369 S. Harrig Street, Madisonville, Kentucky 42431
EXPERIENCES WITH STEAM
Carl Donahoo was born in Daviess County, Kentucky, April 24,
1903. He bought a 12 HP Compound Russell when he was 18 years old
and steamed tobacco plant beds for 10 to 12 years. One time the
front flue sheet started to give him trouble. He pulled it behind a
road grader to the McClean County Highway garage to have it welded.
The welder blew the light transformer putting the lights out in
Calhoun, Kentucky, so he gave up and the engine was sold for
scrap.
Carl farmed and ran a 65 HP Case for a Mr. Elec Ayers, threshing
wheat and hulling clover for several years. About this time he went
to work for International Harvester and bought a 16 HP Advance but
sold it before he could bring it home. He used a 12 HP portable
Gaar Scott to steam cars of molasses for a feed mill.
Billy Byrd and Carl Donahoo in front of the 16-60 Nichols &
Shepard after a 28-hour trip from Calhoun to Madisonville,
Kentucky, August 1968.
In the late 20’s he bought a 50 HP Case sitting in a horse
lot where the Owensboro, Kentucky Airport is located. He reflued it
and drove it to Calhoun, his home, and steamed plant beds with it.
In 1929 the Oliver people took over the Nichols and Shepard Company
and shortly after Mr. Donahoo bought a 16-60 D.C. rear mounted
engine which had been turned back to the company. It was located at
W. Louisville, Kentucky, 12 miles from Calhoun. He liked not to
have gotten it home. It stalled on every hill because the boiler
was full of mud. He could hardly remove the hand hole plates, as
the mud was so hard and it took him three days to rod it out. With
this engine he steamed plant beds using a
121/2 yard pan charging
41/2 cents a yard. He steamed with the
Nichols and Shephard until 1964 and from 1964 to 1977 with a 65
Case portable that he pulled with a tractor. At the end he was
getting 18? a yard with 16-2/3 yard pan. When
threshing wheat with the N&S engine he pulled a 28 x 50
Keck-Gonnerman separator and threshed wheat, beans and oats. When
he quit threshing in 1943 he was using a 22 x 36 McCormick-Deering
tractor pulling a 28 x 48 Case separator that he had restored after
being damaged.
One time while threshing with a K.G., a fork came off the
handle, tore up the concaves and tore a hole in the grain pan.
One day he was moving from one farm to another and was going
down a long hill, when the key came out of the clutch pulley on the
Nichols and Shepard. The water wagon and pan wagon were pushing
him; he had no way to stop. Luck was with him; he did not meet
anyone and didn’t go in the ditch.
Once while steaming plant beds he thought that the pop valve was
off and was trying to set it by the steam gauge. He put on another
gauge and found out that he had set the pop at 180 pounds when the
engine carried 150 pounds.
In 1941 he started a shop doing general repair work, welding
repairs on cars and trucks, and especially tractors and farm
equipment. In 1968 he sold the Nichols and Shepard to me with
hesitation as he said, ‘you don’t sell a member of the
family, especially if you have raised 4 boys on it.’ He still
has the portable Case, is an active member of the
Tennessee-Kentucky Threshermans Association and attends the
Boonville Steam Show at Rockport, Indiana, the Pickneyville Show
and Old Threshers at Mount Pleasant. In 1977 he was given an old
Thresher’s Award at Mount Pleasant. Mr. Donahoo is an authority
on steam engines and it is a privilege for me to know him.
Edgar Hill was born in Christian County, Kentucky, October 8,
1904. At the age of 10 years he started firing a 20 HP Advance at
his father’s saw mill. The Advance was bought in 1910 and was
also used for steaming tobacco plant beds and threshing wheat. His
father, Matt Hill, threshed wheat with a 6 HP Springfield-Kelly,
then a 16 HP Geiser which he traded for the Advance. In 1934 Mr.
Hill and his father bought a rebuilt 22 HP D.C. R.M. Keck-Gonnerman
for $900. The engine was shipped from Mount Vernon, Indiana, to
Hopkinsville, Kentucky, a distance of 101 miles for which the
freight bill was $85. The shipping weight was 12 tons. It was used
to thresh wheat, pull the saw mill, steam plant beds, and pull a
rock crusher for the W.P.A.
He got 5? per yard for steaming plant beds with a
121/2 yard pan. He quit threshing with steam
in 1954 and with a tractor in 1962 and quit steaming plant beds in
1964.
The Advance and Keck-Gonnerman engines pulled a 32 x 54 Case
separator. Mr. Hill says some days the Advance would steam like a
house on fire and other days, you couldn’t get it to do
anything. One time with the Advance while going down the road, the
key in the draw bar came loose. There was a high bluff on the right
side but the separator dropped in the ditch and stopped before
going over the side.
With the Keck-Gonnerman he steamed asphalt out of railroad cars
one time for 3 days, with 175 pounds pressure, and
11/4‘ steam pipe. He turned the injector
on at 4:00 P.M. and never turned it off until 1:00 P.M. the next
day and every flue was leaking. In 1936 he bought a 50 HP Case
water wagon, 28 x 50 Case separator, and plant bed pan for $175.
Houston Townsend was firing the 50 HP Case pulling the 32 inch Case
separator. The old engine was doing her stuff and Houston said
‘Mr. Edgar, she sure is preaching the word, she’s going to
bust that smoke stack wide open. I’m just keeping her coming
hot all day.’ While threshing with the Case, the follow head
nut on the end of the piston rod came loose and tore the cylinder
up; had to get a new one.
Mr. Hill got 10? a bushel for threshing and usually in a good
day’s run would thresh between 1900 and 2000 bushels. He is
partial to the Keck-Gonnerman engine because it is easy to handle,
with the Case being his next favorite. He now has a portable 50 HP
Frick made in 1927 that he restored this spring and exhibits at the
Tennessee-Kentucky Thresher men’s Association. He also fires
Newt Howell’s 19 HP Keck-Gonnerman on the saw mill at the
show.
He is a Director of the Tennessee-Kentucky Association, attends
the shows at Rockport and Mount Pleasant, where in 1977, he was
presented with an old Thresher Award. Mr. Hill works part-time as a
machinist at the Pennyrile Machine Works at Hopkinsville. His
knowledge of steam engines and tractors is unlimited.
These two gentlemen are of a breed that have few left and it
would be to the younger men’s advantage to learn all they can
from them and the ones like them.
