1912 Wood Bros. Steam Engine Stays in Family

By Bill Vossler
Published on April 8, 2014
article image
by Bill Vossler
Mel Kerr’s restored 20hp Wood Bros. steam engine.

Mel Kerr endured a long series of delays and troubles — including the wrath of Mother Nature — before he finally latched onto his 1912 Wood Bros. steam traction engine. Curiously enough, at one time, Mel wouldn’t have touched old iron like that with an old pitchfork.

As a youth on his parents’ Iowa farm, Mel was antsy. “I couldn’t wait to get off the farm,” he recalls. “But after medical school and getting my ophthalmology degree and teaching at the University of California, San Diego, I couldn’t get that farm out of my blood.”

In 1977, against his family’s wishes, he and his wife, Judy, moved back to the Midwest from California. “I wanted to be a gentleman farmer with old farm equipment,” he offers as explanation. Today the couple is at home in Macomb, Ill.

Crazy like a fox

In the late 1970s, Mel’s uncle, Dallas Kerr, held an auction. Reminded of his youth spent operating John Deere machinery, Mel bought his uncle’s John Deere Model L. The next time Mel visited his uncle, Dallas insisted on firing his 1912 Wood Bros. steam traction engine and having Mel operate it. That did it. “It was about the time we moved back, and after he had me drive it, suddenly I thought that machine was the greatest thing going,” Mel recalls. “I wanted it.”

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