FIVE GENERATIONS OF STEAM IN THE McLEAN FAMILY

‘She’s got 25 HP on the draw bar and 75 on the belt.
She’ll pull a 10-bottom plow or thresh 1/4 section of grain a
day’, answers David as he reaches up to pull on the whistle to
signal the start of the big engine.

Three thousand people watch as David and other members of the
South Peace Centennial Museum sponsor their annual Pioneer Day on
the third Sunday in July at Beaverlodge, Alberta.

David is dressed in striped engineer’s coveralls and hat,
fitted gauntlet gloves and a red scarf. Except for his bright blue
and yellow Adidas tennis shoes and his 3’5′ height, David
looks like any other steam engineer from the early 1900s. He and
his engineer run the big engine all day to give spectators a good
look at it along with all the other antique steam engines parading
behind. Old timers reminisce while the youngsters run alongside
like kids did in the early days when these huge, flashy, noisy
machines were an impressive sight to everyone.

David and his steam engine have a unique relationship. His
machine was donated to him in 1977 by his grandfather, Ted McLean,
curator of the museum. Every year when the boiler inspector makes
his annual inspection, David takes a half-day off school to be
present with his dad, Gordon. David likes to be there because he
worries all day that it might not pass the inspection, indicating
that it cannot be operated at the annual Pioneer Day. This year
again the steamer has passed and David proudly displays the
certificate, attractively framed over his bed.

David’s 33-year old father, Gordon, is president of the
South Peace Centennial Museum. He too has been around steam engines
most of his life. But, by the time Gordon was old enough to enjoy
machinery, steam power had long disappeared from the farm. However,
he and his dad, Ted, always tinkered with an old steam engine on
the farm and always stooked enough oats to justify getting the old
engine to run a threshing machine for one day each fall.

Gordon currently has a 1914 28-80 HP Waterloo steam engine which
sits proudly at the museum. Two or three times a year he and his
dad, Ted, start it up just as they used to when Gordon was a
youngster. It, too, operates at every Pioneer Day, displaying its
magnificent abilities to operate the sawmill.

For 71-year-old Ted McLean, seeing his son and grandson on steam
engines brings back lively memories of past years when he too first
became interested in steam. Ted was born in 1909 in Indian Head,
Saskatchewan. When he was 7 years old he used to run away from
school just to be around the steam engines. Threshing was the big
attraction in those days and it meant a holiday from school when
the threshing crew was on your farm. Threshing represented good
things to eat, a big crowd of workers and lots of fun! When Ted was
10, he was allowed to steer the steam engines as the crew was
changing the set from one field to another. At 14, he was allowed
to ‘pitch bundles’ and had to get up at 4:00 a.m. to fire
up the engine. Ted gained enough experience to allow him to operate
an engine on his own by the time he was 18. When he first came to
Alberta in 1937 he operated an engine at a sawmill. In those days
the engineer was the most respected, highest paid person on the
site. Ted earned $5 a day.

By the time Ted was able to purchase his own farm, the steam
engine was gradually passing into history and gas tractors were
becoming more popular. By 1947, steam was more of a hobby for
Ted.

In 1957 he bought his first steam engine, a 50 HP Case. He
rebuilt the engine and used it every year for fun to thresh some of
his crop. In 1964 he traded the 50 HP Case for the 75 HP Case that
was to become the South Peace Centennial Museum’s first steam
engine. Ten years later he purchased a 28-80 HP Waterloo engine
which he subsequently sold for $1.00 to his son, Gordon. In 1977 he
donated the 75 HP Case to his grandson David and purchased a 1909
36-120 HP Rumely steam engine from Prince George, B.C. It is the
largest steam engine at the museum and is currently being
restored.

Ted’s father, William Townsend McLean, also had a long
history in steam engines. He was born in 1879 in Nova Scotia but
moved to the Ft. Qu’Appelle region of Saskatchewan when he was
5 years old. He ran his own steam threshing outfit with a 60 HP
Case in the Indian Head area of Saskatchewan until 1924. He farmed
until the Depression and in 1947 moved to the Beaverlodge-Hythe
region of Alberta. But by 1925 he had traded his steam engine for a
gas engine. William Townsend McLean died in Hythe in 1960 at the
age of 81.

Colin McLean, Ted’s grandfather and William Townsend
McLean’s father, was born in Scotland in 1844. He moved with
his family to Nova Scotia and then to the Ft. Qu’Appelle region
in Saskatchewan. He purchased his first engine, a 45 HP portable
Case in the late 1880s. It was moved by horses on a sled! His
second engine was a 20-60 HP Case traction engine purchased about
10 years later. He purchased a steam threshing outfit before 1900
and farmed most of his 82 years at Indian Head, where he was buried
in 1926.

The present three generations of McLeans: Ted, David and Gordon
(L to R), and the 1912 25-75 HP Case steam engine at Beaverlodge,
Alberta in 1980.

Colin McLean standing by the wheel of his steam engine at Indian
Head, Saskatchewan in 1920.

William McLean standing in the foreground of his steam threshing
outfit at Fillmore, Saskatchewan in 1924.

Steam has played an important role in the lives of all five
generations of McLeans. Colin and William spent most of their
working life operating engines. Ted saw steam power give way to
gasoline, and steam was history by the time Gordon was born. But
Gordon was attracted to the big, flashy, noisy machines just like
his son David and like all other kids have been for generations.
David has watched his steamer run a threshing machine and drive a
sawmill, but never off the grounds of the museum.

It was due to Ted McLean’s interest in maintaining some of
the history of his father and grandfather that his hobby developed
into the South Peace Centennial Museum. Without 7-year-old David
McLean and others of his age having an interest in steam engines,
we will not likely see an important part of our history enacted the
third Sunday each July in Beaverlodge. Kids like David must have
the desire to obtain the necessary license to operate steam
engines. To do this they need someone like David’s father,
Gordon, and grandfather, Ted, to teach the necessary skills to
operate, maintain and repair these huge machines. Otherwise the
only place we will see a steam engine in the future is in a display
building shining brightly, waiting forever for someone like David
McLean to come and start it up. For if David does not learn how to
run these machines, then the thrill and excitement of seeing the
huge, flashy, noisy steamers go rumbling by, will be history
too!