Sept. 1982. Reproduced by IMA with permission.
Sometimes, what one generation uses, another views in museums.
Take Herman Bearman’s tractor, for example.
In 1911, Bearman decided he needed a revolutionary piece of farm
equipment that would operate in his fields without the benefit of
horse or mule. Eagerly, he purchased a steam driven Case tractor,
manufactured by the J I Case Threshing Machine Company (now
Tenneco’s J I Case Company) in Racine, Wis.
During the heyday of the ‘Age of Steam,’ the Comfort,
Texas farmer used the steam tractor for a fraction of its useful
life before putting it out to pasture and buying more modernized
equipment.
The ‘Age of Steam’ has long-since disappeared, and
Bearman has passed on, but his decaying 90-horsepower unit has been
removed from its graveyard and been given a second life.
The Center for Transportation and Commerce at Galveston recently
purchased the tractor for its new museum. And, though the
tractor’s working days are over, it now stands as a classic
representation of early 20th century machinery.
Set in a garden area, the Case tractor is one of several pieces
of steam machinery on display. The Garden of Steam salutes early
uses of steam power, including a steam fire engine and a ‘gumbo
buster’ (another piece of steam machinery) used in Pearland,
Texas, oil drilling operations years ago.
The Garden of Steam is only one facet of Galveston’s newest
historical attraction, which opened in July 1982. Built by the
Moody Foundation, the museum glorifies the years when Galveston was
a transportation crossroads of the world. Steamships lined up at
the docks. Steam locomotives moved in and out of the Santa Fe Union
Station there with cargo and passengers to Texas and beyond,
connecting with railroad networks that crossed from one coast to
the next.
Visitors are greeted at the museum’s entrance a replica of
that 1875 station with the sound effects of steam engines, whistles
and boarding calls. The room’s wain scoating and pot belly
stove complete the scenario of boarding a train.
Five audio-visual theaters provide a capsule history of
Galveston from Cabeza de Vaca’s discovery of the island in 1528
through the Golden Age, when Galveston’s Strand business
section became ‘the Wall Street of the Southwest.’ (The
Strand was restored two years ago with funds donated by Tenneco
Inc. and other businesses and local citizens.) It concludes with a
look at the city in the 1980s and in the future.
Next stop is the ‘Peoples’ Gallery’ the focal point
of the museum located in the old Santa Fe terminal building, which
was recently restored to the way it looked in 1932. There 39
life-size travelers made of plaster are poised as if they are
waiting for trains.
These figures, which appear almost ghost-like, are positioned
around the train station. They include conductors impatiently
watching the time, businessmen waiting for the next train to
Houston, a beauty queen posing for a reporter, sailors, old-timers
and children.
The museum also displays 35 restored railroad cars, some of
which can be toured. Included are four steam locomotives, boxcars,
baggage cars, mail cars, parlor and Pullman cars, a caboose and the
‘Anacapa,’ a 1929 private palace car then described by the
New York Times as ‘the most elegant private car on the rails
today.’
Other features of the museum include an exhibit that explains
how equipment like trains and tractors operated on steam power. It
also has a group of box cars that feature rail road art, a railroad
theater, train sounds and a display that answers questions
concerning rail history from 1830 to 1980.
Admission to the museum is $4.00 for adults, $2.00 for children
4 to 12 and $3.00 for senior citizens. There is a 50-cent discount
on reserve tickets for groups of 20 or more.
Visitors to Galveston should turn north on 26th street to reach
the museum, located behind the Sheam Moody Plaza at 26th and Santa
Fe Place.
