Otterbein, Indiana 47970
Many years ago Gentry Bros. Circus had a round tank, 12′
long and 3′ in diameter. It had a hand pump to fill it, as
there might not have been water hydrants out where the circus had
to set up.
This tank was made just like a steam boiler with lap seams which
could have been used for their drinking water, as it had a 14′
hole in the top to get in to clean out the tank.
When the Circus went out of business, a man bought the tank, and
after using it several years to haul water for the steam engine
during threshing, Leonard Mann bought the tank about 1934. He put
it on Avery water wagon running gears and used it for several years
for threshing.
Last year Leonard noticed that the tank had a leak in it; so he
decided to plug the hole with a bolt and washer and to paint the
inside rusty bottom part with Metallic Zinc Paint (MZP). In order
to get the inside painted, he coaxed his wife to get inside,
telling her that she was smaller and could get in easier.
She climbed the stepladder, put in one leg, but then
couldn’t get the other leg in. She finally saw that she had to
put both legs in at the same time by supporting herself with her
arms on both sides of the top of the tank. The rust had to be
removed; so she rubbed and rubbed with a wire brush. The air inside
the tank was hot and full of the fine rusty dust. When Leonard
pounded on the bolts, the reverberations were extremely noisy.
Finally the bottom was all painted. When the wife climbed out,
her shoes fell off inside and had to be fished out.
The outside was painted with two coats of glossy gray MSP, and
the wheels were painted a bright yellow. The painters were dotted
with spots of gray and yellow.
What a beautiful historical water wagon having seen the days of
circuses and threshings!
