Burgessville, Ontario, Canada
While riding around on our steam engine or tractor that Wally
and I were exhibiting at the steam shows last year (1973) I got to
thinking just how and why so many good people, young and old, and
in all walks of life were busy doing just the same as we were
doing. How did we get into this hobby? What was the very first
reason that started us into collecting, cleaning, rebuilding and
showing these grand old engines, be they large or small?
On a Sunday in 1962 in September, Blanche, Wally and I were
visiting Jean and Bruce Kipp. Why were we visiting the Kipps? Well
Blanche and Jean are sisters so that makes Bruce my brother-in-law.
Now Bruce is a right good guy, he and I get along fine together, we
don’t agree on everything, neither do we disagree on
everything. Jean and Bruce had been to a steam show in Milton on
Labor Day, which I had never heard of before. Bruce, with great
enthusiasm was telling me about all the gas engines that were
there, all painted and running like new, also there was a whole row
of tractors some of which he had never seen before all cleaned and
painted and then he said there were more great big steam engines
there than he had ever seen in his life. All the time he was
telling me about the show I kept murmuring to myself ya ya I know,
and then I told Bruce that when I was a kid we threshed and filled
silo with steam, and that my Dad had a gas engine that used to run
the orchard sprayer and pump water, that is after our windmill blew
down, also we used it to buzz wood. I also could remember some of
the old tractors. Our neighbor had an 8-16 Mogul, like the one
Wally and I have now. I watched it steam and bounce and bang away
while it filled my uncle’s silo.
My Father and Mother bought the farm in 1913, which Blanche and
I are still living on now. I was 6 years old when we moved here. Oh
my gosh, I’ve nearly told you my age. Oh well, so what, I am
certainly not bragging about being that old, but s I look back to
my boyhood days I believe it was a good time to be born.
There was something about steam engines, tractors and gas
engines that fascinated me. The days we threshed and filled silo
were the biggest days of the year for me. I watched every move the
engineer made while running the steam engine and in my dreams I
often thought how wonderful it would be if I could have a steam
engine all of my own, just to play with. At that time I never
thought that dream would come true.
This gas engine that my Dad had was an International Famous
Upright, the kind that never wore out. One day when Mother and Dad
drove the horse and buggy to Woodstock, a distance of 11 miles, I
got curious to see what was inside this engine, so I got the monkey
wrench and an alligator wrench and hammer and cold chisel and
proceeded to take the head off. (That was about all the tools my
Dad had) When I got the head off I would turn the flywheels and
watch the piston go up and down and I soon figured out why the
engine would run. One afternoon my Dad went to start this engine
and after about an hour of cranking and cussing he gave up and went
to the barn to start chores. Well I started tinkering with it and
in about 10 minutes I had it running. I heard Dad tell my Mother
that night, that he couldn’t understand how I got that engine
to run. He guessed my head was full of wheels. Now that I had found
out why an engine would run I began to try and find out why they
wouldn’t run. This was very important because in the early days
of the combustion engine the knowledge and maintenance of an engine
was very limited. A farmer may be a good judge of a cow or a horse,
but his judgment of a gas engine was about nil. I soon got the name
of being the neighborhood tinkerer. When our neighbors had trouble
starting their engine they would call on me, most of the time the
trouble would be very simple. Things like, out of gas, broken wire
or loose wires, batteries wore out, dirty spark plug or igniter,
dirty magneto or maybe a few drops of oil would fix it. Experience
is in some ways a cruel hard teacher but a good teacher. It was not
uncommon to see more than one person sporting a black eye or a cut
nose or chin. You would say whatever happened to you and very often
the answer would be ‘I was cranking that d— engine and the
blanket-blank crank flew off and hit me in the face’. Believe
me a cast iron crank can hit hard.
