Rt. 13, Box 331, Statesville, North Carolina 28677
Along about the second week of July the local newspaper and a
country music station issue an invitation to the Don Gwaltney wheat
threshing. Everyone is invited to attend. In 1981 it was held July
11.
Pictured here is a scene of the threshing in
progress.
Mr. and Mrs. Don Gwaltney with their steam
engine.
On threshing day my Dad gets up very early and starts a fire in
the firebox of the engine to build up steam to power the engine.
The steam engine is a skid type Farquhar no. 14994. The thresher is
a Turner no. 347 and was made by the Turner Manufacturing Company
of Statesville, North Carolina, about the year 1928 or 1930.
About 9:00 trailers loaded with wheat, are brought to the field
from the barn where the wheat has been stored to keep it dry. By
now a crowd has begun together.
Meanwhile, back at the farmhouse the ladies are setting up
tables, preparing gallons of lemonade and cooking a huge meal.
Back up at the field my Dad decides the steam is right so the
threshing begins.
A huge crowd has gathered. It is a very hot day, temperature is
in the high 90s. A water bucket is passed continuously through the
crowd and everyone drinks from the same dipper. There are always
several (youngsters) about 70 or 90 years old, who recall how it
was in the old days. It is a thrill to hear stories of former wheat
threshings, and how when the day was finished they spent the night
at the farm they were threshing on and were ready to begin where
they left off the day before.
People are still coming, some are stopping to watch, others
heading for the shade at the farmhouse.
About 12:00 they stop for lunch. There is fried chicken
(southern style), chicken-n-dumplings, potato salad, cakes and
pies, and gallons of lemonade. It is served in the shade of huge
oak trees.
After lunch the threshers return to the field, and bluegrass
music is provided by neighbors for those staying in the shade.
We have not been rained out a single time during the years we
have been having the threshing.
Mr. Don Gwaltney and family invite everyone reading this article
to join us in 1982.
The farm is located five miles east of Taylorsville, North
Carolina, just off Highway 90, on the Paul Payne Road.
