Rt. 4, Columbia City, Indiana 46725
(Gary graduated from 8th grade this past May so he is one of our
teen-age contributors. Gary also likes small radios and plays the
zither. The picture is of his oldest engine.) Anna Mae
Few people haven’t heard that and just about as many know
who said it. Well, after Wilson got sick Thomas R. Marshall was
presiding over a boring senate debate and he made that comment to a
clerk. He was born in North Manchester and did some law-yering in
Columbia City. His home is now the Whitley County Historical Museum
and is located a block north of the courthouse.
Farther north is the insurance building where the father of Lew
Wallace, author of Ben Hur, lived.
East on U. S. 30 is Cosse, home of Herb Shriner and Little
Turtle.
I live north of Columbia City about 9 miles. I’m fairly
close to Cresco. Its population died last summer, but if you look
close it’s still on the state map.
By the way, if you see the boiler inspector and he isn’t
wearing a hemp necktie ask him how big or how much pressure an
engine can have before he has to look at it. You see I got 2
engines, and both have vertical boilers. The oldest has the
cylinder on one side with the axle going through the boiler to the
flywheel on the other side. The newer is a beam engine with a well
insulated boiler and steamline. We have 3 crank organs which all
have paper rolls. The oldest, 1844, has hemp rolls and is small
enough that we carry it in a suit case with its rolls. The other
two are about 15 inches square. Both were built around 1885. The
one with the darker wood is the ‘Bijou Orchestrone’ and the
one with the lighter wood is the ‘Improved Mandolina.’
We went to 4 reunions last summer, Ft. Wayne, Elwood, Mottville,
and LaPorte. I didn’t run my engines much at these shows, so I
got to see about everything.
Oren Haas took his crank organs and calliope. The calliope has
65 brass whistles. It looks a lot like Stroud’s (Hutchinson,
Kansas) Caliope except the whistle bases are all on the level. It
has a player that works with a vacuum sweeper. The air pressure is
obtained from a 1 hp. compressor. This winter Oren retubed it and
mounted it on a bright red milk truck.
I’ll be seeing you at the northern Indiana shows if
we’re not too busy. So long.
