Roy Keller writes.........

Image Gallery 1886 J. I. Case Thresher owned and operated by John Walbrecht.

Rt. 2 New Plymouth, Idaho

Here is a picture of an 1886 J. I. Case Thresher owned and operated by John Walbrecht, (at left) York, Neb. Mr. Walbrecht's son, Edd, is a very good friend of mine. His home is at Nampa, Idaho at present. Edd and I have threshed a lot here in Idaho although he has threshed more than I. I have been at it for about 38 years and in that time my brother and I followed up the harvest for 11 or 12 years.

My last steam threshing was done in Kansas in 1928. I ran a Nichols-Shepard Engine on a Minneapolis Separator. This engine was a single cylinder and handle. The Minneapolis is in pretty good shape.

My Dad was a thresher man too. He had a lot of old time pictures of his threshing days. There was a cyclone in 1942 and it destroyed everything they had. I would like to have some of his old time threshing outfit pictures.

I started threshing with my Dad when I was ten years old. The first outfit that my Dad had, that I can remember, was a 42 inch Advance Separator. It had a gear blower that sure did growl at times. He pulled it with a 80 HP Case, but some people called it a 75 and my Dad called it 80. It had the short smoke box. My Dad put a Gould Balance Valve on it, also a Watson Throttle Governor and he kept this engine running like a sewing machine; didn't have a click in it.

Dad traded this Advance machine off and got a second hand 44 x 66 Case Separator. Then along about 1918 he bought a new 40 x 62 Case Separator. It had a Ruth feeder on it and all babbitt bearings. Next he bought a 8 roll Maytage corn husker and shredder. I can remember feeding this shredder when it was pretty cold and the wind blowing like it does in Nebraska.

Dad threshed a shredded fodder in the winter from the Platte River to Hastings, Nebraska until 1920. Then we moved out in the western part of of Nebraska in Perkins County so Dad sold the shredder when we left Hastings, Nebraska.