We were able to do the heavy grading on six miles of road in the
alloted time. When using three, teams of horses we could only make
one mile per day, at three dollars per day for a man and his team.
There was much opposition to the use of the steam tractor by the,
horse owners. The engine power did six miles of road in the three
days.
Wm. G. Boren is the man and his son Paul, is his fireman. Ray
Farver took the, picture and handled the grader while working. It
was several years before this power was used again. I think the
engine was a 16 Hp. Keck-Gonnerman, purchased about 1908.
If I remember correctly it was a 75 Hp. with a trailer which
killed the men. I’ll always remember that crash. The engine was
used several years after that The last I heard of it, it was at
Zeandale, Kansas, east of Manhattan about 1920.
I ran threshing outfits and started when I was 16 years old. I
owned two outfits when I was older. One was a Huber return flue, 16
Hp.
A friend of mine, Gert Von Hagel, has read both issues that I
received and he gave me this picture out of his collections and
said if I would like to send it in I could.
Uncle Ed, as he was called, never intended to follow the plow as
he was mechanically bent. In 1902 he started building his mill. By
1908, he was grinding corn and buckwheat and also had a blacksmith
shop. He soon had the reputation of being a man who could repair
anything. Then he added a saw mill.
In those days the farmer boy would come to the mill riding the
Old Mare with a bag of corn or buckwheat across her back. Uncle Ed
would stand by the grinding stones and the boy would pour the
grist. After Uncle Ed took his toll fo 10% the boy would put his
sack of meal across the mare’s back and start the long journey
home. If he wasn’t lucky enough to reach home before dark, for
sometimes he came as far as 20 miles, he might hear the howl of
wolves and the wild cats snarling. Such was mountain life. Uncle Ed
went to his glory in 1938.