Antique Farm Machinery and Tractors

 

NIC PAPENBURG DOES IT HIS WAY – HE FARMS WITH HORSES – CORN PICKING

By Don Voelker

The ground was frozen and the day was gray and cold when I met Nic Papenburg on the Amish farm near Shipshewana, Indiana. Nic share crops this farm and we in the same field, where last March I watched plowing and disking using horses, then planting, and later, cultivating the corn that came up. Now it is time to pick the corn, and Papenburg is getting the horses and the corn picker ready. 

Papenburg greased all the fittings and oiled the chains on the picker then went back to the barn to bring out the four horses, he had already harnessed them, now it was a matter of bringing them out of the barn and joining them in a 4-horse hitch. He brought them out of the barn one by one and stood them side by side, hooking the harnesses together; then walking them out to the corn picker. They walked to the tongue of the fore cart and pivoted, the horses knew exactly what to do. Papenburg quickly attached them to the picker, and, except for a problem with one of the horses turning and causing some confusion to the other horses, the hitching went smoothly.

Papenburg said, “I have Bill, Queen, Donna, and Bob for horses today; it ought to be easy enough for them; Bill and Bob are the two old ones, they are in there 20s and still do well. Since the ground is frozen and the wheels are not sinking in, I am going to fill the wagon a little heavier today. This is dry land, meaning no irrigation, we rely on what God gives us for rain, the hybrid seed we used was bred to be used on fields without irrigation.”

The picker is an AVCO series single row New Idea and is probably from the 60s or 70s; a local Amish repair shop designed the Onan twin cylinder 20 HP engine set up with reduction pulleys, belts and a lever controlled clutch assembly (OR BELT TENSIONER?), so that when the engine is at the working RPM, the shaft, which used to be the PTO shaft, is running at its proper speed of 540 RPM. The horses have to be kept exactly on the row or “the stalks will break off and corn will fall to the ground,” according to Papenburg, “I wasn’t paying attention and did it this morning.” He went on talking about the fore cart, “This fore cart is used with several different implements and has a brake that can be used when going down hills; this is the same one that was used on the haybine that you saw. Another thing I have to do is put an old tire on the other wheel of the fore cart; the tire has to be taken to an Amish man near here who will cut the beads and stretch the tire, then drop in the wheel.”

“I will finish this field off today,” says Papenburg, “I am going to fill this wagon up to the top and then get the other one, by that time someone will come to unload and we should finish up around 1:00 o’clock.” Papenburg does not know how many bushels to the acre the corn is making, but he says, “It is not bad.” The owner started picking a couple of weeks ago and did a few rows, and then Nic came out one evening and helped. There was no hurry to get it out of the field because the moisture content was in the 30 percent range, now it is down to the 20s, Papenburg says, “You can tell when there is too much moisture, it wouldn’t float in the stock tank; when the ears of corn float it is time to pick, because the moisture is in the 20 percent range.” The corn is going to be put in a round crib on top of last years crop, if it is too wet the center will rot. Most of the corn is ground into feed and used for the owner’s horses and ponies.

This year there was no problem with mold, “We got a late start planting the corn and I think that eliminated the problem,” says Papenburg, “I don’t know how much corn is going for now; we will look in the paper when the time comes to sell, I am not going to worry about it for a while.”

One final note, the writer rode on the fore cart for one round around the field. The steel wheeled fore cart bounces and jumps around and I had to hang on or risk being thrown off the off; the operator has to be at one with his team and sense what they are doing, then must watch that the picker is always on the row so as not to break off stalks and lose the corn. Farming with horses takes a special person and is a real accomplishment.

To read the next ‘Hitching the Team’ article click here and subscribe to Vintage Tractor Digest for only $20 per year.

 

 

DAD’S STEAM ENGINES

 

1925 19 HP KECK-GONNERMAN SERIAL NO. 1783

1920 25 HP RUSSELL SERIAL NO. 16977

 

By Don Voelker

 

“I started taking steam to the Indiana State Fair about 10 years ago and it is a lot of fun,” says Kyle Schoeff of Marion, Indiana, “I provide the steam every year, but not my thresher, sometimes they want both engines, I bring whatever they want and usually run a sawmill or threshing machine; the steam fair has a very active bunch of people and put on a good show.”

 

My dad bought both steam engines in the early 70’s; he bought the Keck-Gonnerman east of Cleveland, Ohio from Jonas Stutzman’s dad. In 1925 the Keck was sold from the factory in Mount Vernon, Indiana, to a person in southern Indiana, and then during 1941 or 1942, it was back at the Keck-Gonnerman factory for repair work, after that it was sold to a sawmill in Kentucky. The Stutzman’s bought it in Long Island, New York, in the 1960’s, and owned it from then until my dad bought the engine.

I know even less about the history of my 1920 Russell, my dad bought it from a man north of Fort Wayne, Indiana, prior to that it came out of Michigan, but I don’t know what area. I did some boiler work on it and had a new section put in the front flue sheet along with new flews.

The Russell Company was much larger than Keck-Gonnerman, which had 75 people working or something like that. I read that boats going up and down the Ohio River would do anything to get to Mount Vernon, Indiana, if they were having engine or mechanical problems. Keck-Gonnerman could pour castings and do just about anything to get them going again.

