Smoke & Gas Fumes

1927 Bought a large size Western Sheller for speculation from
Pedelty Thresher Co. on Sept. 13, 1927, for $350 and sold it to
Alfus Manco, Bigelow, Minnesota, for $425.

1927 Bought a Jeffrey Quad truck, 4 wheel drive and guide, Model
No. 14.016Serial No. 72.121 with hard rubber tires from Jake
Ohlhausen on Dec. 28, 1927 for $40. It was originally bought and
used by Standard Oil Co. (Orvil Wiggins, mgr.) of Hartley, Iowa, to
haul fuels to Melvin and Everly, Iowa. I cleaned, repaired,
lengthened frame for a new Waukeshaw 4′ by 6′ motor, built
a big cab with sliding doors and glass all around, repainted and
striped it, expecting to mount a Sheller on it Many of these trucks
were used in War No. I. They could navigate roads impossible for
conventional trucks.

1929 Bought New Rumely Sheller I bought a new Rumely cylinder
Sheller on Sept. 21, 1929, at Spencer Fair for $625, less wheels
and drags. Regular price was $900. This Sheller would out shell the
Minneapolis in damp, rough corn of which we had so much due to the
rough picking by the old pickers. It would roll husks into small
balls whereas the Minneapolis would rope the husks and finally
clog. I mounted this Sheller on the (ready to go) Nash truck, built
my own drags (2nd set), and started shelling on Dec. 6, 1929. It
was the first mounted Sheller hereabouts. There was another at
Nashua, Iowa, 169 miles east, where I got the idea.

I redesigned Sheller in 1933 through cylinder shaft with front
blower, open cylinder outlet with special gate, longer cob sieve,
etc., increasing capacity to 800 bu. It shelled anything from
snapped to popcorn. Now I had a big capacity Sheller that could
navigate bad roads and yards. There were but few gravel roads. It
shelled 1,141,695 bushels from 1929 to 1945.

1929 Sold Western Sheller to Fred Riedeman for $200 on Dec. 8,
1929. for $50 less than cost, after 7 years and shelling 402,272
bu.

1930 Sold Parrett Tractor to Dave Clay for $115.75 on July 22,
1930, after 11 years of wonderful continuous service, farming,
shelling, grinding, etc. Mr. Clay sold the Buda motor to Herman
Brinkert in 1933 to pull a mounted hammer milla good record.

Whenever a man is successful at a new venture, others soon
follow. It wasn’t long until machine shops were mounting
Sheller’s right and left. The Spencer Rohrda machine shop at
Sheldon did well at it. Their Sheller’s covered a 100 mile
radius. Whereas, another who started later went broke. Soon every
town had several mounted Sheller’s and price cutting became
common. I was well established between four towns (nearest 7
miles), in farming, repairing, threshing and shelling. However,
they nibbled away on fringes at as low as % c per bushel. My
shelling prices ranged from 3c in 1918-1919 to 1c for big jobs in
1932-1933, then slowly up to 2c in Dec. 1943, where it held to this
day. In threshing it was (oats by measure) 3c in 1918 to 1930, 2c
in 1932-1933, 2c in 1934 to 1934 to 1942, 3c in 1943 to 1949.
Barley was 1c more.

1945I Quit Shelling Dec. 1, 1945, for definite reasons. I was
slowing down, help was a problem, farming and shop required more
attention. My 3 Sheller’s had shelled 1,765,227 bu. on a $1,410
investment and I still have mounted rig, which could be a
collector’s item as is also the Oil Pull Model B tractor and
Avery separator, all in good running order. I also own an Oil Pull
Model S, 30-60 HP., No. 370, 1924, used only 19 short threshing
seasons all tuned up and repainted like new. Idle and discarded
Sheller’s are now common. The custom shelling era like
threshing is bowing out while field Sheller’s and driers move
in.

