Route 2 Emerson, Nebraska 68733
A photograph taken in the year of 1930, the latter part of
March. It is a Minneapolis steam engine owned by my father, Sigurd
Magnuson. He was at the steering wheel of this engine and my oldest
brother, Raymond, was firing the engine. There is also a 30 hp.
Caterpillar Tractor Crawler on this scene.
They are moving a house into our neighborhood, to place where
another house had burned down. They had to move it ten miles. The
Caterpillar tractor belonged to the County and Mr. Charles
Schwarten was running the tractor at the time. My father owned the
36 in. Minneapolis threshing machine and did his own threshing. He
also had a sawmill of which he sawed lumber during his spare time
and that was operated by his 18 hp. Minneapolis steam engine. I
often fired this engine for my father on the sawmill. Dad passed
away in 1961 at the age of 89.
Dad was also a good blacksmith and had his own shop and fixed
wagon wheels, sharpened plows, and cultivator shovels and shod
horses during the winter months. He was a handy man with tools
built his own house and other needed buildings.
I still have the sawmill that my father used to operate and it
is still in running order. There were three of we boys in the
family. Raymond was the oldest; Harold, myself, was the middle one,
and then the younger one, Harvey. Our Mother is still living and
will be 87 in March.
My brother, Raymond, puts his threshing shows on each year for
the past seven years now. He has at present four different makes of
steam engines and several old threshing machines of different makes
and sizes, along with other relics.
