Sr., 4375 W. Oregon Road, Lapeer, Michigan 48446
At Bob Nelson’s Farm, 4 miles west of Lapeer, Michigan, was
the scene of his 3rd annual ‘Day for Thrashing and
Sawmilling’ on August 3, 1974.
It seems that it always likes to rain on a certain day that you
choose for an event and last August 3rd was no exception. It had to
a little rain is welcome, as evaporation is always cooling.)
We were prepared in the event it did rain, as we had our bundles
of wheat loaded on wagons and under cover for several days in
advance.
As the time of day advanced the clouds cleared and all was
well.
Several days before the show, Nelson Scott and Pete Pierson of
Ortonville, Michigan came driving in with their 2 Port Huron
Steamers and several old time gas tractors. Bill Leach was the
engineer on one of their Port Huron’s while Pete Pierson did
the honors on the other.
Meanwhile, ‘Scotty’ was proudly showing’ his stuff
with his tractors.
Mark McCarty of Ubly, Michigan had his 3rd scale Steam Engine on
display for the crowd to enjoy. He sure enjoys it too, because he
kept it hopping all day, such as running the lumber edger, baker
fan and just plain running it around.
Ernie Beebe of Lapeer, Michigan has a corn husker and shredder.
He even had a load of corn to run through it. It was a big
attraction and a crowd pleaser.
Horace and Kenyon Davis displayed their drag saw. They had it in
operation and it sure looks good to see a cross cut saw cut into a
log without having to pull the saw by hand.
Bud Robinson of Davison, Michigan displayed his 6 h.p. Fairbanks
Morse Gas Engine and burr type feed grinder, not much feed was
ground, but it showed the people how our forefathers did it. Bud
was also our official separator man.
Lloyd Fox of Lapeer, Michigan came over a couple of days in
advance and he had a maple syrup boiling setup with him. He set up
a real syrup camp and he kept the imitation sap (water with
mapleine flavor added) boiling all day. What a sight to see a sap
bucket hung on a maple slab.
Ron Mayer of Elba, Michigan, Butch Lilly of Lapeer, Michigan,
Bill Brazie of Lapeer, Michigan, Charley Setter of Brown City,
Michigan and Lloyd Chapman of North Branch, Michigan displayed the
teams and wagons. Many people sure like to see well matched teams
of horses and their harnesses were a sight to behold.
Leon Knight and Bud Reamer, both of Lapeer, Michigan and Junior
Perron of Davison, Michigan, proudly presented their antique
tractors. They tried them out on our Baker fan.
George Pearce of Lapeer, Michigan, among others, had a nice
display of antique gas engines.
The Lapeer County Mounted Sheriff’s Posse was on hand as
usual and did a fine job of parking cars and controlling
traffic.
Bob Nelson’s part of the show consisted of furnishing a Port
Huron 19 h.p. Steam Engine, 28-46 Red River Special Grain
Separator, Meadows Mobile Sawmill, Sawmill Edger, Baker Fan, 8 ft.
cut power take-off grain binder, cider press, corn sheller, grain
to thrash and logs to saw.
A box ‘Chicken Dinner’ was enjoyed by the helping
hands.
Bob Nelson Jr. and his 4-H Club provided the lunch stand.
Bob Nelson the 3rd had a big day. He operated the fork lift,
helping the folks with items that are too heavy to handle by
hand.
Bob Nelson Jr. thought he could take a Case 830 Tractor and out
pull our 19 h.p. Port Huron Steam Engine. So we hooked them
together back to back and went at it. It ended up in a draw because
the steam engine could not pull the tractor backwards and the
tractor could not pull the steam engine backwards either.
We really had a good time and a good crowd. The wheat was
thrashed and the lumber was sawed. Many stories were told and
I’m sure some were stretched quite a bit.
Last but not least, a big thank you is due to the ladies that
did the ‘kitchen work’ for the help. No show would be
complete without the help and guidance of the women folks.
If all goes well and the Good Lord willing, we expect another
great day at ‘Bob Nelson’s’, August 2, 1975.
