1511 Iglehart, St. Paul, Minn. 55104.
‘The Third Annual Lake Elmo Early Days Threshing Party’
was held August 20th, 1972. The site of the show was the Washington
County Fairgrounds just outside of the village of Lake Elmo. And
what a fine location it is, with plenty of buildings to get into if
it rains, or to get into the shade when the sun is pouring it on
from a cloudless sky with the temperature hovering close to, or in
the 90°’s as it had been for a week.
When I saw the show on Saturday, they were getting things set up
for the main day, Sunday. The antique exhibits they had were real
good. A tread power and a one horse corn planter were on display
along with old time items of interest. A well-kept steel Avery 28 x
46 thresher and a hand feed New Racine would be threshing
Sunday.
By the way, a friend of mine, John Feipal was with me. John
recently retired from years of passenger service with a railroad.
With his wife, Delia, he lives at 628 Simpson Avenue, St. Paul,
55104.
We walked up to a fine 20-70 HP Nichols and Shepard engine.
Someone asked the engineer if he had steam. He pulled the whistle
cord; no one doubted it after that.
Talking with the engineer, I found he is Donald W. Wolf of St.
Paul. He carries membership cards of several historical
organizations, among them Early Days Gas Engine and Tractor
Association and Minnesota Transportation Museum. He told me the
engine he was running belonged to Mr. Lehart Fried-rich of Lake
Elmo. He also named the engines owned by Mr. Friedrich, all of
which were on exhibition at the show. Heading the list is a 1904
single cylinder, serial no. 464 I. H. C. tractor, a Twin city 3 or
4 plow tractor, powered by a 4 cylinder engine under the hood, a
late model 30-60 Rumely Oil Pull, and a 35-70 H. P.
Minneapolis.
Lumber sawing was in progress and it was there that Mr. Wolf
introduced me to Mr. Friedrich who owns and operates a farm along
with a trucking business. He gave me some interesting information
on his 30-60 Aultman Taylor which was running beautifully,
operating Axley Bros, lumber saw.
He told me the tractor was built in 1919 and was purchased new
for plowing on a 4000 acre farm. The tractor was last used in 1947.
If I remember right, he said it was setting in a fence corner and
that it came from South Dakota. It was in May 1972 that Mr.
Friedrich bought it and hauled it to Lake Elmo. He hired Duane
Bay-singer to help and together they completely overhauled and
restored the entire engine. This tractor is a fine addition to the
great line of machinery owned by Mr. Friedrich.
Items of note on the grounds included quite a display of one
cylinder, old type gasoline engines. A small 6 or 8 H. P. Frick
portable steam engine was operating a small fan.
The Lake Elmo show ranks with the good ones and is bound to grow
in the years ahead.
