My first love for a steam engine was occasioned in the summer of
1923 at St. Thomas, Mo., when my dad, Paul Groner, took me along to
visit his twin brother, Pete Groner. It so happened they were going
to thresh wheat this day, so here comes a big, black monster (or so
it seemed to me) down the lane. It was young Pete Brant with his
new 19 HP double-cylinder Keck, no. 1691, and a new separator.
greatest thing I had ever seen.
Time went by, and threshing with steam became a thing of the
past. I had moved 80 miles east to Berger, Mo., and whenever I went
back to St. Thomas I would see the engine, sitting along the road
doing nothing. In 1950 I asked the second owner, Ed Schulte, if I
could buy it. He, knowing I was in the scrap business, asked what I
wanted to do with it. I told him I wanted to play with it and he
said okay, but he also said if I wanted to scrap it I couldn’t
have it. That said, if I’d give $350 I could own it, so we made
a deal.
I didn’t know how to run it, but a friend, Herb Edler,
taught me how. I had owned it about six months when a man came
along wanting to buy it. He offered me a good profit, and since I
knew of other engines I could buy for a lot less, I sold it.
After some time I felt remorse for having sold the Keck. I tried
to buy it back, but it changed hands three times and eventually
wound up at Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, after Roy Larson acquired it in
1985. It became a regular at Mt. Pleasant, and in 1988 it was
‘engine of the year’ at the Mt. Pleasant Midwest Old
Threshers Reunion.
My son, David, and Woodie Bogler and I went to the show at Mt.
Pleasant one year. I introduced myself to Roy, told him I once
owned the Keck, and asked if there might be a chance to buy it
back. There wasn’t. As long as he was alive, he said, he’d
never sell it.
It so happened that in 1995 Roy had a heart attack and died. His
widow, knowing I wanted to buy the Keck back, called me and said
she’d sell it to me, but she wanted to have it in that
year’s parade at Mt. Pleasant in honor of Roy. I agreed and
paid her for it. Some fellows from Colorado were at Mt. Pleasant
that year, and they tried to buy it from me before I hauled it
home, offering me a good profit on it. No sale.
Forty-five years after I sold the engine, I finally hauled it
home. Bob Hart, who lives about 20 miles from me in Big Spring,
Mo., knew I was coming back with the engine, and when he saw it
coming down the road he followed me home. Twenty minutes later we
steamed it up. What a happy day!
Contact steam enthusiast Henry Groner at: 1110 Sauer
Ford Road, Berger, MO 63014.
