1511 Iglehart Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
The 9th Annual Eagan, Minnesota Threshing Bee was held July 30,
31, 1977 at the George H. Ohman farm.
As usual, it was a show featuring much interesting activity. The
kind you expect to see when you go to a reunion and there is always
something interesting that you didn’t expect, and that makes it
was manufactured in the old days but you had never seen one, or it
may have been a steam engine or gas engine you knew of at one time,
but you had not seen one.
An example of what I’m trying to say here happened to me
when I saw a Townsend gas tractor for the first time at a show in
1966. Spinning wheels, looms for making carpets and rugs, soap
making and several other things including butter churning, all draw
the attention of people at the Threshing Reunions.
When Ralph Traux and I arrived at the Eagon Show on Saturday,
July 30, lumber sawing was in progress using George H. Ohman’s
28 HP
Minneapolis engine. With Reuben Boettcher as engineer, it was
belted to the lumber saw cutting large hard wood logs into
dimension lumber.
Mr. Ohman’s 50 HP Case engine with engineer, John
Mollenhauer in charge, was belted to an edger nearby.
In the afternoon stacks of rye bundles were threshed. A 36′
Minneapolis thresher and a 36′ Red River Special, both equipped
with wing feeders, were used both days. Ted Knaak and Gene Roggeman
were on hand with Ted’s 65 HP Case. Vic Wentsel brought his 18
HP Advance Rumely. These two engines and George Ohman’s
Minneapolis and Case engine all took turns running the
threshers.
Another engine, used for threshing, was George Ohman Sr.’s
60 HP Aultman and Taylor gas tractor. He purchased it in 1944 for
$400.00. Needless to say, it is his pride and joy. He used the
tractor for 15 years doing custom threshing. He used a 32′
Minneapolis separator with wing feeders, and a 28′ Huber
thresher which he has in a shed at the present time.
The 120 acre farm owned by George Ohman, Sr., was purchased by
his father about the time George was born in 1894. Ever since then,
it has been his home. It is where he and his wife, now deceased,
lived happily and raised their family. At present, he is assisted
in the farm operation by his son, Marvin, who lives nearby with his
wife and family. Mr. Ohman enjoys his farm life along with the
machinery he owns and operates. He enjoys riding on the grain
binder as it kicks out the grain bundles at harvest time. When
threshing time comes, he is often seen standing on the deck of a
threshing machine just above the cylinder while the machine is in
operation. From there he watches as the pitchers on the grain
stacks place the bundles in the wing feeder.
Much activity was in progress at the show. Karl Marquardt
operated the shingle and lathe mills. George Wilson of Rice Lake,
Wisconsin, was on hand with his model Rumely Oil Pull, pulling a
light trailer giving rides as he always does. His son, George
Wilson, Jr. of Eau Clair, Wisconsin brought a miniature John Deere
and a miniature Wood Pecker engine made in Minneapolis about from
1898 to 1920.
Betty and Bob Holler brought 6 gas engines including a Miller
engine which he restored. They also had miniature toys and toy
steam engines.
A small gas engine was operating a drag saw owned by Al Von Bank
and son of the Jordan show.
Rupert Wheeler brought 5 gas engines and 3 pump jacks. John
Goldsmith of Amery, Wisconsin, former owner of a 60 HP one cylinder
Patton engine, showed 9 small gas engines.
Frank Stelter brought two gas engines and a padlock
collection.
Les Goetzke of 1226 Smith Avenue, West St. Paul had 6 small gas
engines all running. He is a member of the Early Day Gas Engine and
Tractor Association, Inc., St. Croix Valley Branch No. 1.
The Hungry Hollow Club was well represented at the show.
Going back to some of the equipment that makes the Ohman Show
interesting, we will first mention some of the tractors. In
addition to the 30-60 Aultman and Taylor, another headliner is a
heavy duty gas tractor of the caterpillar or crawler type,
purchased about two years ago from Eagan Township. It is equipped
with steel lugs. It was used for snow plowing.
From a 10-20 McCormick Deering operating the shingle mill, we
came to a 17-30 Minneapolis with the motor mounted crosswide. There
is an Oliver 99 tractor, a two-cylinder John Deere; a 39-57
Minneapolis; a F-20 Farmall, a Farmall with a cultivator and a
22-36 McCormick Deering. The crawler type tractor along with others
gave plowing demonstrations in a nearby field.
There were at least 11 grain threshing machines with at least 6
of them ready for use. From a corn shredder, we go to just about
every piece of equipment you would find in antique farm
collections.
It is always nice meeting people at the show, and one of these
was Eileen Mc Lafferty Strasser of Hudson, Wisconsin and Bill Kane
of Rosemount, Minnesota. Eileen’s father was manager of the
Rosemount lumber yard for Rudy Ward and Frank Underwood.
I met George Grivina of Minneapolis who told me he built a
1′ scale Case steam engine, a 1/3 scale Advance-Rumeiy
separator and a 1/3 scale IHC Mogul 10-20 gas tractor. I enjoyed
meeting Arnold R. Hessedal of Kenyon, Minnesota. We talked of
engines and threshing.
It was about 5:30 P.M. that Sunday afternoon, July 31, when the
Eagan Threshing Bee drew to a close.
