This picture was taken in Athol, Kansas in 1902. It is a 22 HP
return flue straw burner Nichols & Shepard steam engine and
Nichols & Shepard 41 x 64 vibrator separator. E. R. Brien,
owner is at control.
1899 THRESHING SCENE
This photo shows ‘August Nopen’s Threshing outfit and
crew for 1899’ and was probably taken at Charlton, about 10
miles northwest of Schenectady, New York.
It appeared with an article on Farming in Saratoga County (N.Y.)
by G. Terry Sharer, of the Smithsonian Institution, in the Grist
Mill, the publication of the Saratoga County (N.Y.) Historical
Society.
Members of the crew are identified: Charles Nopens, extreme
right, engineer; Fred Rhotus next (fireman); EHawley (waterman);
‘four with forks pitchers (strangers)’; man on separator
(separator tender); August Nopens (man with book); Christ Grasser
on wagon (man they are threshing for), and Floyd Nopens holding the
spotted colt’s head.
Field Home, director of the Saratoga Society, sent the
information along. The picture is owned by the Charlton Historical
Society, and reprinted with permission.
Nichols & Shepard 1S98 10 HP engine and 32 x 56 vibrator
separator. Marshal Beam, Ashley Post, Bert West, Sam Paydon on
engine. Clint Goldsmith, E. R. Brien, Bud Cook on tender. Henry
Daniels on separator. Frank Beck on water tank. Picture was taken
in 1900.
This handsome 40 H.P. Case, Number 29988 was built in 1913, and
is owned by Durward Steinmetz of Route 1, Box 120, LaFarge, WI
54639. Steinmetz met his wife, Koletta, while out steaming tobacco
beds with this engine in 1945. It was used to run a sawmill in the
1940’s, then had a long period of inactivity. In 1981, its
restoration was completed. ‘I have never really asked my
wife,’ says Steinmetz, ‘which she fell in love with first,
but I presume I was better looking then than now, and the engine
sure didn’t look this good then.’
