Looking for a working show that doesn’t feel like a forced march? Check out the Antique Engine & Tractor Assn. (AE-TA) in Geneseo, Illinois. Occupying a compact footprint on showgrounds 8 miles north of Geneseo, the club’s annual working farm show in mid-September presents a dizzying array of demonstrations in an easily walkable space.
Established in 1959, the group held shows at several locations before settling in on a 40-acre site donated in 2009 by Hillsdale residents June and Bill Cole in memory of their son, Kevin. The next year, the AE-TA was open for business with a new timber-frame barn, restroom and shower facilities, and a corncrib, sawmill and windmill moved from the club’s previous grounds.
Gearing up for their 62nd annual show this September, the club prioritizes education. “Education of the public, especially the younger generation, is extremely important to us. When this organization started, over 30 percent of the population was on farms. Today, it’s 2-3 percent. Many families are reaching three or four generations away from the farm,” says AE-TA board member Phil Jordan. “Our goal is to educate those generations on how our food was produced and reached the dinner table, along with an understanding of the intense labor it took for their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers to produce that food.”
The pulse of a working show
At the club’s 2022 working farm show, educational demonstrations showcased the blacksmith, sawmill, threshing, horse farming, cane press, plowing, baling and field work. Corn was picked (by hand and mechanically), husked, shelled and put in the crib. An old potato digger turned up a plot of spuds and broomcorn was used to make brooms.
The show feature (John Deere) offered an outstanding display of well restored tractors, including more than a few rare and unusual pieces. A daily parade of tractors and equipment included an informative and entertaining commentary. Inside a beautiful timber-frame barn, a rare Dain tractor was flanked by displays of tools and small implements. Outside, there were antique push mowers built in nearby Prophetstown.
On the far side of the train tracks, a field of corn was a hive of activity, as operators of old mounted, pull-type and self-propelled pickers mowed down the rows. A vintage manure spreader rolled through a field; horses pulled plows through rich black dirt. In the background, just-husked ears of corn bounced off a bangboard.
Planting for lower yields
Tom Hitzhusen, Geneseo, watched equipment move through the club’s corn field with more than casual attention. Retired from a career in engineering at Deere & Co., he’s been the club’s farmer for the past 15 years, raising 25 acres of corn and 10 acres of beans at the showgrounds. “That gives us enough to demonstrate hand-picking, pull-type pickers and combines,” he says. “And sometimes we have horse-drawn pickers.”
Planting corn that will be harvested by old iron requires a convoluted mental calculation. “The equipment that will harvest this crop was built for 75-bushel corn,” Tom says. “It can’t pick a high-yield crop. And this corn has been bred to stand well. The old pickers can’t get an ear off.” Accordingly, the crop is sprayed two weeks before the show to kill the plant, which also helps when the field is plowed after the show.
For Tom, it is a conundrum. “How can I drop yields? I’m a farmer at heart. I was born to get the highest yield we can,” he says. “But here, we plant wide rows, hold the population down, use an early yield corn and control the amount of nitrogen we put on.”
Picking corn by hand
“Always keep your elbow in. Always be looking three ears ahead. Never look for the wagon.” After giving a corn husking demonstration at the Geneseo show, Dick Humes, Little York, Illinois, rattles of the fundamentals of picking corn by hand. He should know: He’s won his age group in the Illinois state husking competition several times and is a two-time national champion.
His success may be genetic. “I started competing in 1988,” he says. “My dad was a good picker, and after he died, his friends said I should give it a try.” A committed competitor, he trains fairly regularly for an hour a night, a couple times a week.
With more than three decades’ experience in husking contests, Dick does his best to keep the farm country tradition alive. He’s served as a coach for three champions in youth divisions, including third-generation picker John Kane, Smithshire, Illinois. “In his first year of picking, he won the nationals,” Dick says.
Second wind for old pickers
The McCormick 91 combine Pat Miller was watching on an auction in the spring of 2022 wasn’t bringing much. “The PTO slide was stuck and most of the chains were loose,” he says. “It had been sitting outside and there were bird nests in the elevator.” But it was just what the Dixon, Illinois, man was looking for.
“I’ve been collecting old tractors and restoring tractors in 4-H and FFA since I was 9. We probably have 100 in our museum,” he says. “But what is a tractor without something to pull?”
The McCormick is a perfect fit for Pat’s collection of 10 or 12 antique pickers and combines. “I’ve farmed my whole life and was driving tractors since I can remember,” he says. “But I’ve never done this before, collecting combines and pickers. I grew up with a radio and air conditioning in the cab, but I just like to save old stuff. It’s fun.
