P.O. Box 256 Mayville, North Dakota 58257
There were many accidents around steam threshing engines before
gas tractors took over the job of driving the separators. Perhaps
the worst of these disasters to occur any place was the one on the
Grandin Farm, No. 4, north of Mayville, North Dakota on October
21st, 1891.
The Grandin Farms were first started by the two Grandin
Brothers, E.B. and J.L., bankers in Tidioute, Pennsylvania. They
had bought many bonds of the Northern Pacific Railroad. In 1873 the
railroad went bankrupt, so the bonds were valueless. However, the
railroad had got a land grant from the government to build its
tracks from Duluth, Minnesota to the west coast. So every other
section for forty miles on each side of the track was railroad
land. The Grandins and other owners of these bonds could exchange
them legally for this railroad land. This is how they became the
largest landowners in the Red River Valley of North Dakota. At the
peak of their farming operations, they owned 75,000 acres. But they
also bought some of this land, as they were wealthy oil men. One of
the brothers had drilled the second oil well in Pennsylvania.
This large acreage was split up into different farms, like No.
1,2,3,4, and so on. They came to be called bonanza wheat farms, as
this was the main crop on the new land of the valley. This huge
operation required many horses and mules, and employed many men,
especially during harvest and threshing in the fall. More than one
threshing machine was needed to thresh all the grain that these
bonanza farms produced before the snow came down on the fields.
There was a good wheat crop with much straw in 1891. So the
threshing machines were behind with their work, keeping on much
later than in a normal crop year.
On this October day, there had been a lot of bad luck with the
machine. Some of the belts had got tangled up in the pulleys and
shaft resulting in one cracked pulley and a sprung shaft. To get
repairs, the foreman had to go over to farm No. 2 for a pulley to
replace the cracked one. So much time was lost getting the
separator fixed.
It was about 4 o’clock before they got this done, and were
ready to go. There was a full head of steam on the engine, and ten
loaded bundle racks standing around. Some of the crew members were
also waiting to get started. All these idle men together, with all
the trouble and the lateness of the season, made the foreman
nervous. He told the engineer to start up, but he hesitated and
said the water was too low in the boiler and he was waiting for the
water to arrive, because it was dangerous to start with so little
water.
This angered the foreman and he blew up saying to the engineer,
‘to hell with you and your water tank, you start up right
now.’ Famous last words, as when the engineer started up the
ensuing explosion decapitated the foreman, and his head was found
100 feet from his body.
Six men were killed in this accident, and two injured. The
engineer M.N. Ernsberger, was found with his head blown open. The
fireman, Hans Braasted was lying next to the fire box with his
throat cut. Others killed were A. W. Blowers, J.M. Burns and
William Clark. The impatient foreman, Allan Marsh, who was in such
a hurry to get going, left a young wife and two small children.
Nate Osman, the head feeder, had a lucky escape. He was on his
knees at the tool box, between the engine and separator, getting
out some tools. ‘All at once’, he said, ‘there was
steam everywhere and iron flying by me. I started to run behind the
separator; when I realized the danger was over, I went back and
called out to the boys to come and help the injured ones’.
The explosion did freakish things. A saddle pony had been tied
to the hind wheel of the engine. When the boiler exploded, the
saddle was blown off the horse, but the pony was not hurt.
Before threshing started the engine had been in town, and put in
the best condition to run. New flues had been installed and there
were no flaws in the boiler.
The pile of debris that was left in the field from this disaster
was regarded as an accursed spot on the ground. It grew up in
weeds, and was not cultivated. The farm implements always swung
around and avoided it for many years thereafter.
GEORGIA & SENIOR CITIZENS
The Georgia Agrirama, state museum of agriculture, has been
praised for providing older persons opportunity for participation
in museum activities.
Agrirama has costumed interpreters, most of whom are members of
the American Association of Retired Persons, hired through the
Senior Community Service Program.
A steam-powered logging train is one of the exhibits. AARP calls
the Agrirama program ‘an excellent example of a way to put
older people back in the work force in an interesting
concept’.
