May/June 2001
Charles F. Hargreaves
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#1 (1959)
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2910 Maple Road Manistee, Michigan 49660-9628
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I will try and tell the story about the abandoned Huber the best
I can. Being about the oldest boy, I was always helping my dad to
do things. So I was able to hear things told about the Huber. A
fellow who lived about three miles from us would stop and visit
every so often. He would mention the Huber and tell about it when
it was being used.
He told us about the Tippy Dam that was built across the river
downstream where the Huber was being used. He said people were told
to get their stuff out of the area, as it was going to be flooded.
This was in 1918. He said the Huber was being driven out, and when
it got over the steep part, it broke down where it sat. This was in
the 1930s, when I heard him telling about it. I was about eight
years old at the time.
Later on, in the 1930s, the fellow stopped by to visit and told
my dad he took a drive up to the flooded area, the 'pond,'
as he called it. He said the Huber smokestack was still sticking
out of the water, and that he and my dad should go get it out. That
was about it from that fellow. He passed on before anything came of
it.
In the 1950s I was out on a drive when I went by a fellow's
house and saw old iron sitting around. I stopped to talk to the man
and found out he knew my parents. As we talked, we got on the
subject of steam engines. He told me the story about the Huber
being underwater and how and why it was there. His story was the
same as I heard from the other fellow, only he told me a little
more. He said when he was a boy he saw the Huber being used and
later on he visited the area just before it was flooded.
He said the last time he saw it on dry ground is where it broke
down. If I recall, he also said they tried to pull it with horses,
but could not. So that is where it sat until it was removed in
1959, when the dam was lowered for repair.
The fellow and I went for a ride one day and he showed me where
he was pretty sure the engine sat underwater. As the smokestack was
gone by then, Picture #1 is where it sat, and it was right where
the fellow told me. Picture #2A shows it on the bank and road
leading down to the water, where I saw it for the first time.
Picture #2B same side view angle with new owner Charlie Volkening
from Gaylord, Michigan. Picture #3A is the right side Picture #3B
is also right side, as it looks today, showing before and after.
Picture #4 is myself and Charlie. Picture #5 is my wife on her
electric rider admiring the Huber. Picture #6 is the Huber hooked
to a thresher. The best I can do on the Huber story, as I
mentioned, is that it sat underwater from 1918 to 1959. After it
was out and on display in Wellington, Michigan, for awhile, it was
then sent to Cole Brothers in Traverse City, Michigan, a John Deere
dealer. Next in 1969, it went to Tom Graham of East Jordan,
Michigan. Charlie Volkening got it about 1993 and had it at the
Buckley, Michigan Engine Show in 1994. Charlie said he and his dad,
Wilbur, restored it.