old 30-60 Rumely
Oil-Pull, model S, serial 39 — one of the rare early ones. In
company with another Rumely man, Frank Arbaker (owner of the
Pioneer Gas Engine Association grounds), Spark Plug Shearns rolled
into the Iowa corn land with his ‘caravan’ — a tri-axle
trailer towed by the inevitable ‘Bu-Ford’ in search of the
iron beast.
Once discovered in its lair, it required no little of
engineering ingenuity to load the huge monster for the trip back to
New York State. Backing the huge 9-ton Rumely up onto the tri-axle
trailer, the rear assembly and wheels were removed, the rolled on
planks over onto the ‘Bu-Ford’ Truck.
When Dave and Frank rolled into home with their prize quarry, it
might have looked to the innocent by-stander like a lot of
nothin’. But the man of vision — the tried ‘n true Spark
Plug, who scurries the countryside for his diamonds in the rough,
sees only the finished gems in the junk he is buying. And once this
9-ton hunk of unassembled junk went through the three-shop cycle of
‘nature’s workshop’, the back porch and basement of
Spark Plug David Shearns — by gas engine reunion time it was
chugging around as about the biggest and rarest of the Rumely
Oil-Pull lines on the Pioneer Gas Engine grounds.
With his three other Rumely Oil-Pulls, one a 25-45, Spark Plug
Dave Shearns can now boast of owning the complete line of the solid
fly-wheel Rumelys — and, in addition, has a Rumely-six to
boot.
Also, our Spark Plug of the Month, David Shearns has, over the
years, acquired such notable worthies to his collection as a 22-45
Aultman-Taylor Gas Tractor, with the tell-tale radiator which
resembles more of a section of a steam boiler with flues, than the
conventional internal-combustion cooling system. But it works, as
do the tall, cleated drive-wheels which also appear more or less as
a ‘mutation’ in the evolution from steam to gas power than
most conventional tractors.
Completely restored by the three-shop cycle process of Spark
Plug Shearns, the huge, four-cylinder Aultman-Taylor proudly struts
its stuff annually over the Pioneer Gas Engine grounds — like a
primordial elephant with Dave perched atop, the envy of the
‘up-state’ crowds beneath him.
This is how the 9-ton Rumely Oil-Pull looked when it was loaded
onto David’s ‘Bu-Ford’ truck for the trip home from
Iowa. After it was backed up onto the tri-axle trailer, the
rear-assembly was removed and rolled over onto the truck. Photo by
Paul K. Smith.
Lengthening the list of Spark Plug David Shearn’s collection
of old-time agricultural Americana are a 27-44 Twin City, a 22-32
Rumely Separator and a 30-48 Rumely Separator, all of which are
restored and have been shown at the Pioneer Gas Engine Show as well
as the show at Canandaigua.
Always the man with many friends — and never one to refuse
lending a hand to whatever job comes up in the big Pioneer Show —
Spark Plug Dave Shearns is always busy in there
pitchin,’whether it’s helping at the sawmill, cutting the
grain or threshing the wheat. And, being owner of a Baker Fan, Dave
sees to it there’s plenty of chugging, popping and banging at
the belt, come Pioneer days which this next year of 1970 will be
held July 25-26-27.
Spark Plug David Shearns had to put ’56 Buick motor in
’49 Ford truck for enough power to haul his engines back home
for restoring. He calls this his ‘Bu-Ford’. David’s
greatest ‘sin’ was buying an old Nichols & Shepard
steam engine from an Ohio estate. It is shown at right.
Oh yes — one item we’ll mention under our breath. Spark
Plug David Shearns owns (of all things) a 25-50 Nichols &
Shepard Steam Engine, vintage of 1925, which he bought from an
estate out in Ohio. But he hasn’t as yet restored it, hoping no
doubt by ignoring it, his ‘sins’ will be forgiven before
the Spark Plug Throne of Grace, lest steam should get into his
blood. (Awful thought!) Thanks Dave, for your tireless efforts at
promoting old-time American gas-orama and tractology — hunting,
restoring, rehabilitating our glorious past, lest our future
generations forget the glory that was, and, thanks to you, still
is.
Enter, one David Shearns, into our Spark Plug Hall of Fame,
where there’s plenty of parking for Rumely or Aultman —
however you came.
Spark Plug David Shearns moves his open-air workshop onto the
back porch when weather is inclement. He calls this his
‘diggin’s’. When weather is really bad, he goes down
into the cellar by his wood furnace. Photo by Paul K. Smith.