 

During 2003 – 2005 I had the Keck all apart in the front yard, I took the boiler to Jonas Stutzman’s and had a new fire box put in along with about 2/3rds of the barrel, so I feel that it is in good shape for a long time to come. There is still one building of the old Keck-Gonnerman factory left in Mount Vernon, Indiana.

I went to a reunion there several years ago and met a few older individuals who actually worked in the factory. The company was still in business until about the end of the 1950’s building threshing machines but they had not built steam engines since the 1920’s. The oldest Keck known is No. 807, my engine No. Is 1783, and the last ones they built were in the 1870s numbers. The engine could be ordered different ways and could have water tanks on the sides or on the rear, or cast iron wheels was an option. The Keck threshing machine I have is a 28-inch and made for a tractor, most of the steam engine machines were a 36-inch, or something like that.

 

Right after the State Fair I take my engine over to the Portland show. I usually go to the smaller shows like Warren, Indiana, for the 4^th of July weekend; I am usually the only steam at this show. The “Old Boys Toys” show is at Paradise Park, Wabash, Indiana, during the latter part of July; I usually end up threshing at this show. Then the Cumberland Bridge Festival after Labor Day, they used to have a sawmill but have not been able to get one for the last two or three years. This year they are talking about threshing if they can cut some wheat. 

*Specifications: 1925 19 HP Keck-Gonnerman No. 1783

Sold to: Watts Bros., Trenton, Kentucky

Date of Sale: 2/20/25

Date Shipped: 3/4/25

Style of Engine: Single cylinder, side geared, steam traction

Bore: 8 ¾ inches Stroke: 12 inches

Flywheel diameter: 38 inches

Face: 13 inches

Make of Governor & Size: Pickering 2 inch

Number of tubes in firebox: 43

Diameter & Length: 2 inches x 84 inches

 

**Keck-Gonnerman Factory History – As of 1913

* 1884: Began the manufacture of engines, threshers and portable sawmills

* 1901: Incorporated as the Keck-Gonnerman Company, with capital of $201,000

Officers Elected: John Keck, President; William Gonnerman, vice-president; Louis Keck Secretary and Treasurer

* 1904: Added coal mining machinery to the product line

* The business grew steadily; products are recognized as of the highest standard and are marketed throughout the United States.

* The Mount Vernon, Indiana, plant covers 10 acres of ground, and represents a $250,000 investment; the equipment is modern.

* The plant employs over 200 people and distributes $150,000 annually, the largest payroll in Mt. Vernon.

* Eighty five percent of the employees are skilled workman.

* Mr. John Keck manages the sales and buying departments.

* Mr. William Gonnerman runs the manufacturing.

* Louis H. Keck has charge of the finances and office.

Specifications: 1920 25 HP Russell No. 16977

Bore and Stroke:                                             9 x 13 inches

Flywheel/Belt Pulley Diameter:                      40 inches

Rear Wheel Diameter:                                     66 inches

Front Wheel Diameter:                                   42 inches

Governor:                                                        2 ½ inch Pickering

 

***Russell Engine Factory History

They started in a two-story frame building know as the “white shop” because of the many coats of whitewash paint. At first it was a general carpenter business building houses and when there was no other work they made furniture. A horsepower treadmill powered the equipment used to make the furniture.

 The three Russell brothers formed the C. M. Russell & Company in January 1842, in the town of Massillon, Ohio. They started manufacturing agricultural equipment, especially threshing machines, which had extremely good quality. The company reputation for quality grew rapidly. The name remained the same until 1860 until the death of Charles M. Russell, when the name changed to N. S. & C. Russell, which remained until 1863, when it was changed to Russell & Company. The company incorporated in 1878 with Nahum S. Russell as President.

From 1882 to 1924 Russell & Company built nearly 16,000 traction engines available in sizes from 6 HP to 150 HP. The most common were the mid size simple cylinder engines, they also produced compound engines with both a high and low-pressure cylinder. They produced portable engines in similar sizes. They also built a full line of threshing machines of every size operation. Not many have survived, as they were made of wood, or thin sheet metal. Being a fine piece of equipment it could hold its own and was a large part of the Russell & Company business for many years.

Russell also produced portable steam engines, which needed to be pulled from place to place with horses or a traction engine. The company built complimentary equipment for its engines such as water wagons. You could get the complete set; everything needed to do custom threshing.

Russell saw mills were famous for being able to handle, larger, heavier logs more efficiently. The Russell design used an over and under blade allowing for more efficient handling. Did you know that they also built railroad cars, marine engines, rollers and shovels, along with hand tools, jacks, and even lubricants?

The company finally built its first gasoline tractor in 1915 and continued until 1924, they went on to develop three sizes of tractors. Today only fifteen of these tractors are known to exist.

According to a 1913 letter written by Charles Hegem, Superintendent of the Russell Factory, “The Russell & Company has ever and always been in the forefront and tried by all means in their power to produce the best machinery in the best way regardless of trouble or expense in so doing and the result has been the building up of a satisfactory business that at this present writing is of such volume that it taxes the workers to their utmost to even approach filling their orders.”

*Taken from information provided by workingmensinstitute.org

** Information from Google books. 1913 “History of Posey County” by John C. Leffell

***Information from the National Russell Collectors Association, www.russellcollectors.org.