1339 Evergreen Drive, Twin Falls, Idaho 83301.
In the Fall of 1929, my uncle, George Land of Farnam, Nebraska,
received his new Nichols & Shepard threshing outfit. The steam
engine was a 25-85 side mounted single cylinder engine #13,866 and
the separator was a 40-64 Red River Special with a Humane extension
feeder. The records of this engine were lost in 1934 when a tornado
The building the engine was in was demolished. The only damage done
to the engine in the storm was one dent in the rear left side of
the cab. The safety valve on this late buttstrap boiler was set for
the odd steam pressure of 137 lbs. Everett Rohrer of Englewood,
Colorado, has an excellent re-built Nichols &
Shepard engine of the same size and style with a higher serial
number.
This outfit was purchased from the company branch at Lincoln,
Nebraska and shipped from the factory at Battle Creek, Michigan.
The rig was shipped in error to southern Missouri where it was
later found and sent on to my uncle at Grant, Nebraska. He threshed
at Grant about a week and then the outfit was shipped home. After
that uncle George threshed a few short seasons around home.
During uncle George’s ownership, my father, George Kestler,
was about the only person to operate the engine as uncle never did
run it. My father had a Nichols & Shepard engine and separator
which he purchased in 1918. The steamer was a double cylinder rear
mounted 25-85 size which he used threshing and plowing for many
years around Haxtun, Colorado. I visited the Lincoln company branch
in 1928 and had a good visit with the salesman who sold my father
his Nichols & Shepard outfit in 1918. Several stories have
appeared in The Iron-Men Album Magazine over the years about
father’s Nichols & Shepard and Case rigs. My father was
born, raised and farmed in the same neighborhood as uncle George
Land until he moved to northeast Colorado in 1914. It is not known
what uncle George paid for his engine in 1929. My father paid
$4,500 for his 25-85 double rear mounted Nichols & Shepard
engine in 1918 and the first Spring he had it he made enough on one
sod breaking job at $3.50 per acre to pay for the engine.
Uncle’s Nichols & Shepard engine was sold for $350 at his
farm sale in October, 1933. Subsequently, each time the ownership
of the engine changed hands, the price increased substantially.
Uncle George’s neighbor, Andrew Hazen of Farnum, bought it.
Hazen used the engine to thresh with until 1939 when he got a
combine. In 1942 Hazen used the engine to operate a steam hammer in
building a small local bridge. The engine was then put back in the
machinery building where it was kept until October, 1961 when the
writer and several friends, all from the Bird City, Kansas steam
engine group, visited the Hazen farm and operated the engine on a
Fall afternoon. When Hazen purchased the Nichols & Shepard he
had a 16 HP Advance steamer. During World War II, the hot shot of
the scrap drive threatened to take both engines from Hazen so he
junked the Advance which he later regreted.
After Hazen’s death, the Nichols & Shepard engine was
sold to Chet Sawyer of Bird City, Kansas. Sawyer was president of
the Antique Engine & Threshers Association at Bird City for
many years. Sawyer had the engine at the Bird City engine show for
several years where it was a wonderful attraction. This is the same
show on the Mrs. Roy Kite farm where I had my Case steam outfit for
17 years before it was shipped to Twin Falls, Idaho in 1969.
N. B. Martinson of Sheffield, Iowa bought the 25-85 Nichols
& Shepard engine at Sawyer’s farm sale April 9, 1970 and he
shipped the engine to Dalton, Minnesota. It would be interesting if
Martinson would write the final chapter to this story by letting
the readers know where the engine is today, how it is being used,
etc. This could be done my bringing the history of the Nichols
& Shepard up to date with a story to The Iron-Men Album
Magazine along with a current picture of the engine.
