Passion for Primitives
Harold Eddy grew up helping his grandfather and father on the farm. Among his first jobs: hauling water to threshing crews using a homemade, horse-drawn rock boat. Later he graduated to harrowing and eventually to planting and cultivating – initially with horses, and later with tractors. By the time he was in high school, Harold had his first truck, which he earned money with by hauling livestock to St. Louis for regional farmers. He later farmed on his own with modern equipment, but Harold never forgot his early experiences. The tools Harold used as a youngster are now central to his collecting focus, but it is the tools that he'd only heard of – and some he'd never even known of – that truly capture his fancy.
Harold's collecting passion includes horse-drawn implements such as wood-frame spike harrows, walk-behind seeders or drills that run on wooden axles supported by leather bearings, and other primitive farming tools – many that were homestead-built. Harold's collection of horse-drawn plows includes a Woods-Patent cast iron plowshare; scores of wood-beam walking plows in left-hand, right-hand, hillside, breaking, brush, root and two-way configurations; and many models of single- and 2-bottom sulky plows. Harold's award-winning corn tool collection includes a homestead-built, horse-drawn, sled-type cutter, a Mc-Cormick-Deering 2-row cutter, corn binders, stalk choppers, shocking horses, and many ancient bundle- and shock-tiers crafted by early settlers who farmed the rich bottoms of the Missouri River around Slater, Mo. Harold isn't ever sure where his passion for the old and unusual will lead him next, but one thing is certain. When he embarks on a new collecting direction, he is diligent about learning everything there is to know about that category of machine or tool. Once educated, he shares what he knows freely – and when he shares his own knowledge, he says, that's when his learning really begins. |