Back Home Again in Indiana

song. But this time, besides visiting relatives, we stopped at a
number of places where steam traction engines and grain separators
had been manufactured. In each town I sought information from local
libraries and museums, interviewed persons related to those who had
established companies, talked with those who had owned and operated
threshing equipment. Suffice it to say, it was great fun and quite
informative.

Let me share with you some lore I was able to obtain concerning
the Keck-Gonnerman Company of Mount Vernon, Indiana. This company
was established in 1873 and was incorporated in 1901. It built such
equipment as steam traction engines, separators, bean hullers,
grain cleaners, corn shellers, saw mills, pumps and coal mining
machinery. The Keck family now owns and operates the Keck Motor
Company in Mount Vernon.

I found Mr. John Keck, the grandson of one of the founders of
the company at his desk on a very busy Monday morning. In spite of
the press of duty, he was most generous with his time. I wanted to
find out from him, among other things, why Keck-Gonnerman continued
its business longer than most companies and, contrary to the
experience of many other such companies, never seemed to have had a
major financial crisis. John suggested that the reason might be
that ‘the company was financially solvent because it was
conservative.’ John’s copy of a 1910 catalog tends to bear
this out. The following indicates, I believe, a no nonsense policy
with regard to credit for items purchased:

‘When engines and threshers are bought on time they are to
be settled for by notes payable in one, two or three seasons,
secured with a chattel mortgage on the machinery sold, and other
property if necessary to justify accepting the sale. When parties
placing orders for machinery are not freeholders, then we require
in advance a cash payment sufficient to pay the freight charges
that may accrue in shipping out machinery and returning same to the
factory, in case the purchaser should refuse to carry out his part
of the contract.’

John Keck suggested that the company was conservative in other
respects mainly because the founders continued to operate the
company even when they were ‘in their eighties.’ Thus new
blood was not pumped into it. The second generation apparently had
little input before its members had reached the age of 60, when
they were themselves conservative or had lost interest in the
company. This conservatism was beneficial in certain respects, but
in other respects it was a drawback. No research and development
department was ever created. The combine, the machine of the
future, doomed the conventional threshing machine and the company
had no combine to sell. Finally a man was brought in from
California to develop a rice combine, but he ran through quite a
bit of cash within a year, and he never produced a machine that the
company could market. This failure did not lead to the demise of
the company. Although it produced its last steam engine about 1930,
Keck-Gonnerman continued to rebuild engines for several years.
Moreover it continued to build such machinery as was indicated
earlier. Separators, for example, were built as late as 1953.

During our conversation, John suggested the names of a few
persons with whom I might talk about the history of the company.
Among these was a Mr. William Booth of 200 Vine Street, Mount
Vernon, who had worked in the separator division. I found Bill at
home fixing his roof. He lives within a stone’s throw of the
old Keck-Gonnerman plant. Two buildings remain. The old office
building now houses the Production Credit Association. The other
building, the grey iron foundry is owned by the Claybrooke
Transportation Company.

For twenty years Bill assembled separators. He began working for
Keck-Gonnerman on February 9, 1933 and continued until sometime in
1953. Catfishing and the Mount Vernon Fire and Rescue, Inc., are
two of his interests. Bill said that a crew was responsible for
building a particular separator. A good crew could assemble about
two per week. At one time the company had dire crews making
separators. These were sold chiefly in the midwest and in Canada
and in Cuba. Once, when a member of a certain crew was absent, Bill
was asked whether he could stripe a separator. His response was,
‘If someone can, I can.’ I striped from then on. I striped
many of them.’ Stencils were used for painting lettering and a
transfer was used to place the emblem of the ‘Home of the
Prosperous Farmer’ on the separators and water tanks of the
engines. These transfers were varnished over to protect them from
the weather. The separators, that is the wood separators, for
Keck-Gonnerman also made steel separators, were red. The wood used
in their construction was purchased, stacked and thoroughly cured.
‘Every piece was absolutely cured.’ The Keck-Gonnerman
separator was called the Indiana Special. What made it
‘special’ was a device behind the cylinder that elevated
the straw onto the shakers. Bill believes the most commonly built
separators were the 28 x 50 and the 32 x 54.

