March/April 1997
Ken Butterworth
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Minneapolis engine seen at Darke County show July 11, 1996.
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2821 Wilmington Road Lebanon, Ohio 45036
I have been to the following shows: Portland Swap Meet,
Portland, Indiana; Grant County Kentucky Engine Show, Mad River
Steam and Gas Show, Urbana, Ohio; Miami Valley Steam Threshers,
Plain City, Ohio; Darke County Steam Threshers, Greenville, Ohio;
Clermont County Antique Machinery Club, Cozaddale, Ohio; Fort
Ancient Restored Machinery Show, Lebanon, Ohio; Tri-State Gas
Engine and Tractor Show, Portland, Indiana.
I plan to attend the following shows in September: Clinton
County Corn Festival, Wilmington, Ohio; Old Timers Days, Xenia,
Ohio.
These 10 shows have and will be great experiences for me. My
wife lets me go to these shows and has not sued me for divorce yet.
I show the following 'Junk': Ford tractor, 1955, model 850;
John Deere, series E, 1 HP hit & miss engine; 1938 with a John
Deere pump jack; John Deere, Model LUC combine engine made February
21, 1951; John Deere, 214 garden tractor, 1979.
I faithfully read Gas Engine Magazine and the Iron
Men Album every month for the last 5-6 years. I try to take
pictures of all steam engines and interesting gas engines and
tractors. I have a real interest in the history of agriculture and
its methods of handling the harvesting of crops and making life
easier for the farmer in the US. I was born and raised on the farm
but for the last 32 years I have been teaching Biology, Physiology
and Environmental Science to city kids in Middletown, Ohio (a steel
mill town). They do not have a clue that food comes from the farm
and that electricity comes from a coal fired generator. They think
food comes from the grocery store, McDonalds and other fast food
restaurants and electricity comes from the switch on the wall! I
try to inform them of the following men's inventions:
John Deere's plow, Cyrus McCormick's reaper, Eli
Whitney's cotton gin and Robert Fulton's steam engine. I am
starting my 33rd year of trying to show the importance of taking
care of our bodies and our earth. We have only one body and one
earth, so we must make wise decisions or we may not have either for
much longer.
I have included some pictures of steam engines that I have seen
working this summer. I hope they will spark some interest to some
readers of Iron Men Album. I really appreciate the work
ethic and skill of the people I meet at these shows. I only hope
the readers understand that this is a dying art and we must keep
the preservation of our past so that future generations can
appreciate where we came from.
I hope I have not bored you people at Iron Men Album or
the readers of the magazine. I really enjoy going to these shows.
It kind of keeps me going at school. I get kind of tired of the
poor work ethics and apathy I encounter at school with 10th, 11th
and 12th grade students.