SOOT IN THE FLUES

down at the annual Boiler farm sale held each year in Lancaster
County in late February. Unfortunately the two day sale was
subjected to quite a bit of snow and some very low (for our area)
temperatures. She reports, though, that she heard lots of nice
comments about IMA

Well, we’d better get on to the letters, since there are
again quite a few of them, and some really great pictures to share!
Our first correspondent will be a familiar one:

GARY YAEGER, 146 Reimer Lane, Whitefish, Montana 59937 (e-mail
yaegerg@in-tch.com) writes, ‘I’d like to say Happy New Year
to you and your subscribers (although this will be belated wishes).
I found some pictures I thought might be enjoyed by your readers. I
know you will be getting show pictures this time of year, but most
people still like some old pictures.

‘I have found around fifty pictures of the Big Forty Reeves
engines in their original elements not counting the dozens I have
of the Smolik Brothers’ 40-140 #6867. Friend Melvin Pierce of
Scranton, North Dakota, sent picture #1 to me.’ I think it is
one of the finest pictures of the Big Forty I have, because of the
crew. It is an early Canadian Special with the Broderick
Brothers’ boiler. Notice how the Ham headlight was placed in
front of the king post for more efficient lighting. Also notice how
they have placed a lantern on the front of the side water tank to
illuminate the furrow, when plowing at night.

‘Picture #2 is of a 32 HP Reeves U.S. cross compound in
Montana’s Judith Basin. That’s my dad, Joe Yaeger, with his
hand on the friction disk guide (power steering) handle. He was
looking at it to buy it, but never bought it. It appears that Dad
carried it around with him for some time, judging from the poor
condition of the picture.’

Picture #3 is a copy of a picture Lance Barnes lent me. It is a
22 HP under-mounted Avery in the Gallatin Valley of Montana. I
don’t know how well the picture will print for you, but the
engine has ‘Montana Special’ painted on the boiler barrel,
above the injector’s boiler feed line. My Avery expert-friend,
Don Bradley, tells me that the spring mounting of the bull gears to
the driver wheels is what determined the engine to be a
‘Montana Special.’ Don’s dad owned an engine exactly
like this one.

‘Picture #4 is of an 18 HP Avery under-mounted also taken in
the Gallatin Valley. Jack Huffine is engineering the engine,
threshing. His little daughter Erma is sitting on the
engineer’s seat. I don’t think 18 HP Avery engines were
very popular here.’

‘Picture #5 shows my friend Paul Reno beside Best engine
#175, in California.’

‘Picture #6 has Paul Reno at the steering wheel of Best #185
during a parade near his home in California. Paul helped restore
this engine.’

‘Picture #7 was taken in 1999 at the Barnes Steam and Power
Show at Belgrade, Montana. Lance Barnes’ 16 HP Nichols &
Shepard engine, built in 1899, is pulling the weight transfer sled.
Mike Yaeger is at the throttle, trying to coax a few more feet out
of the engine, while Tony Blanton is at the steering
wheel.’

I just received a huge package of steam traction engine
photographs for Christmas from my friend Kevin Small. They were of
the 2000 Tri-State (Mineral Beach) Show at Finleyville, PA.
Included was a three page handwritten letter. Hopefully I will get
a letter off to him before he reads my letter to you. Kevin knows I
am a ‘photo-junkie’ and keeps me abreast of Willis
Abel’s fine engine collection. I had planned to fly out to last
fall’s show with Austin Monk, but it didn’t work out. Maybe
I will make it this year?

‘Well, I guess that is about all I have for this time.
Please keep up the good work, you do this with Iron Men Album. The
reason the bill on my cap is rounded, is from me sticking my head
in my rural mailbox to see if my next issue of IMA has
arrived!’