“The old pickers and combines, I’ve really seen them take off the last few years,” Pat adds. “There are more and more corn-picking shows, and there’s a lot of action on Facebook. Now they’re starting to bring more: You can’t just sneak in and get one cheap.”
Garrett Schoonover, Argo, Iowa, routinely operates Pat’s International 966 and International 2PR picker. “You just hook on to the wagon, pick a row and try to go straight,” he says.
Hammer mill and Power Wagon
Nearby, Clint Dixon, Reynolds, Illinois, coaxed a vintage hammer mill to life. Faster and more efficient than burr mills and feed grinders, hammer mills were an immediate hit when they came on the market in the 1920s.
Manufactured by Sears, Roebuck & Co. in the 1940s or ’50s, Clint’s mill features stationary hammers and three progressively smaller screens. It could be used to grind cobs, stalks and hay. Clint and his wife, Martie, demonstrate the mill to grind cobs and use the output as mulch.
The mill is adjustable to the speed of the engine or power unit; Clint generally runs it at 540rpm on his 1951 Dodge Power Wagon. The mill was engineered for 3,100 belt feet/minute.
Launched late in 1945 (possibly inspired by the success of the Willys), the Power Wagon was conceived as an all-purpose farm vehicle. But the market was lukewarm, primarily because of the price. “At $2,000, it was kind of out of reach for the average farmer trying to get out of horses and mules,” Clint says. “It cost almost as much as a 1947 Chrysler Imperial.”
Clint’s Power Wagon is outfitted with the rig’s original 9.00×16 military tires. “They weren’t really popular until the government started using them in World War II,” Clint says. “When Dodge started building these trucks, they used the military tires because there really was no other option to get through mud or snow.”
Clint drives the Power Wagon to nearby shows, but he doesn’t get in a hurry. “It will only go 55mph on a good day,” he says. “And that’s okay, because it helps us slow down and enjoy life.”
The roar of a portable dryer
Producing a throaty roar, a John Deere 550 grain dryer dating to the late 1950s/early 1960s made an unusual display. Donated to the AE-TA by Tom Tygrett, Roseville, Illinois, the batch dryer was designed to support a two-row combine.
“It wouldn’t be able to keep up with modern combines,” Tom says. “It could handle 550 bushels at 10 points moisture removal in about three hours, or about 1,000 bushels a day. It’d normally run on LP. You’d just fill it up and let it run.”
Weighing in at 6,350 pounds, the dryer took 16 minutes to load and 16 minutes to unload. It was filled via a conveyor at the bottom; the dried grain was augered out from the top. Tom kept it on “recirculate” mode during the show.
Back when the John Deere unit came out, he says, most farmers didn’t have storage space for a lot of ear corn. “Then everything took off,” he says. “Grain elevators and continuous corn dryers really came on.”
From rustiest to shiniest
Bill Zimmerman, Edelstein, Illinois, was hunting for a Ford Model A car when he stumbled onto a rusting hulk of a tractor behind a barn. “I didn’t know what it was,” he says. Ironically, he wasn’t completely off-course from his original mission. The tractor — a Thieman kit tractor — had a Ford Model A engine and transmission.
Bill restored cars, not tractors. Still, the rough but complete Thieman hooked him. Produced by Thieman Harvester Co., Albert City, Iowa, the kits were available from the 1930s until about 1942, when American manufacturing output was redirected to the war effort. Buyers provided the engine, drive shaft and rear axle to complete the kit.
Restoration was as straightforward as the tractor itself. “Basically, they just took several pieces of iron and created a tractor,” he says. “There was that big tube; everything else was flat plate. I probably sanded it 10 times. There wasn’t much more you could shine up.”
Steel-wheeled Thiemans are legendary for having a rough ride. This one is on rubber, but the ride quality is little improved. “It’s a fairly light tractor at about 2,000 pounds,” Bill says. “You couldn’t plow with it, but you could use it to cultivate or pull a wagon.”
The Thieman is a crowd pleaser. “When I took it to the 2010 Farm Heritage Days in Wyoming, Illinois,” he says, “it won the award for rustiest tractor.” A year later, after restoration was complete, Bill and the Thieman returned to Farm Heritage Days. “That time it won the award for the shiniest tractor,” he says. FC
For more information: The 62nd annual Antique Engine & Tractor Working Show — featuring International Harvester — will be held Sept. 15-17, 2023, at the showgrounds located at 13451 IL Hwy. 92, 8 miles north of Geneseo, Illinois. Contact: Phil Jordan, (309) 314-5000; email: pm.jordan2591@gmail.com; Antique Engine & Tractor Association.
Leslie C. McManus is the senior editor of Farm Collector. Contact her at Lmcmanus@ogdenpubs.com.
Originally published as “Working Together” in the May 2023 issue of Farm Collector magazine.