Now to get back to our hobby. Nothing important happened until
the spring of 1963. We were to Kipps again and Bruce had dug out a
1 and one-half HP Brantford engine that his Dad used for pumping
water many years ago. Bruce says, ‘By gosh, I’d like to see
that engine run,’ so I suggested that we throw it in the trunk
of our car and maybe Wally and I could get it going. When we got
the engine home we used the same procedure that I mentioned
earlier. We cleaned the gas tank and carburetor, it had a Wico trip
type mag. We took it apart, and cleaned the dirt and rust out of
it, cleaned the points and oiled it and lo and behold we had a good
hot spark, so we installed the spark plug and dumped some gas in it
and give it a crank and away it went. In spite of the fact that it
would run, it needed a lot of fixing, the bearings were very loose;
also I think the rings were seized up on the piston, because about
half of the power stroke blew out in the crankcase.
This really turned Wally on and in a few days he brought a
little 1 HP Horizontal International hit and miss gas engine home.
We didn’t have much problem to get it running as it had been in
use up to about 1961 or 62. A short time later he found a beautiful
6 HP International engine. It had been used for stand-by-power in
an apple evaporator factory many years ago and apparently had been
used but very little. This engine had a gear driven Mag and we took
it off so it would be easier to clean and paint the engine. When we
got the engine cleaned and painted, Wally bolted the Mag in place
and he attempted to start it, but it wouldn’t fire. I asked him
if he timed the Mag when he installed it and he just looked at me
and said, ‘What do you mean?’ I explained to him that the
cam gear and the gear on the Mag would be marked, and to match the
marks and then bolt it on the engine. He did that and it started
just like it should. Wally soon caught on as to the operation of
these engines and he doesn’t have to ask me any questions any
more. After we got these two engines cleaned and painted and
running very well I suggested to Wally that I thought we had enough
old junk in the barn. He looked at me with a rather disappointed
look but said nothing.
The next day I had to see a farmer about something and as we
walked past a dilapidated old shed with no doors, I thought I saw
the top of a flywheel of a gas engine. I asked if that was an
engine in there and the farmer said he didn’t know, there was
nothing in there but junk that his Dad had thrown in. I turned back
and pulled some old boards back and sure enough there was the
engine. It was a 1-1/2 H.P. Gould Shapley and Muir engine
manufactured in Brantford, Ontario. I asked him how much he wanted
for it and he said, ‘Oh, I don’t know, what will you give
me?’ ‘How about five dollars?’ I said. In about two
seconds he said, ‘You’ve bought an engine!’ So we
loaded it in the truck and brought it home. When Wally came home
from work that nite I said, ‘Let’s go to the barn.’ He
was really surprised when he saw another engine there and he said,
‘I thought we weren’t suppose to get any more engines.’
‘Oh well, I said this is a good one.’ From then on the
doors were left open and we kept getting more engines.
In 1963 we were to the ‘Steam Era’ show in Milton and it
was just like Bruce had described it only it was bigger and better.
We really got a kick out of all parts of the show and on the way
home I wondered how we could some day take something to the Steam
Era show in Milton and be one of the very happy exhibitors.
In 1964 we thought that maybe we should get an old tractor if we
could find one. So we started looking for one and before long Wally
said he knew where there was a John Deere ‘G.P.’ about 1930
or 31 tractor. He made this deal without any assistance from me. I
still don’t know the particulars of this deal. He bought it
from Dewart Patchett, a farmer that lives north of Norwich. Now
Dewart had something else besides an old G.P. tractor down on his
farm. He had three attractive daughters also, one of which went to
High School in Norwich the same time as Wally. Now apparently they
sort of liked each other at school, ‘puppy love’ they
sometimes call it. In due course we got the old G.P. refinished
like new and one evening Wally brought his high school friend,
Doreen, up to see the refinished tractor that she used to drive for
her father. Things didn’t get too serious until early in 1969
and I noticed Wally had other interests besides his hobby, and
Christmas nite he brought Doreen up here and did she ever have a
spanking new diamond ring. We knew then that there was going to be
a wedding and sure enough on June 6, 1970 the knot was tied. Now a
few days before the wedding I sneaked an Eagle tractor that we had
recently refinished down to Norwich and there we obtained a trailer
and Wally and Doreen’s friends decorated the tractor and
trailer very appropriately for the occasion and after the ceremony
we paraded the wedding party down Main Street in Norwich. This was
a real surprise to Wally and Doreen as they didn’t know
anything about this part of the wedding until they saw the old
Eagle come around the corner of the church. We also had the
C.F.P.L. television cameraman from London in attendance and he
filmed part of this wedding parade and it was shown two or three
times on the C.F.P.L. new casts from London and also on New Years
day each year C.F.P.L. has a two hour program reviewing the
highlights of the old year and this film of the wedding parade was
also shown on this program.