We got a brief addition to GARY’S letter that reads:
‘Please tell my friend, Larry Creed, that 1 was glad that
someone could explain the phenomenon I experienced pulling what I
thought was a whistle chain (actually tail feathers) on my Case
steam engine. Never again will I get the egg before the eagle.
However, that original Case squawking apparatus still forces me to
wear hearing protection, due to his roost being under the canopy.
At least when my ears ring from the squawking, Larry, it takes my
mind off of my hurting prayer bones!’ Larry, I never got around
to calling our friend (Mr. Reeves) Lyle Hoff-master, as you
suggested, regarding the ‘canary on the window ledge’
story. I will do that sometime when I have a couple of hours to
spare. You made me come to my senses, so I won’t be headed down
the same rocky road as Chady. You helped me recall what Lyle once
said about my affinity with the ‘teeth talk’ engine. Larry,
if I recall correctly, our friend Lyle admonished me saying,
‘Avery made a pretty darn good jack.’

‘I would like to commend Larry for the continuous flow of
fine engine pictures he provides all of us. I was really impressed
with the manufacturing process he provided all of us via his Huber
catalog. That kind of information is very interesting to this old
farm kid. Those of us who have spent our lives on the prairie in
the west have missed much, regarding the many sources of the
manufacturing processes that our friends have been able to witness
east of here. Thanks a lot, Larry.’

W. LIONEL SMITH, Box 512, Stn. Main, Prince Albert,
Saskatchewan, Canada S6V 5R8 wrote a letter to Anna Mae and never
mailed it, until now. He was shocked to learn of her death (in
1994) and this is the letter he was writing to her.

‘Dear Anna Mae, I have been a subscriber to the magazine
since about 1979 and read quite a few that a friend loaned me
before that.’ I always looked forward to it coming every other
month.

‘I have often thought of writing a letter to Soot in the
Flues,’ but I am the world’s worst writer and speller. But,
when I got the November/December issue, and what you had to say
about not getting any letters, and you might have to fold up, I
thought I had better get off my butt and do something.

‘I have followed you and your family all these years just
like one of the family.

102 year old 16 HP Nichols & Shepard at Belgrade, Montana,
on the weight transfer sled. Mike Yaeger at throttle, Tony Blanton
at steering wheel, 1999.

‘In 1989 we went to the Case Expo in Asten, Manitoba, and
met Helen Case Brigham and her husband, and I looked around and did
some inquiring. I thought you just might be there and we would get
to meet.’

‘Well, enough of this chatter, I will write something you
might publish.’

(‘That is a far as I got when I got the news that Anna Mae
had passed away.’)

In a new letter, he goes on to say: ‘What a shock it was to
hear there are people out there who did not know Anna Mae.’ I
suppose I forget that I have been around a bit longer than a lot of
people. You see I was born on the 17th of June, 1909, so I have
been around for a few days.

‘The letter that I have enclosed is the one I was writing to
Anna Mae when I got the magazine with her death in it. What a shock
it was, like the loss of a family member.’

‘I wonder if it would be a good idea to re-publish that
letter that was found in Anna Mae’s typewriter? Just a
thought.’

‘I just missed the steam threshing, but I do remember a
steam outfit once or twice when I was a little boy. Then, there
were gas outfits from then, and I had my outfit in the
’40s.’

I was always interested in steam and in 1990 I took a steam
course and have a steam ticket now. In 1980 my son and grandson and
some friends cut some oats with the binder and threshed. It was
fun, so we organized vintage power machines that have grown into
quite a successful museum.

‘I hope you can make sense of this. It was just something I
had to get off my chest when I was so upset with people who did not
know who Anna Mae was.’

We also heard from GORDON L. WEBB, 806 Sixth St., Nelson,
British Columbia, Canada V1L 2Z2, ‘Your magazine has been a
treasured part of my life for many years.’ I grew up in
Ontario, north of Toronto. We had a George White engine which I
teethed on. I’ve never gotten over the fascination of
steam.

‘I have journeyed back to Ontario each year for over thirty
years to enjoy the steam shows each fall, especially at
Milton.’

