The following report was misplaced unintentionally and we are
publishing it now with our apologies -Elmer
The West Nebraska Threshing Bee was held at Bridgeport,
Nebraska, in August 1959, with a large crowd in attendance. The
attendance in 1958 was estimated at 500, in 1959 at least 1200,
which was very encouraging to the men who put on the show. We are
show.
We had two full-size steamers on hand in 1959 – Lenard
Woznick’s Woods Bros. and my Huber, two scale model case
engines, and a number of small models and pop corn engines.
Included in the small models was a threshing outfit built by the
Smolczek Bros, of Ogallalla. This outfit stood about 14 inches
high, and included a steamer, a Hart Parr, and a thresher that
worked. There was a long line of internal combustion engines,
including among others, a Ford conversion, a Rumely, and Mogul.
The Old Car Club from Sidney was in attendance with a number of
antique cars, all of which came to the show under their own
power.
Activities of the day included threshing with a steel separator,
demonstrations on the Baker fan, grinding with a horsepower,
tug-of-war with the kids and one of the scale models and the
highlight was threshing oats with Cecil Roger’s hand fed
Aultman Taylor.
Many interesting items were on display or in use, such as Cecil
Roger’s fancy buggy, taking a lot of passengers during the
afternoon, and Cecil’s team of Highland oxen which saw duty on
the water wagon.
