How many times have I driven Route 30 through Canton, Ohio, and passed the big Timken factory with its many tin stacks topped by conical caps? Of course, I’m familiar with Timken High School and Timken Mercy Hospital (now Mercy Medical Center) in that city. I know that for many years, the city of Canton [...]
Probably 20 years ago, I was prevailed upon by my late cousin Peg Townsend to write down recollections from my childhood. At first I was reluctant, but I finally did it. The following ramblings are excerpted from those memories through what we ate on our farm during the 1940s. Sweet as sugar. Before the war, [...]
This past fall, Oct. 23-24, to be exact, Aumann Auctions were in charge of dispersing the large collection of antique tractors and paper ephemera belonging to Gary Parker of Churubusco, Ind. It was a large sale and, although I wasn’t there, it’s interesting to review the prices realized for some of this “Rusty Iron.” What [...]
In his comprehensive book about building Hart-Parr and Oliver tractors at Charles City, Iowa, John D. Culbertson wrote the following under the heading “1906″: “One day while writing advertising copy, the sales manager W. H. Williams was struggling with the cumbersome “gasoline traction engine” words when a new word ‘tractor’ flashed into his mind — [...]
I was just looking through the January 1950 issue of Farm Journal magazine (cover price: 20 cents), and here’s what farmers and their wives and kids were reading 60 years ago. “Farm labor costs are coming down and efficiency is going up. Smart farm hands will hang onto good jobs. Hogs will make money for [...]
My parents, Blanche Ganoe and Sam Moore, were married in October 1931, and while I don’t know how they spent that first Christmas, I’m pretty sure that by the time Christmas of 1932 rolled around, they were living in the farmhouse (owned by my grandfather) where I grew up. The Townsends (Dad’s sister, her husband [...]
