Wood Brothers Thresher Gets Second Lease on Life

RR #2, Box 30 Tremont, Illinois 61568

For the last couple of years our club, the Tazewell County Olde
Thresher’s Association, had done its threshing with a good,
solid Case 28′ separator. Problem was, it was being graciously
hauled some 50 miles to the show site by a nearby John Deere
dealer. As President, I started looking around for a good, reliable
machine that we could keep on the grounds. This turned out to be no
easy task.

After looking at several threshers which were either too far
gone for my mechanical abilities, or not worth the price tag, I
finally located one near the small Central Illinois town of Anchor,
some 70 miles away. I met the fellow who owned the machine and
followed him to a ramshackle corn crib where the machine sat.

It was dark as pitch and a tight squeeze, but I could see enough
to tell that it was a Wood Brothers ‘Hummingbird’ thresher,
and in good shape too. After a quick inspection to make sure there
were no major problems we struck a deal and I returned in a few
weeks to pick her up.

I found out that the original owner had bought her new in the
early 30s (the service man’s name from the Peoria Branch was
still scrawled on the blower door) and threshed with it right up to
1963, using a John Deere D for power. After the final season she
was pulled into the corn crib. A couple of years ago a tornado tore
the roof off the crib, so they were anxious to get it to a good
home.

As we pulled it out with a J.D. 70, I was surprised to see the
old separator was in terrific shape! A good cleaning and a few
minor repairs and she’d be ready to thresh! We hauled her home
on the back roads with no problems (except for holding our breath
going under low-hanging light wires) to the Al Beutel farm where we
hold our show. I rented a steam jenny and cleaned off 23 years
worth of dirt, grease and raccoon droppings, and with Al’s
help, got her all set up.