This trolley-winch combination is definitely a manufactured tool, not homemade, but the manufacturer and the use are unknown. If you can run this sometime, maybe the puzzle can be solved.
George Fogle, 2611 Okemos Rd., Mason, MI 48854; (517) 349-5185; fax: (517) 349-3088; email: SBFarms@concentric.net
GRINDER DEBATE CONTINUES … PAINT OR SHELLS?
I have a grinder that is identical to the one pictured in the Letters section of the April 2000 issue. I purchased it at a farm auction many years ago for 50 cents. I was told it was a paint pigment grinder. Way back then, you made your own paint by buying blocks of paint pigment, pulverizing them and mixing them with linseed oil or turpentine. Color pigment could also be bought, pulverized and mixed into a prepared base paint. When I was a kid, my dad had lead roll-up tubes of prepared oil-base pigment additive. These were just like rolls of toothpaste. The pigment was brownish-red in color, and it was added to white base for painting barns. This eliminated the need for a grinder.
Ivan Pfalser, Caney, Kan.
LOOKING FOR A VALUE ON THIS MODEL TRUCK
The scale model of the Western 80 was made in the mid-1960s. Few were made. On the model, the bed was red and the cab yellow. It had a friction drive and a bed that raised, just like the full size model. The original truck was powered by two VI2 CMC diesel engines. Some of them were used in copper mines in Utah. I’m interested in knowing the value of this model. There weren’t many made; mine is in excellent condition.
Robert H. Miller, 3402 Lakeside Road, Junction City, KS 66441; (785) 762-3655
NY PIECE PATENTED 1848
I was told that a grinder like this was used to grind oyster shells to feed laying hens. Mine has ‘O.C. Harris Patentee and Manufacturer. Waterville, NY. Re-Patented Aug. 1848’ cast into the ribs across the legs. This is a very early item.
Sam Stephens, Warminster, Penn.
QUESTIONS ON MASSEY-HARRIS MODEL 44
I have a Massey-Harris 44 Row Crop. Its serial number is 1004. It is restored and in good shape. What is its approximate value, since it was the fourth ’44’ off the assembly line? Also, is it the oldest 44 still running? I also have a Case DI that I need to get a serial nameplate for. It’s missing the original, but I got the number off another place on the tractor. Any information I can get on either of these would be appreciated.
Tommy L. Wood, 4033 Nevada Rd., Ottawa, KS 66067; (785) 242-6849
RECALLING THE SHAW COMPANY
As a kid in Illinois I used to see ads for the Shaw Company from Galesburg, Kan. They made all kinds of interesting things, including a single wheel garden tractor that used a bicycle motor wheel. They also made a motorbike with their own engines, kid’s runabouts, and farm tools. I heard the factory burned down and they went out of business. I would surely like to hear from someone familiar with their products, or who has a catalog. Things like this intrigue me.
jay Wallace, 990 Butler Creek Rd., Ashland, OR 97521
REMNANT OF A JAIL BRINGS FOND MEMORIES
I love to read your magazine, for it brings back a lot of fond memories of my boyhood days while growing up on my father’s farm in Oklahoma. My father was the Town Marshal for Cushing, Okla., in 1901, before Oklahoma became a state. I have a bronze plate inscribed E.T. BRANUM IRON WORKS, DETROIT, MICHIGAN, BUILDER OF JAIL CELLS. Could anyone give me more information on this plate? Maybe the year. This plate was found by a city employee while destroying some old scrap. It could have been on the jail while my father was marshal.
Virgil E. Bradley, 912 S. Thompson Ave., Cushing, OK 74023
HAND-FORGED PIECE STUMPS COLLECTOR
There aren’t many things that stump my husband, but this does! We purchased it at an antique store in Iowa many years ago. The top frame is 31 inches long and 1.5 inches high. There are nine teeth, approximately three inches apart, and 2.5 inches long. They are tapered three-fourths of an inch on the bottom. It is hand-forged.
Frank and Pat Grensing, N6318 Lakeshore Dr., Tony, WI 54563
ANCIENT NORWEGIAN STONE STILL A MYSTERY
This rune stone was found in southwest Wisconsin. It was sold to a man in Clinton, Iowa in the early 1960s. It had a newspaper article with it for years, but the article has since been lost. The stone was apparently sent to Stock-holm by a professor at the University of Missouri; it was identified as being of early Norwegian origin, possibly used as a medical person’s records of five patients. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Gary Nichols, RR 3, Box 194, Rich Hill, MO 64779; (417) 395-4186
MORE ON THE HACKNEY AUTO PLOW
Several readers commented on the article about the Hackney Auto Plow in the April 2000 issue:
The Dale and Martha Hawk Museum in North Dakota owns the Hackney Auto Plow referred to in the April 2000 issue of Farm Collector. ‘Mr. H.’ referred to in the article is Dale Hawk. He and Martha are gone now, and the museum is run by a board of directors. The descendants of the inventor are planning a family reunion during the museum’s farm show on June 9-11.
Arthur Rude, director, Dale & Martha Hawk Museum, RR 1, Box 19, Wolford, ND 58385
The rest of the story is: To our knowledge, the Hackney Auto Plow located at the Dale and Martha Hawk Museum is the only one running. This museum has antique farm machinery, as well as a variety of other antiques. Dale Hawk was a lifetime collector. The Hackney family held a reunion in 1998 and drove the plow.
-Al Yakish, curator, Dale and Martha Hawk Museum
GRAND DETOUR PLOW A HIT WITH THE NEIGHBORS
Thanks to the letter in the February 2000 issue of Farm Collector asking for information on the Grand Detour cast steel seat, I got lots of calls and letters. Among others, Lowry Anderson (at 94 years old) of Westbrook, Minn., remembers a neighbor having a Grand Detour plow that was painted green. He wrote ‘My dad had the first Farmall tractor in the county, so they gave him a tandem disk as a premium … We used up two tractors, one Regular and one 12-20. People came from miles around to watch me cultivate corn in 1925.’ Thanks for the help!
Dan R. Manning,P.O. Box 115, Fair Grove, MO 65648
NEEDING INFORMATION ON EARLY INTERNATIONAL POTATO DIGGER
This International Harvester potato digger was probably made in the early part of the last century. I need to reassemble the hitch and front wheels, and would like a parts book, or to contact someone with some knowledge about this machine. The numbers cast on the machine are: 7027, 7034A, 7619A, 7084, 7020A, 7035A and 7037A.
Paul L Warner, 45108 Duck Rd., Montrose, SD 57048