By 1966 we had quite a collection of tractors and gas engines.
We had eight tractors and about thirty-five gas engines. Wally and
I spent a lot of time restoring this equipment, frequently burning
the midnight oil to finish a job and also our weekends were
occupied with this grand work of restoration, and then we ran into
an unexpected problem. My cute little wife began complaining about
too many dirty clothes to wash. She even accused us of washing our
hands on the towel. She claimed the wash water was so dirty after
washing our overalls and smocks that it would hardly run out of the
washing machine. I admit, we were a bit guilty on this charge, so
with the aid of some hand cleaner, we would wash up before we come
to the house. Also, we would leave our dirty overalls and smocks in
the shop; this kept our clothes much cleaner. Just as I thought
everything was patched up with both parties being happy, Blanche
registered another complaint, this time a bad one, she accused me
of neglecting her, and that I was spending too much time tinkering
in the shop. Now this really shook me up. We were married in 1932
and had always had a very happy married life, no quarrels or
complaints from either of us. This really made me think, how am I
going to get out of this? One night when she was giving me both
barrels I finally said, ‘Well honey at least you know where I
am. Would you rather I go away and chase some other man’s wife
or pick up a cute little dame, or would you like me to spend my
evenings and weekends in the hotel guzzling beer and coming home
half slopped-up’. That speech seemed to do the trick. After a
few minutes thought she sort of reluctantly admitted that maybe I
better tinker in the shop. Since then there has been no problem, I
think Blanche took the attitude, ‘If you can’t lick them,
join them.’ Blanche does not help in tinkering business, but
she goes to most of the shows and has made many friends and enjoys
herself. All’s well that ends well.
We always attended the Steam Era show at Milton and by 1966 we
had made friends of other collectors, two of which helped us get
acquainted with the business, namely, Norm Schell of Woodstock and
Bernard Porter of Eastwood. Norm Schell only lives six miles from
us and I had casually known him for several years. Norm is sort of
a Rumely expert, he has several Rumely tractors including the huge
old Model ‘E’, also he has a fine collection of gas
engines. When Norm knew we were collecting engines and tractors we
quickly became close friends. He has helped us solve many problems
and helped us get started in ‘Shoe Business’. I believe
Norm has had a problem with his wife Mary, she calls herself ‘A
Rumely Widow’.
My wife lived in the Eastwood area and she knew Bernard Porter
long before I did, but when Wally and I got acquainted with Bernard
he was very willing to help us any way he could. You have heard the
saying that when a person gets steam in their blood you can never
get rid of it. Now Bernard’s blood is just saturated with steam
and he would keep coaxing us to get a steam engine. Bernard has one
of the best restored Case 50 H.P. traction engines that I have ever
seen, and he keeps it shining and running just like new. Bernard is
a charter member of the Steam Era Club of Milton and is President
of Steam Era – 1974.
In the spring of 1969 the steam in my blood began to boil so I
asked Bernard where I could buy a steam engine. He took me to
several people that would sell their engine but I finally made a
deal with a chap that lived about 20 miles from home. It was a 1913
(8 x 10) Frick engine. We had a colony of Mennonites migrate to
this area about 25 or 30 years ago and they brought this engine
with them. This makes a very good show engine for our shows in
Ontario because as far as we know it is the only Frick engine in
the Province of Ontario.
My dream, that I mentioned earlier in this story of owning a
steam engine all of my own, just to play with finally came true in
1969. This would be 50 or 55 years after I had these dreams, so you
see, sometimes dreams really do come true. With the help and advice
from Bernard Porter, Wally and I got so we could operate the engine
and have since taken it to many shows and parades and I hope we
will be able to take it to many more. 1967 was Canada’s
Centennial Year. Now this was a year of many parades,
shows and demonstrations. 1967 was the first year Wally and I
had participated in any parades etc. Our first parade was the 24th
of May celebration in Woodstock, we had a 1924, 22-40 Hart Parr all
freshly painted and it drew a float from the local Ladies
Institute. We really got a thrill in this, the first parade for us,
as the thousands of people that lined the streets clapped their
hands and cheered as the old Hart Parr performed perfectly.
