Enclosed is photograph of traction engines displayed at The
McClure-Waddill Threshermen’s Reunion held at Colchester, Ill.,
on October 25, 1953. Sorry, not much smoke because they were fired
with wood as Mr. McClure had a sawmill and a large pile of slabs
nearby. Anyway, they are all under a full head of steam and moved
into this position a few minutes before the photograph was
Reading from right to left: 25 horse Aultman Taylor, 25 horse
Russell, 20 horse Advance Rumley, 15 horse Case, and 24 horse Port
Huron. These are all in good running condition and nicely cleaned
and painted. We have a 20 horse Minneapolis also in good condition
which is not shown as we did not have time to get it all dolled up.
Since the picture was taken we have added a dandy little 16 horse
Russell. All are single cylinder jobs.
We ran a news item in our local weekly newspaper that the
machines would be displayed from 1 to 4 p. m., on October 25th, and
had an attendance exceeding 1500 people. The interest was so great
that we have promised that we would repeat the occasion next year
and do some threshing of grain and operate the sawmill.
We are always glad to have any one interested in these machines
call and look the collection over.
We want Elmer to understand that not one of them is on
center.
