114 Auburn Ct., Alexandria, Va.
I was pleased to see the two photographs I recently sent you
reproduced on page 24 and 25 of March-April 1966 issue of the
Iron-Men Album. Inquiry has been made regarding these scenes, and
so I send this explanation.
The man standing on top of the Huber Separator is Roy Garber,
the fanner’s uncle, Douglas Garber, owner of the outfit. I do
not know who the engineer is.
The persons in the sod house scene are: the tall man standing on
left is Anthony Coler (I slipped a cog in naming the picture having
left out the name Coler), his son Frank, Mrs. Coler in chair, son
Perry, and daughter Cora, who became the wife of Douglas
Garber.
As to my connection with the pictures, while attending McPherson
College I met another student, a sister of Ray Garber, a curly
haired brown-eyed lassie from Morton County who was willing to
change her name from Garber to Dalke. She may have made a mistake,
I didn’t.
My connection with traction engines begins in Oklahoma where I
ran a Huber, a Peerless, a Gaar Scott, a Minneapolis and a
Northwest engine. In Kansas it was a Nichols and Sheppard, and in
North Dakota a Leader engine. The money thus earned was used to put
myself through college. Later, while a teacher, I had fun during
some summer vacations running engine in Kansas, first a Case then
an Advance, and finally an Advance-Rumely. I spent 35 years as a
teacher and school administrator in Public Schools, and as Dean of
Missouri Wesleyan College and Head of Department of Education
there. Since 1953 I have been teaching a Sunday School Class in Del
Ray Methodist Church in Alexandria, Virginia, but the bark of a
traction engine is still music to my ears.