1511 Iglehart Avenue, St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
August 26 and 27 were the dates of the 1978 Steam and Pioneer
power show. The show was held on the Dave Preuhs farm, 8 miles east
of LeSueur, Minnesota.
The scheduled weekend turned out to be a real wet one. Light
showers kept things damp on Saturday with a sort of breaking away
in the afternoon, when some activity managed to surface.
Saturday night a heavy deluge came that reached from the Le
Sueur area, where it struck the hardest, to the Minneapolis-St.
Paul southern extremities, where cars became totally submerged on
at least one highway. At LeSueur, on Sunday morning and throughout
the day, conditions were deplorable. Cars were stuck between the
highway and the show site, with tractor operators busy pulling them
out.
The show grounds are on higher ground than most of the area but
the muddy heavy soil of Green Giant fame stuck to footwear just too
much for the enjoyment of those who wanted to see things. And there
is plenty to see from a fine grove of oak trees well filled with
popping gas engines back to the open space of ground where Mike
Kovic of Jordan, Minnesota had his lumber saw setup using his
recently overhauled big Lawson tractor for power.
Joe Shelly of St. Peter, Minnesota, owner of a 22 Hp Advance
engine and long associated with steam shows, was on hand operating
a 28 HP Minneapolis engine, loaned to the show by the Budenski
Brothers of West Concord, Minnesota. This engine was owned by the
late Ed Budenski.
Irwin Morrell of the Scott-Carver show brought his 16 HP Advance
engine. His nephew, Dennis Ames, was the engineer.
Saturday afternoon the weather permitted David Preuhs to bring
out his 32 x 44 Nichols & Shepard hand feed, slat stacker
‘Vibrator’ separator. He purchased it in July 1978 at the
Archie Stevens estate auction at Millville, Minnesota. Built in
1875, the serial number is 7909. Belted to Mr. Morrell’s
Advance engine, it threshed a load of dy oat bundles brought from a
shed. William Eihlers of New Prague, Minnesota fed the machine.
While browsing around the gas tractor exhibit, where I noticed
several two-and three-plow steam several two-and three-plow Hart
Parr tractors owned by Dave Preuhs. I was attracted by loud exhaust
coming from a model steam traction engine, which I happened to be
standing close to at the time. Then I noticed the cause of its
labor. It was belted to a 15-30 Rumely tractor which had refused to
start by hand cranking. When the belt pulley on the tractor was
engaged the little steamer really worked hard as it finally proved
equal to the occasion when the big single cylinder Rumely, after
sending up clouds of black smoke, began to exhaust. After a loud
series of reports, it settled down to the ‘thump, thump’
sound of exhaust these engines were famous for. I heard one on
different occasions when it was two miles away. Close up the sound
of the exhaust of this tractor was not disagreeable but for some
reason, the sound carried to a distance almost unbelievable. The
tractor is from the Budenski collection, with Mr. Lentz of Pine
Island, co-owner. The steam engine is a model Advance traction
engine built by Max Borchert and it was in care of Dave Borchert of
Kasota, Minnesota in the St. Peter area.
Back in the grove, I enjoyed a chat with Eisner Machacek of
Northfield, Minnesota who brought his scale model 65 HP Case steam
engine. His grandson, John Machacek, takes loving care of the
little master-piece, and Eisner says he’ll be getting an
engineer’s license soon as he is old enough.
The Alois VonBank drag saw from the Jordan, Minnesota show was
being operated by a young lady who cut souvenirs from oak logs.
The exhibit of gas engines ran in size from 1 to 25 HP portable,
a 20 HP portable engine, and a saw rig for cutting stove wood, plus
a large exhibit of small sized engines, some as large as 7 or 8
HP.
It is regrettable that the weather failed to cooperate with the
LeSueur show in 1978, but we can rest assured that Dave Preuhs and
his associates will promote a good show next time.
