As I look back on my growing up years, I am thankful I spent so much time working beside my mom and while doing that I often asked questions about what she did growing up. She was born in 1908 so she had lots of things to share from and era I didn’t get to experience. One of those experiences was something she did for a week or so, in the summer, when she would travel south along what she called the “Military Road”, now known as hwy 69/400 to help her Aunt Barbara with the annual threshing crew dinners. Men from several farms would gather to work together, traveling from farm to farm to do the annual threshing of grain. My mom’s job was to help her Aunt Barbara prepare the noon meal for maybe up to 20 hungry threshers. It was work but she loved her aunt and looked forward to this special week. Being an excellent cook, the threshers always seemed to make sure they would be at the Meyer farm for that noonday meal. (Some farms were done in a morning or afternoon.)
As I got older and became more observant of the world around me, I saw this huge machine which was used to power a thresher, partially exposed from an open area of a big barn located on a property at the west WEIR corner. My dad said it was a huge tractor. It was there for many years but I never got to see it up close and then one day it was gone.
When I started dating my future husband he told me of a real threshing B his father had in 1960 and 1961 on their farm north of Cherokee. The thresher was powered by a large steam engine tractor. Large crowds of people attended, some of which were farmers who had vowed to never to pitch a bundle of wheat or oats into a threshing machine again and yet they lined up for a chance to participate in what was becoming a lost art.
Recently, our son Brian learned of an annual threshing B that was to be held in McLouth, KS this past weekend. He took my husband and me to it last Saturday and we were joined there by our other two sons one from Overland Park and one from Perrysburg, OH who had been in Manhattan on business. It was a wonderful family day as well as a historical day. I actually got to see an actual threshing machine in operation. Threshing machines were run with a large steam engine and large belts attached to the threshing machine A Threshing B has been held in the McLouth immediate area since 1957.
The group sponsoring it is known as The Heart of America Antique Steam Engine and Model Assoc., Inc. My husband and his dad and brother actually attended one there in 1961 when it was held. However, a man by the name of Calvin “Cab” Hansen was known as the “Thresherman” was in charge from 1957-1989 and shared many wonderful stories we were told. Herman “Slim” and Myrta Watson had the 1957 event at their farm, just over the county line into Leavenworth County. In 1965 land was purchased on the west side of McLouth where it has been held every year since then. I had the privilege of visiting with a past president of the association, 90 year old Dough McQuitty who also shared lots of history. It was really special to see and hear those old Steam Farm engines let out their loud noise and belch puffs of thick smoke.
