Syracuse, Nebraska 68446
I have around 13 steam engines and 3 steam road rollers and 2
models. My father owned 64 different steam engines in his life. He
used, bought, traded and sold them. He had 3 steam threshing rigs
when I was born in 1906.
Besides using steam engines for threshing, we put them to work
all kinds of belt power. I ran my first engine at six years of age
and at nine, I put in the whole summer on the throttle and fire
shovel. At twelve, I was an old veteran on an 18 hp.
Aultman-Taylor. We would haul the house moving equipment overland
from job to job and of course use the engine to pull the
buildings.
I remember the fall after I was eighteen. There was a fourteen
year old boy, small for his age, and myself, moved the house moving
trucks, timbers, trap wagon, tank and coal wagon and leading a team
of good horses to haul the tank wagon part time. We went from Paul,
Nebraska, six miles southwest of Nebraska City to Axtell, Kansas a
distance of 83 miles with a Russell engine. It took over four days
to make the trip. The Russell gears were almost noiseless and the
sound of the exhaust was about all we would hear. We really would
get sleepy. That was just one of the trips I’ve made hauling
over the road.
Even after we got to moving buildings with a rubber tired outfit
and a couple big macks, we used steel trucks and steam engines on
lots of extra heavy jobs.
I now own a 50 Case and a 16 hp. Russell and a model rear mount
single cylinder Garr-Scott. I repair shoes for a living but have
the steam engines because they are part of my family. I started
with the Iron-Men Album when it first was published, so you see, I
can’t miss any copies now.
