Box 356, Carrington, North Dakota 58421
The story begins in 1974 when I bought a 7 HP Galloway saw rig
from a gentleman east of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. I called
him the night before and he said ‘Yes, I have a old gas engine,
but it is on a saw wagon and I won’t sell the saw; but you can
have the old Galloway engine as it is all froze up and no good any
more.’ Well, my friend and ‘Mechanic Supreme’, Harold
Schmid and I drove out to their farm the next morning just as happy
as two kittens in a creamery. When we drove into the yard he
noticed my license plate and said, ‘I see you are one of those
Yankees.’ . . .I replied with a proud affirmative and asked him
what part of the states he came from. He said his dad and family
moved up here in 1916 from Waterloo, Iowa and brought this saw rig
along. It was nearly new at the time and his dad sawed wood for the
neighbors at 50 per hour and 50 or 60 for the engine and saw. After
the visiting awhile I could see he was quite proud of the fact he
came from the ‘States’ and we had no trouble dealing from
this moment on. We purchased the Galloway and started home. It was
stuck, valves rusted beyond repair, rings broken and in a total
mess, but with the help of my friend, Harold, we got it restored
probably better than when it was new.
I called our Canadian friend one evening and told him about our
success with the engine and that we would like to buy the saw and
wagon too. He wouldn’t think of it as he belted the saw to an
‘A’ John Deere and still used it to put up all his wood. I
proposed a trade for a real heavy saw and table which I had, and we
took it up for inspection and approval. But what do you suppose
happened? He had been sawing with the outfit that had the blade on
the left side for over 60 years and my outfit had the saw blade on
the right side. With a little persuading he was convinced that he
could learn to saw wood from the right side and not lose an arm in
doing so.
I have taken the saw rig to several shows in the area, such as
the Central North Dakota Steam Threshers Show, held in New Rockford
in September of every year. But where I had the most enjoyment was
this fall at the South Central Threshing Association meet in
Braddock, N. Dak. Most of the time I am busy sawing up slabs from
the saw mill, but that was kind of unrewarding while the little
kids were watching, hanging onto their parents, asking ‘What is
that thing?’ It probably resembled something from outer space
to them, but surely the old man running it didn’t look like an
astronaut! I decided to get the kids in the act and make them feel
like they were part of the show. I took a log about 10 inches in
diameter and sawed off pieces about an inch or so thick this
demonstrated the saw and when I had sawed about 20 pieces I would
shut down the rig, get my ‘SMILEY’ stencil out, and with
the aid of a can of spray paint, I became an instant artist. The
kids were lined up waiting for their ‘SMILEYS’ and the
Grandmas wanted some too. One Mother told me at the show in New
Rockford that her boy put his on the wall in his bedroom last year
and it is still there. Some mothers even offered a dollar for one
and could hardly believe that a ‘smile’ is still free and
so easy to give but the best thing of all is to see all those
little smiling faces go home with their ‘SMILEYS’!
