The Way Things Were

Reader Contribution by Sam Moore
Published on May 5, 2015
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Six teams on a large horse power under control of the teamster with his whip. Image courtesy J.I. Case Company, Racine, Wis., U.S.A.

I have in my collection three or four copies of Farm Power magazine that was started in 1935 to replace American Thresherman, a publication that had gone out of business in 1932. In the May, 1936 issue of Farm Power, I found the following story which I’ve edited a little.

“When You and I Were Young Maggie”

“People like ‘reminiscences.’ I wondered whether your readers might not be interested in an account of the old horse powers that we used for running threshing machines, clover hullers, wood saws, etc., before the days of tractors, or even steam engines. This was about fifty years ago in Lafayette County, Wisconsin.

They were great old characters in their day, those old horse powers. I haven’t seen one for over forty years, but I know more about them than I do about the new-fangled combines. I have a mental picture of the old horse power from which I could draw pretty good plans for making one.

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