7511 Paseo, Kansas City 31, Mo.
This 6 or 8 H. P. Russell traction engine, located on the Archie
E. Yankee farm eleven miles south of Oak Grove, Missouri, was
originally owned by a man named Silas Paddock. Mr. Yankee says as a
boy about seven years old, or in the year 1907, he remembers that
they pulled this engine on to the farm with a team of horses. His
father had hired Mr. Paddock with his saw and engine to saw up the
timber on the place. Mr. Paddock died a few years after that, some
time around 1914. The two boys of Mr. Paddock moved the sawmill off
the place, so Mr. Yankee then hired John Roup to come in with his
mill to finish the work. Mr. Roup set his saw in the same place
that the Paddock mill had been standing, but in order to use his
engine he had to pull this engine out from the mill. Mr. Yankee
thinks that in pulling the engine away from the mill he pulled the
front trucks out from under the boiler and instead of replacing the
front trucks left the the front end of the engine sitting on a
white oak stump. In time, the stump rotted away and from the stump
the four sprouts grew into trees between the fly-wheel and the
boiler on the right side of the engine and the left side on the
outside of the crank disc, and the pressure of the tree on the disc
has broken several of the spokes out of the fly-wheel.
timber on the place. Mr. Paddock died a few years after that, some
time around 1914. The two boys of Mr. Paddock moved the sawmill off
the place, so Mr. Yankee then hired John Roup to come in with his
mill to finish the work. Mr. Roup set his saw in the same place
that the Paddock mill had been standing, but in order to use his
engine he had to pull this engine out from the mill. Mr. Yankee
thinks that in pulling the engine away from the mill he pulled the
front trucks out from under the boiler and instead of replacing the
front trucks left the the front end of the engine sitting on a
white oak stump. In time, the stump rotted away and from the stump
the four sprouts grew into trees between the fly-wheel and the
boiler on the right side of the engine and the left side on the
outside of the crank disc, and the pressure of the tree on the disc
has broken several of the spokes out of the fly-wheel.
This engine is probably somewhere between eighty and one hundred
years old. The boiler seems to be in good condition for its
age.
It seems that this engine was traction in power but probably was
steered with horses. The picture of the right side of the engine
still shows the foot rest as it was fastened to the boiler, and Mr.
Yankee says that he recalls that they did pull it in by horses.
