5749 Richland Circle Milford, Ohio 45150
The Ohio Valley Antique Machinery Inc. held their 17th annual
Machinery Show at the Brown County Fairgrounds, Georgetown, Ohio,
August 14, 15 and 16, 1987.
The opening exercises began on Friday morning with the flag
raising and prayer by our chaplain, the Rev. Ronnie Liming. This
Alva Neal as man of the year. By the way, Alva will be ninety years
young come October. Alva has been with us all seventeen years
except one hospital stay a couple years back. Alva has been a
black-smith most of his adult life, we presented him with a huge
horseshoe-shaped plaque, and with one of our yearly plates with his
picture on it. We gave him instructions for this year (no work),
but he kept busy breaking in a new apprentice.
Now, on with the show, with 165 exhibits of John Deere’s,
Farmalls, Cases, Oil Pulls, Moguls, 3 steam engines, a fine team of
horses, a team of oxen, a couple of mule hitches, and a team of
goats. We had a couple outstanding exhibits from around the area, a
Bongarty diesel made in Germany, a 14 HP Petter made in England, a
1943 U.S. crawler built for the Army for parachuting from
airplanes, a 1931 4 ton Case roller restored in 1986 by Mr. Vern
Apgar. There was a John Deere BO Lindemann crawler shown by Pat
Cury of Kentucky and a nice display of horsedrawn equipment. There
was plenty going on for one to see and enjoy. An early road type
rock crusher making little rocks from big ones. The shingle mill
running at top speed, producing shingles as souvenirs for the many
people standing by. The saw mill in full operation sawing lumber
from the many logs brought in by the members. I think they
estimated 60 or 70 logs sawed in 3 days.
Most of the younger generation of the machinery buffs
participated in the many different contests. The greased pole, the
log sawing contest. The teeter-totter for the one who had skill in
handling antique tractors. I understand we had plenty of scrambled
eggs in the cracked egg contest. Pushing that drawbar to just touch
that egg without breaking.
The daily parade of power filled the grandstand with spectators
all looking for some special antique tractor with their friends
riding by. The announcer was busy giving a brief history of each
and every machine that went by in review. A load of wheat through
the threshing machine each day with a different antique machine
belted up. Hey! You men pitching that straw into the baler be
careful you may run across a lost boy or girl in that haystack.
Our craft building was running over with crafts and a very
lovely flower show this year. The ladies were quilting, rug
weaving, rug hooking, basket weaving, crocheting and making
miniature doll clothes. And those turn of the century radios had
Amos and Andy on. We all had to stop and listen to them.
A beautiful display of antique automobiles and trucks for our
Sunday afternoon car show and parade. I’m sure the judges had a
tough time deciding who had the winning vehicles.
We had a good turn out for the Antique Machinery Show, even
though we had 90° temperatures for the 3 days. It didn’t seem
to keep too many spectators away.
Our 1988 Antique Machinery Show will be held August 12, 13 and
14, 1988. Come join us in the festivities we would like to see
you.
