Above is a photograph which belongs to Walter C. Bieritz of
Yorkville, Illinois. Photo shows the arrival of a Case outfit in
Yorkville in about 1909, and what follows is Walter’s account
of the event:
Now about the beginning of that Case outfit, a Rheinholdt
Leipheit who was engineer of this engine almost all of its time
Mr. William Kollman (in picture) and my father Herman Bieritz, Sr.
also in the picture were appointed as a committee of 3 to go see
about a Case outfit in 1909, I believe. So they went by train from
Yorkville to Chicago to see the Case Company showroom on Michigan
Avenue.
Case must have had a good salesman there, because the sale was
made. As you see, the machine in the picture it was headed right
for a steep hill to get out of Yorkville and go to my father’s
farm for the first job.
The regular engineer had been across the alley and into the back
door of the local pub a few too many times and had you know
what’s so the Case set up man pushed him aside and took the
engine up that steep hill without any effort on part of the steam
engine.
Notice the copy of the payment ticket and freight bill. Looks
like the price of the outfit was $2500.00 and the freight bill from
Racine to Yorkville was $32.40.
