![John Kauffman lettering the Elizabethtown Fire Company ladder truck in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. [See story JOHN KAUFFMAN-MODEL BUILDER AND PAINTER]. Courtesy of picture, Mrs. James H. Shank, 414 Snyder Avenue, Elizabethtown, Pa. 17022.](https://ogden_images.s3.amazonaws.com/www.farmcollector.com/images/1976/05/03181836/IMA_V31_I3_May_1976_09-1-1.jpg)
![John Kauffman and Dave Dufton, Frick Company official, in Philadelphia, looking at model which Kauffman made for the company. [See story JOHN KAUFFMAN-MODEL BUILDER AND PAINTER]. Courtesy of picture, Mrs. James H. Shank, 414 Snyder Avenue, Elizabethtown,](https://ogden_images.s3.amazonaws.com/www.farmcollector.com/images/1976/05/03181839/IMA_V31_I3_May_1976_09-2.jpg)
Elizabethtown, Pa.
Harvey Hoffman of Rheems, Pa., a spry 88, remembers his old
friend John Kauffman as a man of many talents. On a living room
wall of Harvey’s home hangs a picture of a steam engine,
painted by John. A remark about the picture sets off a string of
reminisces … of boyhood days at Milton Grove, of threshing rigs
and steam engines, and of John’s talent with the brush.
Kauffman and Hoffman grew up in the Milton Grove area of
Lancaster County where both became steam engine enthusiasts. They
threshed many a bushel of grain in the days before combines and
gas-powered engines took over.
John Kauffman died August 7, 1972, at the age of 75. His wife,
the former Mary Dubler, preceded him in death on May 20, 1972. Out
of their half-century of married life came 14 children, six boys
and eight girls, all living today in or around Elizabethtown and
Manheim. There are 33 grandchildren and five great
grandchildren.
Kauffman lived in the same house for 73 of his 75 years. When he
and Mary were married they moved into a house next door to the
Kauffman family home in Milton Grove. Two years later, when
John’s father died, they moved back and stayed the rest of
their lives.
Incidentally, Harvey Hoffman today lives in the same house he
bought in 1919. Perhaps one of the secrets of longevity is putting
down roots or ‘staying put.’
The Kauffman home at one time had been a carriage house. It was
converted into a home, probably by John’s father, who stayed in
the carriage-making business. John’s job as a young chap was to
paint stripes and designs on the coaches.
His children like to talk about his school composition book.
This contains drawings made when he was a lad, drawings that
indicated an artistic ability at an early age. This talent was
encouraged by his coach-decorating work. Through the years John
used his spare time to draw and paint and build model steam engines
and threshers. He turned his expertise to practical use by
decorating chairs and other furniture. In Hoffman’s home there
are several plank bottom chairs which Kauffman decorated.
Kauffman built beautiful model engines, with precise detail, out
of ‘junk’ which he found around the house. Old pieces of
metal, cast-off parts, odds and ends, were fashioned by this
artisan into accurate replicas of engines.
Kauffman had a unique way of painting. He didn’t use oil or
water colors. He used enamel paint on hardboard. His subjects were
steam engines and threshing rigs. He knew engines inside out and
his paintings attest to that fact. The esteem in which his work is
held could be seen at Earlene Ritzman’s Korn Krib sale last
November 1st, where his models and paintings were among items
auctioned. One of his paintings brought $340.
Throughout his working career, Kauffman was a thresherman and a
sawmill operator, and also steamed tobacco. For years he would take
his sawmill apparatus to stands of timber, set it up and cut. When
he decided to ease off a little, he stopped threshing and operated
his sawmill on his home property.
For the last 25 years or so, he took things a little easier and
spent most of his time making models and painting. People were now
coming to him and requesting him to paint pictures of their
favorite engines. What was once done for his own amusement became a
source of some income and a way of pleasing his friends.
Kauffman is estimated to have finished about 100 paintings. The
people who own these works are fortunate. They have in their
possession part of the record of the history of American farming.
Kauffman helped preserve the story of the threshing rig and the
steam engine. If he never did anything else, he should be
remembered for this.
But he did other things. He not only recorded the old threshing
days, he lived them. He not only painted steam engines, he worked
with them and repaired them. He was a regular visitor to the annual
Kinzers Rough and Tumble Event and for a time worked at a shop in
Kinzers. He was a member of the Milton Grove United Methodist
Church, formerly the Evangelical United Brethren. He left a family
of 14 children who respect his memory and are proud of his
legacy.
Among those who remember John Kauffman best, is Harvey Hoffman.
These two men had a lot in common. Hoffman also had a big family,
10 children. Both had wives who went blind in their later years.
Both had an affection for their homes and enjoyed their work.
Talking with Harvey one gets a sense of how it was in the ‘old
days’ and a feeling of the continuity of things, of how one
year rolls into another and that no matter how much things change
the basics remain constant.
John Kauffman’s life, his work, friendships, family, home,
his avocation of painting, add up to a splendid record of
accomplishment. An artist and an artisan, John Kauffman was an
original.
(See March-April 1976 Iron-Men Album for story on Harvey
Hoffman).
(Bill Lenox received a letter recently from F. A. JACOB, Route
1, 8808 Burton, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613 pertaining to a recently
published article – I thought you readers of I.M.A. would be
interested in it – Anna Mae)
‘I note your article printed in the Sept.-Oct. 1975 issue of
Iron-Men Album concerning the musical instruments of Mr. Getz. I
visited the Rough & Tumble Show about three years ago and
remember a calliope.
‘Anyway, you mention a Una-Fon, and I know of a couple
others, in Georgia and Missouri. I have seen and heard two others
called Una-Fon that might be of interest. One on the ‘Delta
Queen’ steam boat, home port Cincinnati, Ohio, and another in
the Ringling Circus Museum at Baraboo, Wisconsin. Of course, these
may be different from the Getz unit but thought you might like this
information. Each of these also has a steam calliope and the Circus
Museum has another thing called a ‘Shaker Chimes.’
