Maumee Valley Antique Steam & Gas Association
30th Annual Show, August 16-19, 2007

Jefferson Township Park, New Haven, Indiana

All Photographs Copyright © 2007-2011 by Robert E Pence
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My 1948 Case VAC on hand for mundane chores

The 2007 show featured John Deere Tractors

1918 Waterloo Boy tractor. John Deere bought Waterloo Gas Engine Company to add tractors and
engines to their product line. The Waterloo Boy tractors were sold in England under the name, "Overtime"

Always a leader in innovation, in 1938 Minneapolis Moline introduced the UDLX Comfort Tractor. A fully-functional general purpose tractor, it had the
additional features of a 40mph road gear and a fully-enclosed cab. It was offered as a multi-purpose machine for working in the field and serving as a
family automobile. Some farmers regarded it as extravagant, and most regarded it as too expensive. It didn't sell well, and few exist.

Like most tractors of its era, the early John Deere had a purely functional design with little attention to style. In the late thirties the auto industry's
attention to design began to spill over into the tractor business, and some makers hired industrial designers to spiff up their machines.

Here's the sleek concept that Henry Dreyfuss created for John Deere

In the foreground is a corn planter. Behind it is a corn shredder. Before mechanical corn pickers and combines, corn was cut and bundled into shocks
in the field to dry, and then hauled to one of these machines that separated the ears from the stalks and husked them. The stalks and leaves were
shredded and used for animal feed.

Grain drills are used for planting grain crops. The machine has compartments for seed and fertilizer and plants and fertilizes the seed in closely-spaced
rows.

Stationary hay baler. The hay was brought to the baler on wagons and pitched in. Now, the baler goes to the hay, and pulled by a tractor, it picks up the
hay from windrows and bales it on the go.

1936 Co-op tractor still in the family that bought it new. These tractors were built in Canada using largely truck components. They are simple but very
well designed and built. The engine is a six-cylinder flathead Chrysler engine; those engines were very popular in many industrial and agricultural
applications, and very reliable and long-lasting.

During the Great Depression some companies made kits to convert old cars into farm tractors. The Model T was the most popular conversion because
there were so many of them, and many different types of kits were available for them. I doubt if you would have found any conversions that looked this
nice; usually the cars that were used were old, worn out, and beaten up, sometimes dragged out of a shed or a woodlot where they had sat unused
for a while.

Rumely Company built these two-cylinder kerosene tractors at LaPorte, Indiana. Allis Chalmers acquired Rumely during the Great Depression. The
former plant site is mostly abandoned and demolished now, although some parts of it are used by smaller industries.

Huber, Frick, Parret, Massey-Harris and some others entered the tractor business with machines assembled from running gear purchased from Foote
Brothers Gear Company and engines purchased from Waukesha, Stearns and others. Ungainly as they may appear, they were generally good, reliable
machines that fulfilled their intended purpose.

Allis-Chalmers

Hart-Parr, of Charles City, Iowa, was a pioneer in the internal combustion tractor industry. Oliver bought the company to acquire its line of rugged,
economical two- and four-cylinder tractors. Hart-Parr was one of the most popular brands among midwestern farmers who could afford a high-quality
machine.

Shelling corn

Case 12-20 crossmotor tractor providing power to plane lumber from the sawmill

Threshing machines, also called separators.

A threshing machine separates the grain from the straw and chaff. Grain is cut in the field by a binder that ties it into bundles, and the bundles are
gathered into shocks stacked in a way that lets them dry in the field. The bundles are then loaded onto wagons and taken to a threshing machine
powered by a tractor or steam engine. The modern combine gets its name from "combined harvester;" it combines the functions of binder and
thresher.

Future steam engineer

Tractor-driving lessons, beginner level

Future engineer's Mom

Advance Rumely steam engine belted to a portable sawmill. Have you ever smelled fresh sawdust from an oak log? It's one of my favorite aromas.

For safe and reliable operation, a steam engine requires thorough preparation and an operator's
close attention. It's a labor-intensive power source, and that was a major factor in the demise of
traction engines when good tractors became affordable.

On the other side of the park, radio-controlled airplanes were flying and on display

Parkview Hospital's Samaritan Helicopter paid a visit and visitors were welcome to look it over.

Train Town, adjoining Jefferson Township Park, is where Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society stores and maintains
Berkshire locomotive NKP 765 and other rolling stock. The society was holding an open house the same weekend as
the Maumee Valley Show, with the locomotive under steam.

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