1531 James Street, Apt. 217 Prescott, Wisconsin 54021
In your January/February 1986 issue, there was an article called
‘Three Generations of Steam Men.’ This is my family. We
have received your magazine for many years and have enjoyed it very
much.
Rumely 30 HP plowing at Little Log House Antique Show, Curt
Leighty, Curtis Leighty, and Owen Zimmer running the engine.
Gaar Scott 25 HP double cylinder getting ready to plow at the
Historical Society at Rochester, Minnesota. George Ohlman and Don
Fern standing on the plow platform waiting for the steam engineers
to make some adjustments.
We now have another generation in the picture that is interested
in steam. She is our great-granddaughter Crissy, who is nine years
old. She helps her dad with a scale Model Rumely that we have. She
understands the safety rules of operating a steam engine. She has
been with her dad on the steam engines since she was able to walk.
She is learning a great deal about steam and is enjoying it! She is
planning to get her engineer’s license some day. We are so
proud to have four generations interested in steam!
This past summer we were invited to the Rumely Reunion in Cedar
Falls, Iowa. The four generations took our 30 horse Rumely and our
scale model Rumely to the show. The 30 horse Rumely is the only one
that we know of that is still in working condition. My
great-granddaughter helped with the scale model. She listened very
carefully to what her dad was explaining about running the steam
engine.
My steam family keeps their steam engines at the Little Log
House Antique Power show grounds, Hastings, Minnesota. We have
three steam engines, a 25 horse Gaar Scott, a 30 horse Rumely, and
a scale model Rumely. These engines are in working condition. We
plow, saw lumber, thresh grain and make shingles on a shinqle
mill.
Every year in late July we go to the Little Antique Power Show
in Hastings, Minnesota. This is a real family affair. Steve Bauer
of Hastings is in charge of it. His wife Sylvia plants and cares
for a big beautiful flower garden. This picture of the past
can’t be beat, as it has so many buildings filled with old and
numerous antique tractors and equipment. The show runs three days
and draws a large crowd. This year the show is on July 23, 24, and
25. Come see the action and take a glance at the past.
Four generation of the Leighty family-from left, Glen, Curtis,
and Curt standing in front, with Crissy perched behind them- at the
1998 Antique Acres Rumely Expo. For their story.
My four generations of steam include: Curtis, my husband, who is
90 years old worked many years as a fireman on the Milwaukee
Railroad when they had steam locomotives.
Glen, my son, is 53 years old and works at the University of
Minnesota in the veterinary department; his father took him as a
little child to watch the locomotives come into town, and explained
all about them and how they worked. Curt, my grandson, 34 years
old, is a mechanical designer at Despatch Industries in Lakeville,
Minnesota. He has helped his grandfather on the traction engines
ever since he was a small child; his grandfather taught him all
about how steam engines work and about safety operating them.
Crissy, my great-granddaughter, is nine years old and goes to
school in Prescott, Wisconsin.
I want to thank Steve Bauer of Little Log House Antique Power
Show in Hastings, for his many acts of kindness and for being
interested in our steam engines and us. I also want to thank Randy
Schwerin of Sumner, Iowa, for making it possible for us to bring
our engines to the Rumely Reunion at Cedar Falls, Iowa.
My husband Curtis has always been interested in helping the
younger generations learn about steam engines, how they are run,
and the safety involved in running them. He does this so that their
era doesn’t die and to keep it in the public eye. ‘Old
steam engines never die, they just steam away.’