JOHN B. SHIRK, 13142 Hope-well Road, Versailles, Missouri 65084
sent us this photo and says, ‘This is a picture of a Peerless
steam engine. There is not much history known about it.’ Edwin
Brubaker bought it in Sedalia. The man died that owned it and then
it was for sale. Edwin Brubaker happened to be there and heard that
it was for sale, made an offer and bought it in 1998.

‘The boiler needed some work done on it and the flues were
bad, too.’ I think he put all new flues in it. Then he did some
wheat threshing for a farmer, but the pulleys were not the right
size for the steam engine. Then last summer Edwin bought logs from
a logger and rented a sawmill. He wanted to build a new barn and
cut the logs himself. I went over and fired it sometimes for the
sawmill. This was the first that I fired with wood; we always used
coal. The Peerless is a double cylinder. The pop valve is set at
125 pounds.

‘The other picture has the number on it. This number seems
very rare.’ So, if someone has the history of this engine who
the owner was, and where it was used please send it to me as I try
to answer all letters that I receive.

‘Edwin was told that the steam engine was sold in 1941. A
junk dealer bought it and let it sit in Sedalia. They thought it
was sold at Blackwater, Missouri.’

‘Dear Folks at the Helm,’ says FRANK J. BURRIS of 1102
Box Canyon Road, Fallbrook, California 92028, ‘This is just to
compliment and so much congratulate you for the most splendid work
on the March/April issue of the Album just received.’

‘The history and illustrations of that real old equipment is
most interesting. Please do not over-stress yourselves; but give us
a little more now and then.’

‘For some reason, I am reminded of having met dear Elmer
(Rizman), our founder, on the steps of the local Methodist Church
where he was conducting Sunday School. Oh, for those halcyon days
again! That was back in the early fifties, as I recall.’

‘I have copies of the Album complete, as well as several
others of our hobby issue.’ In fact, I compiled the ‘Gossip
from the Backshop’ stories so many years ago; with the kind
assistance of Anna Mae and her wonderful husband (who sketched an
exact view of my shop without ever having seen nor heard of it!)
But I am now 98 years of age and devoting all spare moments to
fighting politicians and the power shortage out here in the Golden
State. But I was raised on the Frontier in South Dakota.

Incidentally, have you thought of establishing an e-mail address
nowadays, being that it is so convenient? Mine is
burrisfrank@hotmail.com

‘Bless each and every one of you in your endeavors.’

(Frank, it’s certainly good to hear from you again, and
yes, we do have e-mail! We can be reached at editorial@stemgas.com.
And maybe we should remind people, that we do have a website at
www.stemgas.com.)

ELDON HELD sends this interesting letter, ‘I decided to send
you a couple of pictures. I numbered the backs of them, so here
goes.’

‘Pic No. 1 is of my grandfather Louie Perich and crew with a
25 HP Garr Scott, North of Egeland, North Dakota. Louie is standing
on the ground, sixth from the left. He was born in Austria and came
to North Dakota in 1892. He was my mother’s father. The last
engine he owned was a real nice 20 HP Reeves. In the fall of 1938
he let it sit with two of his neighbor’s engines along a road
north of Egeland.’

‘That winter his neighbor decided to scrap his engines and
sold them to a junky. That spring a couple of young men came out
and busted them up.’ Well, they busted up Louie’s Reeves as
well. Granddad was madder than a wet hen, but there wasn’t much
he could do about it. No one had any money in those days. He often
said he wished he had the Reeves back again.

‘Picture #2 was taken northeast of Bisbee, North Dakota. It
shows Albert Spellman standing with the shotgun; he was the owner.
He did custom threshing and carpenter work for a living. My dad Ed
Held, standing on the ground fourth from the left, told me Albert
very seldom worked on the rig and spent most of his time hunting
ducks and prairie chickens. Dad’s brothers, Hank, Fred, and
Bill are also pictured with the engine, a 25 HP Peerless Geiser,
which had a broken gear at the time and was waiting for a
replacement part.’

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