7511 The Paseo, Kansas City 10, Missouri
IN SEPTEMBER, 1957 ED. M. Peacock held an annual Threshing Bee
on his farm near Fulton, Missouri, where he has lived since early
boyhood. His father before him ran threshing machines. In 1911 Ed.
started operating his first machine and continued until the late
30’s. In 1936 he had seven machines operating in the field. He
year.
Mr. Peacock is popular throughout the state with his engines and
is invited to show them at the Missouri State Fair, county fairs
and centennials.
At this Threshing Bee there were 14 engines, most of which had
been owned and operated in Missouri. The morning was spent in
getting up steam, and making adjustments on the machines. Wheat was
threshed from eleven until noon. Dinner was served by church women
from Aux Vausse, Missouri.
Then came the parade of engines, led by a small model owned and
made by Mr. McKinney of Cairo, Missouri. A delightful part of the
parade was a concert played by Mace Broiles on a steam calliope
that was built in 1870 or 1830. It is one of the few of its kind
and is owned by Mr. Peacock.
No. 3 was a Reeves, built in 1917, 16-72 hp., weight 8 tons; No.
4, Reeves built in 1914-15, 32-120 hp., 22 tons; No. 5, Reeves,
1896, 13-50 hp., 7 tons; No. 6, 1910 Case 15-45, 8 tons; No. 7,
1922 Keck-Gonerman, 22-85, 12 tons; No. 8, Advance 1916, 20-72, 11
tons; Mo. 9, Greyhound, 1917, 18-65, 10 tons; No. 10, 1916
Minneapolis 20-70, 12 tons; No. 11, Port Huron, 1916, 19-65, ten
tons; No. 12, Jumbo, 1915, 20-82, 12 tons. There were two 15 hp.
Case engines and one 16 hp. Reeves engine at the bee that were not
in the parade.
Next on the agenda was the Prony Brake testing horsepower under
the belt the results are shown in the figures above.
One of the most interesting antiques of the display was the
century-old sash-saw owned by George Meyers of McKittrick,
Missouri. It is driven by a Pittman rod at the speed of a two-man
saw. The log is held in the center of the carriage and the boards
are cut off from the top side. The saw blade is adjustable up and
down to receive different size logs. Mr. Spencer, of Newton,
Kansas, said his grandfather operated one of these saws in
Tennessee with water power before the Civil War.
There was a hand thresher with cranks turned by two men, the
heads of grain being fed into the machine by hand. When the grain
was beaten out by the cylinder the straw was thrown to one side.
This hand separator was called a ground hog thresher and is owned
by Ray Ernst, of Wayland, Iowa.
One of the two sawmills owned by Mr. Peacock was in operation
all day sawing lumber.
Interested visitors came from many states and from as far away
as Honduras and England.