On the first weekend in June the hamlet of Oxford Centre
sponsored a centennial celebration and the Schells, Porters and
Orths supplied most of the antique machinery for this. The weather
was perfect and the crowds far exceeded their expectations, and it
was a great success. This was our first show and we certainly
enjoyed every minute of it.
In mid-August the Woodstock Agricultural Society sponsored their
annual Woodstock Fair and the Fair Board thought it appropriate
that they have some pioneer machinery at the fair so the Porters,
Schells and Orths were again called on to supply the machinery.
Again the weather was fine, and big crowds of people attended. On
the parade past the grandstand at nite there would be about 70 tons
of steam and gas tractors all in a line across the track go puffing
and chugging along, a very impressive part of the show. The local
implement dealers also had their exhibits of new machinery such as
big combines, tractors, 8 or 10 furrow plows etc. on exhibit. It
was interesting to notice that possibly 30 spectators would be
looking at the new machinery and we would have possibly 500
spectators looking at our old machinery. We gave the dealers (we
knew them all) a rough time and would ask them why they didn’t
exhibit something that the public wanted to see.
It was only a couple of weeks after Woodstock Fair that the
Ontario Steam and Antique Preservers Association held their Annual
show at Milton. Wally and I had joined this club which I have
previously called ‘Steam Era’ earlier in 1967 and this was
our first time to exhibit at Steam Era. We showed the 22-40 Hart
Parr. It had performed perfectly at the previous shows and it kept
right on with its good performance at Steam Era. We were again
blessed with fine weather and the crowds were just fantastic. I
think between 20,000 and 25,000 attended this great show. This was
our first big show to exhibit our tractor.
By the end of 1967 Wally and I were not only in the hobby
business but we were in the show business; what a perfect
combination! Show business is like steam, when it gets in your
blood you just have to go to shows.
In 1969 we joined the Golden Horse Shoe Antique Society of
Caledonia, Ontario. This show had its beginning in Centennial year
1967 and was so successful in 1967 that they organized a club,
known as the Golden Horse Shoe Antique Society. This show is held
on Civic Holiday weekend in August. It has grown by leaps and
bounds and is known now as one of the big shows in Ontario. We
always look forward and enjoy exhibiting at the Golden Horse Shoe
as it is a very fine show.
The Norwich and District Historical Society held the official
opening of their Museum in June, 1970 and a local group thought it
appropriate to have an outside display of some antique machinery,
so that the spectators, after listening to the official speeches
and observing the ribbon cutting would have an added attraction. We
had a steam engine, three or four tractors, a small grain separator
and several gas engines on display. This small exhibit proved to be
so popular that immediately there was an agitation for an annual
show. In 1971 the Historical Society sponsored the First Historical
Show on the first weekend in June and it was very successful. The
co-operation of the community, exhibitors and everyone was just
wonderful. Plans are well underway now for our Fourth Annual
Historical Show that will be held in the Fairgrounds at Norwich on
June 7, 8 and 9, 1974.
Wally and I have also exhibited at the shows in Blyth and
Brigden both of which are very interesting shows and we always look
forward to them.
A few weeks ago I watched a program on Television that featured
Hobbies and the slogan for this program was ‘Without a Hobby
there is no Life’. I just wonder what I would be doing now if
Wally and I had not started ‘Our Hobby’ some eleven years
ago. One of the most rewarding things about a hobby is the friends
that you make. We have made aquaintances with good people as far
west as Sask., and of course, many, many here in Ontario. We have
also made many friends with our neighbors to the south of us, from
the states of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York,
South Carolina and Florida. The American hospitality is tops, the
familiar phrase ‘Yo ‘all Come Back’ is very heart
warming.
The monetary remuneration of ‘Our Hobby’ is low, but the
remuneration of fun, fellowship, and friendship is high, very high,
and this is something that money cannot give. In closing I would
like to say to all ‘Hobbyists’, keep up the good work, and
we will look forward to renewing our friendship at the shows this
summer.
