THE IRON MEN in 1895

(Page 2 of 2)

July/August 1973
R. Benjamin Hayes 
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Well I started to go threshing when I was 13 years old. Dad bought a new outfit that year, 1904 it was a 16 h.p. Reeves Cross-Compound Engine and a 30 x 46 Nichols and Shepard, with Feeder and Blower and weigher. Not very many had straw blowers, and I was the kid to tend the blower. Dad said that's a kid's job -just pull those ropes back and forth. One day I was sick and couldn't work. Well from there on they didn't say any more about that beings a kid's job. The next year I was 14 and I had learned a lot about operating the engine, so Dad said I could have the engine to take care of, and I did. It was a very nice engine to fire and operate. I had only one bad thing happen, I let the ashes fill up under the grates and melted them down. They were Rocker Grates -well, Dad didn't fire me. This is a true story about threshing oats fast for the size of the separator. The separator man was Floyd Stanham and he and I liked to see how quick we could set the machine and be threshing. Dad had a two-way level bolted on the frame of the Separator, so we had to have it right, or else.

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Well, we were about an hour late getting to this little jobs of oats. They had all the loads, loaded. It was one of those years when the oats didn't get very tall, the bundles were about 18 inches long, but the oats were well headed and very heavy. As we pulled in from the road I looked at my watch, it was about 8 rods back to the field, and in just 1 hour and 18 minutes we were out in the road again and the tally said 528 bushels.

Well about 1908 Dad traded his 16 hp Reeves for a 20 hp Reeves Cross Compound. I will send some pictures of it, the next time if this doesn't end up in the waste-paper box.

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