Regarding the steam engines, Bill reports that the 18 and 20
horsepower engines were the most popular. Keck-Gonnerman mounted
their engines on boilers which they purchased. Once he was asked to
list the colors used on the engines. I included his list for those
who may be engaged in restoring a Keck-Gonnerman engine.

wheels — red
boiler — black
flywheel & eccentric wheel –red
cylinder — green
roof ribs & edge — green
lettering — yellow
tool box — green
smokestack — black
front door raised letters — silver

Bill was certainly one of the most enjoyable persons I met
‘Back Home Again in Indiana.’ We had a great deal in common
including a love of fishing, plenty of time for conversation and,
an interest in threshing machinery. But, another fascinating
interview lay ahead. Soon I was to encounter Mr. Roy Boatman of
Bridgeport, Illinois, who has owned at least 13 steem engines
including three Keck-Gonnerman engines.

I ran into Roy by chance. We had stopped at a motel in
Lawrenceville, Illinois, and the manager told me there was a fellow
nearby who had a whole barn full of steam engines. Roy began
threshing near Dundas, Illinois, when he could ‘scarcely reach
the throttle on the steam engine.’ When he quit threshing in
1917 he became a machinist and ‘took care of the stationary
steam engines for the Indian Oil Company for 30 years.’

Roy took me out to his barn to see his engines. It was quite a
thrill to step onto the platform of the 22 HP Keck-Gonnerman engine
and manipulate the levers and grasp that magnificently sturdy
steering wheel. This engine was built in either 1910 or 1912.
Unfortunately, the number has been lost. A second Keck-Gonnerman
(engine number 1787), a 19 HP engine, stands beside the 22. These
engines, and his Keck-Gonnerman separator are in first rate
condition. He steams all his engines each year on the Sunday
following his birthday, September 21. Roy claims the Keck-Gonnerman
engines steam easily, are powerful and easily manuvered. As many as
500 to 1000 persons come to see his engines and he parades them
before an appreciative audience at the local nursing home.

Roy has many absorbing stories to tell. It seems a man in the
area owned a Keck-Gonnerman engine. The man, dying of cancer,
wished to see his engine in good hands upon his death. He called
Roy to his bedside and pleaded, ‘I want to know where my engine
is going. Will you take it?’ Roy purchased the engine and kept
it until the man and his wife had died. He then sold it to another
man who would care for it too.

On another occasion Roy received a call from a frantic engineer
who could not keep steam in his double cylinder Keck-Gonnerman.
Upon arriving at the scene, he asked the engineer to start his
engine. Only one cylinder appeared to be functioning. This he
detected by listening at the smoke door. He asked the engineer to
stop the engine. When he opened the smoke door he found that one of
the exhaust pipes had fallen down and was exhausting back through
the flues, thus killing the fire in the fire box. Roy tied up the
pipe with some baling wire and the engine worked fine. As he
repeated several times, ‘I had to laugh. You would think they
would have looked in the smoke door.’

Roy now lives alone. His wife died a few years ago. A son and
daughter, however, live nearby. Six pictures of steam engines he
has owned are lovingly hung on his living room wall. A Case, a Port
Huron, two Keck-Gonnerman engines and a separator stand nearby to
keep him company. He is rightfully proud of his collection.
Although he sometimes wonders if he will be physically able to
steam his engines next September, he is, nevertheless, thinking
about purchasing another engine, ‘If I can get it at the right
price.’ Indeed an unforgetable character.

There is much more to be told about these men, Joh Keck, Bill
Booth, and Roy Boatman; and the trip ‘Back Home Again in
Indiana.’ But that will have to wait until another time. I
shall remember them always for their helpfulness, friendship and
the joy they brought me as I relived some of the ‘good old
days’ of the Keck-Gonnerman steam threshing rig.