Pioneer Power

It was in 1916 in Crivitz, Wisconsin, that young Fred Heide
built his first flour mill. His steam powered engine not only
ground the grain, but he used it, too, to pull stumps and clear
fields. His expenses were next to nothing, for he used the stumps,
brush and unwanted logs for fuel.

During World War I the Heide’s moved to Brockway, Montana,
and again built a flour mill and use a Case steam engine to power
the grinding operation. Almost every farmer in that area had his
own little coal mine, for along the ridges and river banks veins of
lignite a compact, carbonized vegetable fuel were exposed.

‘I’ll grind a hundred lbs. of flour for a load of
coal,’ he promised the farmers, and business boomed until a
competitor in a nearby town bought a gas engine.

Those early gas engines balked at the cold, cold Montana winters
which plagued ten of the calendar months. Farmers soon tired of
waiting several hours, sometimes even overnight, in 20 degree below
zero weather for the ‘new fangled’ thing to thaw out. So
Fred’s steam engine slump was short lived.

‘Snow!’ exclaimed Fred, admitting that the drifts in his
long, climbing driveway had been a little cumbersome this winter.
‘I remember shoveling steps up from our Montana front door to
the hard crust that was higher than the house!’

‘And then when the Chinook warm coast wind swept along we
would wade in floods of ice water,’ Mrs. Heide added.

In 1928 the Heide’s returned to the mid-west and bought 100
acres of farmland on the Niles-Buchanan Road. The depression years
were drastic for the Heide’s and their new flour mill, as they
were for almost everyone and every business, but again the steam
engine provided some of the daily necessities. Once Fred received
$250 for removing an overgrown, thorny hedge fence from the
driveway of a lovely estate. The hedge gave him free fuel, and the
clear profit was a fortune in return for a few hours work.

When the chain stores undersold his flour, feed, and cereals,
Fred began to think about selling a commodity that would be needed
by everyone and would not be marketed in chain stores. He decided
to sell coal.

During the summer business was slow, so when the man whom he had
hired to tear down his mill asked if he could dump junk-lumber in
the empty coal yard, Fred agreed.

The following winter he used the steam engine to cut the mounds
of old lumber into bundles of kindling, which he used as gifts on
each load of delivered coal.

Another ‘accident’ helped Fred build up the new
business. A fine musician himself Fred plays an accordion and has
taught and encouraged his three sons and daughter to develop their
individual musical ability she discovered during the bleak early
thirties that many of his customers envied him his ability to train
his children musically. ‘I’ll teach them for you,’ he
offered. And once again delighted customers found that they were
getting more than they paid for.

One son, Vic Heide, developed his talents into a profession. He
plays anything and everything, notably four trumpets
simultaneously. At present he is on a tour in Australia, making
radio, television, and personal appearances.

The Niles flour mill was torn down, but the Heide’s used it
in building their present home just outside the city. The white
uprights that maintain the bookshelves on either side the fireplace
were once supports for the grain elevators. The doors, window
casing, doors, joists, are all redeemed from the mill.

‘I would have liked a larger living room,’ Mrs. Heide
remarked, in fancy moving back her ‘art wall’ a couple of
feet with a deft wave of her hand. ‘But I guess Fred didn’t
think of that when he built the mill.’ On the art wall are hung
many of Mrs. Heide’s own paintings, some of which have been
prize winners.

The Heide’s have won prizes, too, for the most appropriate
costumes worn to Pioneer Auto Club conventions. Club head quarters
are in South Bend, but the September meetings have been held at the
Heide’s. Last year Mrs. Heide counted her homemade cookies by
the bushel instead of the dozen, for she served them to about 400
guests. Visiting children were delighted when Fred gave them
exciting rides on the polished steam engines.

Fred belongs, too, to the Steam . Club of the Kalamazoo area and
attends steam rodeos and reunions throughout the mid-west. He finds
it exciting to be one of the scores of watchers or participators in
events such as climbing up and backing down steep hills, or running
one’s engine into a giant teeter totter until it achieves a
perfect balance.

Fred has bought and sold many engines. The two he has now are a
1910 Russell with 13 drawbar horsepower, 40 on a belt; and a 1915
Port Huron with 19-65 horsepower. After a trip to Flint he
confessed to his wife that he had bought ‘just one more for
next-to-nothing honest!’ She was dismayed when not one, but two
dirt crusted iron heaps were unloaded. But Fred and son Bob
chiseled off the dirt, rebuilt axles and fireboxes, painted, and
finally operated the two antiques.

Now Mrs. Heide admits that they certainly have a colorful,
unusual, and noticeable yard decoration, and this brings the fun of
meeting curious passers-by and getting to know a host of them who
would otherwise never give the next white house on its gentle,
graceful slope a second glance.