Steam Engine Therapy

Horace, were riding the family’s work horses and
‘racing’ each other. Dad’s old work horse stumbled and
fell, pinning his leg under the horse. It took some time to get the
horse off of Dad and his injury was quite painful. Fearing a
reprimand, the two brothers chose not to tell their parents.
Dad’s injured thigh healed temporarily. However, six months
later swelling and pain returned. Old Dr. Hanna was called from
York. He diagnosed the injury as a bruised bone. He operated on Dad
on the family’s kitchen table. Ether was the anesthetic and
boiled water was the antiseptic. Dr. Hanna found a severe infection
in Dad’s thigh. Dad’s recovery was very slow. For some time
after the surgery, the wound was so large that a silver spoon could
be passed through his leg. Dad was confined to bed for several
months. The neighbors took up a collection and bought Dad an 1890s
version of a reclining chair to make him more comfortable.
Approximately two years passed before Dad could use crutches. The
remaining muscles in the injured leg had tightened until Dad’s
heel was near his buttock. The doctor suggested that an amputation
be done at the knee. Dad rejected the idea.

During the winter of ’98 or ’99, Grandpa was shelling
corn at home. Grandpa was trying to run the entire rig by himself.
Dad watched Grandpa firing with corn cobs and injecting water into
the boiler. Soon he started to take on the task. Grandpa had a
large wicker basket which was shaped like a bushel basket but held
10-15 bushels. It had a tin bottom and a rope tied to the handle.
Grandpa would fill the basket with cobs and pull it back to the
engine where he would dump it. After several trips to the engine to
check on Dad, Grandpa began returning only to deliver cobs. The
day’s work was completed with Dad as engineer. That evening at
supper, Grandpa asked Dad to shell corn the next day for the
Neinhauser family which lived nearby. Thus a routine began. Except
for very cold days, when Dad could not keep his foot warm, he
shelled corn until the spring field work began. Dad was still using
crutches but managed to operate the engine entirely from the
ground. Grandpa lubricated the engine and took responsibility for
any other tasks which required climbing up on the engine.

While no one knew it, steam therapy had begun. During the winter
shelling season, Dad rested his hip on the platform of the engine
and dangled his injured leg. The engine was a 14 HP return-flue,
center-crank Case, one of the roughest running engines ever made.
Poorly designed, the Case had a strong rocking motion. This motion
gradually stretched the tendons and muscles of Dad’s leg,
causing his foot to begin to drop. The tempo of the
‘therapy’ changed with the arrival of threshing season, as
Grandpa delegated Dad to be engineer. Coal was burned during
threshing season, which required the use of a two-wheeled tender
attached to the rear of the engine. The tender precluded firing
from the ground. Due to the difficulty of getting on and off the
platform, Dad stayed on the platform once he had managed to get
there. Also, Grandpa wanted Dad on the platform to watch the
separator. Many hours of steady rocking, from August to January,
provided good therapy. By early November, Dad’s toes reached
the ground. By Christmas, he walked on the toes of the injured leg.
Threshing stopped on the day before Christmas so that the family
could go to York for Christmas shopping. While on the streets of
York, Dr. Hanna saw Dad and asked how he had achieved such a
remarkable recovery. Dad did not fully associate his recovery with
running the Case engine but did tell the doctor he had done so.
There was a custom of inviting distinguished members of the
community, who happened to stop by during threshing, to feed a few
bundles into the separator. When Dr. Hanna was invited, he accepted
and commented that the center-crank Case pulling the separator had
probably saved Dad’s leg.