Iron Man of The Month

He is 75 years old, and has lived at Morgantown and community
close by all of his life. He was a former after he gave up the
sawmill and threshing rings in the middle thirties, but never gave
up his love for the two as it was always a hobby with him. Now that
he is retired, he spends most of his time ‘playing’ with
his engines and sawmill.

Like to talk about steam? Just go anytime to the farm north of
Morgantown, Indiana, R.R. #1, where Lawrence E. Walker and his
wife, Helen, live. Before you leave you will be talking of steam
engines, looking at his pictures of engines he has owned in the
past, and steam shows he has attended. Then, you will have to go
out to the shed to see his engines. He now has two. An 80 HP Case,
serial no. 35824, and an Advance Rumely, 22 hp, serial no. 14440,
which have been restored to their original beauty. Next you will
have to go to the sawmill he has built and look it over.

He does most of his sawing himself and has electrified most
everything so he can handle it. He only does custom sawing now. Of
course, he uses the steam engine for power -just to hear it purr
and puff.

He had his steam thresher outfit back in the 1920’s and
1930’s. He went from farm to farm, during the summer, doing the
threshing of the harvest for each particular farmer with help
exchanged among the neighbors. The women congregated at each
farmhouse to get the dinner ready (dinner was served at noon in
those days). Even the young girls and boys helped. The girls helped
with the plucking of the chickens, which was the meat of the
summer, and the young boys would carry water and lemonade to the
threshers for refreshment.

The first that L. E. (as he is called by his friends) can
remember of a steam engine is his dad’s 10 hp Russell. When he
was 12 years old he helped fire his dad’s Aultman-Taylor in the
threshing ring. Then, at 14 years old, he helped fire his
uncle’s 60 HP Case. At 26 years of age he had an engine of his
own, a 15-45 Case. By this time his dad also had a 15-45 Case. They
both had identical threshing outfits and went in different
directions through the community harvesting the grain.

He has also owned several other engines down through the years:
a double Nichols-Shepard, Baker, and three Case engines, and the
Advance Rumely. The Case became his favorite of all steam traction
engines. He bought his Baker in 1934 for $65.00 from the Hart &
Hart Tie-Yard at Columbus, Indiana, and drove it home over the
roads, which was legal in those days. He still has the bill of sale
for this one.

He has restored several engines in later years, including three
of his own. The 60 HP Case, S/N 34165, the 80 HP Case, S/N 35824,
and just last summer he and his son have finished restoring the
Advance Rumely, S/N 14440. He also restored a Keck-Gonnerman for a
friend. L. E. has a repair shop on the farm, and if he can’t
find the part he needs for the engine he is working on, he makes it
himself, ‘Precision made to perfection.’ He had to replace
the flue sheet and completely reflue the 60 HP Case and the 22 HP
Advance Rumely. One man who was there one day when he was working
on the Case, and had it all torn down and laying around on the
ground, and the boiler on wooden blocks; looked at it, shook his
head, and remarked, ‘It will never run again.’ But, later
that same year, he had to eat his words as it was the most
beautiful engine – looking as if it had just come from the foundry,
all painted to regulation, and ran like a top.

But L. E. wasn’t satisfied with that one when he saw an 80
HP Case at Waterloo, Indiana one summer. He couldn’t rest until
he was the owner of it and had it in his own barnyard. The number
of this one is 35824. It is his pride and joy; almost any Sunday
you will find him climbing around on it with a rag in one hand,
wiping it down, and, an oil can in the other, getting it ready to
fire up. He says this one is one of the last that was built and it
is restored to the point that you might think it was never
used.

His second love is sawmills. Anytime you can’t find him at
the steam engines, at the steam shows; just look around the sawmill
and you will probably find him offbearing, helping in some other
way, or just setting and watching. He had a sawmill all during the
depression at several locations in Brown County, Indiana, and he
kept himself and his family in food and shelter without helping
from the Government. He would set his mill up right in the edge of
the woods and cut the timber and saw it until that woods was
finished then move the mill down the road seven or eight miles and
set up again for another strip of woods.

L. E. and his wife look forward to the summer months, now that
he is retired. Then they carl hitch their travel trailer to the car
and attend all the steam shows over the country. His wife is as
much of an enthusiast as he is. They usually make ten to fifteen
shows every summer. Just mention his name at almost any show from
Rollag, Minnesota to Springfield, Missouri, and it is a good bet
that someone will say, ‘Oh yes, you mean Walker, who has the 80
HP Case at the Rushville Show.’ He and his wife usually arrive
on Wednesday before the show and he can be found helping get the
engines ready and checked out for the next few days before the
opening day.

They attended the second show on the Leroy Blaker Farm in
Alvordton, Ohio, which later became the National Thresher’s
Association at Wauseon, Ohio. They have been there every year
since. They also go to Rollag and Dalton, Minnesota; Pinkneyville
and Pontiac, Illinois; Mt. Pleasant. Iowa; Greenville and London,
Ohio; Springfield, Missouri; Tipton and Portland, Indiana; and, of
course, his own show at Rushville, Indiana.

He arrives back home in plenty of time to get his engine ready
for the Rushville Pioneer Engineer’s Club Show and this year,
he will be taking the Advance Rumely also.

He is a director of the Rushville Pioneer Engineer’s Club
and looks forward to the meetings of the club during the year. His
Case is the! largest engine at this show and in 1973 was presented
a plaque attesting to this fact.

Other antiques he possesses are: A40-62 Huber tractor, a Twin
City tractor, and a Huber separator which he operates with his
engines.

Yes, any time you want to talk about steam, or need advice on
engines, just look up L. E. – he thrives on it.