4421 E. Hillcrest Drive, Yakima, Washington
In 1906 there were four threshing rigs that did the bulk of the
threshing near Boyden, Iowa. Fred Stark weather had a Buffalo Pitts
return flue; Henry Pitstick a Nichols & Sheppard; Ed Mahoney an
Advance straight flue and Martin Bennett a Case, (first a center
crank, then a 10 x 10, I think).
The Supervising Engineers of the machines were Harry Stark
weather, Fred Stark weather, Jr., Bill Bennett and myself. Our ages
in the same order were eleven, ten, nine, and eleven.
On Saturdays when the rigs were threshing near enough to town so
we could ride our bikes out, we were permitted to feed the straw
burners, run the injectors and make general nuisances of
ourselves.
One day before the season, Ed Mahoney was working on his
separator (babbiting a bearing, I believe) while nearby set the
Advance engine with steam up. The Supervising Engineers were on the
job getting in the way, and everything was going good when suddenly
there was a bang, followed by hissing steam. The Super E’s
headed for some shade trees near and hid behind them. Ed, of
course, ran to the engine to shut off the cocks above and below the
water glass, which had blown.
When he started back to the separator he saw the Engineers
coming out from behind the trees with a sheepish look on their
faces and we sure heard plenty about – how, just when we were
needed to take care of a situation we were nowhere around.
We never lived it down as long as we were in Boyden.