5 Village Common Colchester, Vermont 05446
My grandfather had a store up in the tiny village of Eden,
Vermont. This was in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the next
town of Lowell was the asbestos mine. Along with his storekeeper
activities, Grampa Shattuck was ‘into’ photography, and
used some of the shots of local views, scenery and the like for
postcards, which were then offered for sale in the store. Well, the
photo above is a print from an old postcard he made up and shows
the large steam traction engine the talc mine used to haul ore or
whatever around. Off to the right of the engine was a large field,
and although not shown in the photo, my mother says she was
standing when the picture was taken. This monster broke numerous
bridges, and culverts, and the likes, and kept a crew busy
repairing them after the rig went by. Mother says she and her young
companions for that matter, quite a few grownups were very leery of
getting too close, as it made lots of noises, literally shook the
ground when in motion, belched steam and smoke. Just the thing to
keep the neighborhood kids at bay!
photo above is a print from an old postcard he made up and shows
the large steam traction engine the talc mine used to haul ore or
whatever around. Off to the right of the engine was a large field,
and although not shown in the photo, my mother says she was
standing when the picture was taken. This monster broke numerous
bridges, and culverts, and the likes, and kept a crew busy
repairing them after the rig went by. Mother says she and her young
companions for that matter, quite a few grownups were very leery of
getting too close, as it made lots of noises, literally shook the
ground when in motion, belched steam and smoke. Just the thing to
keep the neighborhood kids at bay!
To the best of her recollections, this was about 1910. With a
magnifier you can read the name on the stack ‘The Geiser
Manufacturing’ and then the print becomes unreadable. I
don’t know for sure what model or horsepower this rig was, but
it sure is a fine piece, and one I’d love to own. It’s long
gone, of course. I’m fairly sure we still have the very camera
that took the shot.