Road grading Career In 1916, my local Center township bought a
new 30-50 HP. Flour City tractor and a new 12 ft. Adams grader.
They hired Frank Eddington, an experienced 65 year old grader man,
and offered me 50c per hour to operate tractor. We had a corn
failure in 1915, my farm mortgage worried me, so I accepted and
hired a reliable farm hand at $35 per mouth. We graded until
freeze-up, averaging 12 hours daily, with time out for harvest,
threshing and wet weather. Frank and I got along fine. However,
that tractor was a dud. It was too light, lacked power and required
much servicing. Burning kerosene was a headache but the trustees
held me to it because of price. There was another in adjoining
township to which I was often called to service and to train
operators on both. The company offered me a service block in
northern Iowa and southern Minnesota. This, I flatly declined. In
1921, I overhauled and operated this tractor again for a spell.
I’m sure I graded more miles with it than all other operators
combined. Once a driver slipped on a flat rock which broke the bull
gear.

In 1926, I contracted grading by the mile for the same township
and made a nice profit by discing sod while opening up. This
enabled us to, move more dirt in less rounds. My 15 year old Rumely
handled the heavy 12 ft. Adams grader fully loaded easily. The now
75 year old Eddington was on grader again. He had many years
experience behind steam and gas tractors. I told him to sock that
blade down. He grinned from ear to ear when he told me that that
Rumely was the darndest puller he had ever worked behind. Many
times the back wheels of the grader started skidding sideways. Once
the grader blade pierced a hidden steel culvert nearly
straightening one beam and broke my cable. We repaired this very
heavy beam by heating in a forge lowered to ground level and
applying a heavy sledge hammer, then reinforcing with heavy plates.
At another time the blade hit a big rock throwing the back-end of
grader in a wide arch. I was looking back and saw Eddington
suspended, hanging on to large control wheels. I’m sure I
don’t know where he would have landed had he let go. His one
leg was badly cut, laying him off several days. While tending
separator, my son, Fred, once got his hand under a feeder chain
breaking and cutting two fingers. These are the only accidents I
can recall. Very fortunate indeed. Besides signs on machines, I
often cautioned my help. This was the last grading for Eddington
and me. He lived to be 91 years old.

Inventions and Patents In 1929, while mounting the first corn
Sheller hereabouts, I applied for a patent on certain innovations.
However, there was an infringement on one technical point on one
old patent. My second venture was successful. I started making and
selling successful self-cleaning wheel cleaners about 1944. I
guaranteed satisfaction or money back. None ever came back. Many
customers discarded other makes. I applied for a patent on April 8,
1949, which granted was granted and issued to me Aug. 1, 1951,
under No. 2,565,276 which is now for sale.

Shopping For A Threshing Outfit While prospecting for a
threshing rig bargain in May 1919, I located a 22 HP. Advance
steamer with Lefeaver water leg boiler and a year old 36′ by
56′ Minneapolis separator complete with cover-drive belt and
water wagon, belonging to a split-up farmer group near Ocheyedan,
Iowa, Iowa, all for $1200. However, the engine’s water leg was
cracked (caused by lake sand). I was unable to get reliable boiler
man until in July. Upon informing their spokesman of this fact, he
said, ‘Give us $800 and take the thing off our hands.’
However, I bought the Oil Pull ‘B’ and Avery separator
instead, ‘a fortunate move indeed.’ The Advance steamer was
later bought by a thresherman friend, John Albert’s. The water
leg was unsuccessfully welded several times. Otherwise, it was a
wonderful engine.

Of Great Interest To Me were the pictures and notes on Basil
Buck-master’s 20 HP. Huber (Pg. 9, March -April 1959 Iron Man
Album). I knew this engine (No. 10,865) from the day that it was
unloaded at Hartley, Iowa in July 1, 1916. It was sold to John
Baumeister, Jr. by A. O. Baugh-ton of Eagle Grove, Iowa a Huber
salesman. I seriously considered buying that engine (my favorite
make) in about 1935. However, the mortgagee refused to give me a
clean bill of sale. Later on I wanted that engine as an antique.
However, due to poor health since 1953, I became negligent. I was
disappointed to hear that Bill Albers of Harris, Iowa, succeeded in
buying it. Albers sold to J. Kadinger of Sioux Falls, who sold to
Buck master of Eureka, Montana.