Wagner-Langemo Hooverizer Threshing Machine

By Bill Vossler
Published on June 29, 2011
1 / 11
The finished restoration, completed by Roger and Alaine Haugen and family in 1995. 
The finished restoration, completed by Roger and Alaine Haugen and family in 1995. 
2 / 11
Roger Haugen’s favorite piece of old iron is a 1919 Case 20-40 tractor, shown in the background.
Roger Haugen’s favorite piece of old iron is a 1919 Case 20-40 tractor, shown in the background.
3 / 11
The Wagner-Langemo thresher is an imposing-looking machine.
The Wagner-Langemo thresher is an imposing-looking machine.
4 / 11
Remnants from the last workout of the Wagner-Langemo thresher at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion.
Remnants from the last workout of the Wagner-Langemo thresher at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion.
5 / 11
The Grain SacKing attachment with Bemis bags collects grain at the annual Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag.
The Grain SacKing attachment with Bemis bags collects grain at the annual Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag.
6 / 11
Though the decal and painted name say Roger’s Wagner-Langemo thresher has a Hart feeder, the feeder was actually manufactured by Langdon.
Though the decal and painted name say Roger’s Wagner-Langemo thresher has a Hart feeder, the feeder was actually manufactured by Langdon.
7 / 11
The Hooverizer name endures on Roger’s Wagner-Langemo. 
The Hooverizer name endures on Roger’s Wagner-Langemo. 
8 / 11
A rear view of Roger’s Wagner-Langemo thresher shows the thresher’s size, 24-41. 
A rear view of Roger’s Wagner-Langemo thresher shows the thresher’s size, 24-41. 
9 / 11
The Hooverizer sometimes presented problems in operation. “Every time I run it at Rollag, I have three guys help me,” Roger says, “or I’d never get it done.” Here Roger, Tom Bjorndal and Monte Bachman work on the Hooverizer’s return elevator chain.
The Hooverizer sometimes presented problems in operation. “Every time I run it at Rollag, I have three guys help me,” Roger says, “or I’d never get it done.” Here Roger, Tom Bjorndal and Monte Bachman work on the Hooverizer’s return elevator chain.
10 / 11
Roger preparing to load the pair of Wagner-Langemo threshers at Alfred Chapman’s farm. Roger knows of just five other wood Hooverizers.
Roger preparing to load the pair of Wagner-Langemo threshers at Alfred Chapman’s farm. Roger knows of just five other wood Hooverizers.
11 / 11
Let the loading begin! Putting one of the Wagner-Langemo Hooverizers onto a flatbed at Dead Lake, near Dent, Minn.
Let the loading begin! Putting one of the Wagner-Langemo Hooverizers onto a flatbed at Dead Lake, near Dent, Minn.

Roger Haugen remembers seeing threshing machines operate in fields, but only worked with them one time. “As a little kid, I can remember running out and jumping on the truck and riding out into the field,” he says. “I only threshed once, and I think that was when everybody was already done with the old threshers, and a guy decided to thresh to get a straw pile in his yard.”

But that one experience must have left a lasting impression, as he now has five antique threshing machines in his collection of old farm relics. Roger’s interest in old iron goes back to 1955 when his father took him to see tractors at the Western Minnesota Steam Threshers Reunion in Rollag. “I thought, ‘Good grief, why do we have to go down there? We have enough old tractors around here.'”

But it must not have been all bad. “After seeing movies that Dad took, I made the trip to Rollag in 1956,” he recalls. “A friend of mine had bought a 1919 20-40 Case and restored it. I’d seen that tractor parked in the trees for years. In 1959, he sold it to me.”

That was the starting point for Roger’s collections, which today number 15 tractors, five threshing machines, phonographs, radios, cream separators (“Anything dairy,” he says) and more. “Maybe if you came up here you could figure out why I collect all this stuff,” he says with a chuckle.

Stumbling onto a prize

One of Roger’s prize acquisitions is a 1922 Wagner-Langemo 24-41 “Hooverizer” thresher (learn more about the Hooverizer in related article on page 21). “A fellow by name of Alfred Chapman down by Dent, Minn., was rumored to have more than 300 threshing machines in his collection at one time,” Roger says. “When I first went down there, he had more than a hundred, all lined up in a monster parking lot at the edge of Dead Lake. In 1994, I heard he was having them crushed and sent up to Canada, so in the fall I figured I’d better go down there and save some of them.”

Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-866-624-9388