Rhinemiller Reflections

the past, especially the early 1900 era, when he was a boy. He, in
his own fashion, wrote constantly, not only of his own experience,
but also endeavored to capture the history of times, places, and
things. He also collected artifacts and had a tremendous collection
of reproduced photography..

Lee Rhinemiller

Dear Friends

I have been a reader of Iron Men Album since 1956.1 took Dad, A.
J. Rhinemiller, to the Montpelier, Ohio, Show but after twenty
minutes he wanted no part of it. He and two brothers and their
father threshed for many years with Huber machinery. Granddad, John
F. Rhinemiller, had a scarf caught in the gears of his engine and
had a close call. They say after that he would not touch the engine
and hired a Mr. Peters to run it for him. In later years, my Dad
usually ran the engine.

My first remembrance of the engines was when Granddad took me
with him at about age five to Marion, Ohio. He and Mr. Huber were
very good friends. Of course going through the factory, the boiler
room, up one side, down the other, still sticks in my memory as a
very noisy place, then eating dinner on the train coming home.

Next I believe was when Huber sent men to our place to replace a
vertical flue through the steam chart to the bottom of the boiler.
I have an old Huber Engine Catalogue showing their flues.

It was cold and really quite a job to replace this flue. I came
along and ran the engine every chance I could get. I even played
hookey from school a few times, too. January 10, 1912 Granddad was
killed in a railroad crossing accident near his home. Dad took over
the Huber outfit and the farm. In 1915, there being eight large
steam rigs in a twenty mile radius, Dad traded the outfit for a
1916 Oldsmobile. After that he always said he had a nickle when he
had the Huber outfit but after that he was broke. The rig, 18 H.P.
engine 28-54 wooden separator were around our neck of the woods
close up to the 1930’s.

I sure was ‘cock-of-the-walk’ when I could run the
engine. Seventeen years old when it went its way. Accidentally
filling the boiler so full she wouldn’t run and threw over the
stack. I shut off and took off across the fields and five years
later I was reminded of the incident by one of the neighbors who
was there. Today there is a large recreational center, golf, etc.
where this water incident took place. Now at age 73, my fingers
still itch to handle the old engines again. I attend nearly all the
engine shows within reasonable distance and enjoy seeing those old
timers showing their stuff and wishing for a chance to do a bit of
running again. In later years I worked in Huron, Ohio, Ore Docks as
an oiler when everything was steam powered. This eased the want
somewhat but they still were not traction engines. I have handled
Huber, Port Huron, Buffalo Pitts double, and one or two others.
They were all good equipment and engines. I also ran an
Austin-Western single cylinder road roller, a good enough outfit
but not comparable to steam. Starting 1921 at carpenter trade, was
shelved by a coronary in 1969 so at present, sitting out second
coronary. Memory Lane, thank goodness, is lonely and sometimes
narrow but it’s still sure one hook-up with the past life.