Oats harvest/threshing circa 1954 in Minnesota

Small grain harvest is over most places I would expect. So, a little late for this posting.

I remember seeing most of the B/W photos in this post as a kid in the 70s but they all went missing after grandma passed in '88. Fortunately; they, along with most of the negatives turned up earlier this year and I currently have custody of them. Some of the pix here are from old prints though. I ~think~ I have all or at least most of the set.

I think this was 1954, although could be '55. This was the last year that they threshed and was the reason a number of pictures were taken.

This was in southern Kandiyohi county in Minnesota. Dad once told me they were the last farm around that threshed and kids would come over to watch.

I have tried to put these in some order as far as sequence of the harvest.

My grandma with the 10' McCormick binder pulled by a '48 Z Moline. She would have been about 57yrs old at the time, born in 1897.

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My Dad next to the Z. Story I heard was it would overheat, so the reason the hood sides are tied open.

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I think this is the binder after they were done as its got some straw stuck in it and its setup for transport.

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Next would be Schocking. This is my aunt, abt age 16. I don't know how grandma let her out of the house with that outfit in those days!!!!! Original faded out print.

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Aunt again with a dog and the model "A" ford they had that was made into a pickup. That was the beater truck they used on the farm in those days.

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Next is the threshing. I believe this is a Case thresher and they used the Moline Z on the belt. A '36 Allis Chalmers WC used to pull wagons around.

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Unloading into the grainery...

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A more recent picture of the WC and the Z. The WC was bought used by grandpa around '37. The Z was bought new in '48. Both are still on the farm as Dad didn't sell them when he retired in '98. I've not had the Z running for a couple of years now, carb problems and the WC was running 2yrs ago but not since.

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I would guess any hired help was quite motivated to work at your place!

Thanks for sharing the story, very nice.

Paul
 
I have bound, shocked, and threshed a fair amount of oats in my life and I am amazed that your Aunt could shock oats in that outfit! I always had long sleeves and long pants to keep from getting so damned itchy. She wins my admiration just from her toughness.
Thanks for posting the pictures.
 
I see that they modernized the "36 WC with a Monroe seat....I guess there weren"t too many neighbor boys around...that"s why your aunt had to shock and pitch bundles? Their loss! Great pix though- nice pictorial history of how things were done a few decades ago.
 
The later photo of the WC shows a new 'cold' manifold and a
vertical exhaust that goes up through the hood, unlike the
older photos that had the angled exhaust.
 

That manifold got changed out in the 90s. Apparently, the old one was so bad it couldn't be planed anymore to seal up a vacuum leak so Dad put that newer style on and cut the hood. There is a circa 1941 photo of that WC I recently found and it had a short oval muffler sticking out the side. I always remember in the 70s a straight vertical pipe run alongside the hood and secured with a pic of strap tin to the hood. Old soup can on the top for rain protection.
 

Not sure it was a local labor shortage so much as grandpa was a real cheap-skate and hard to work for. I've heard more than a few stories about how he'd treat kids hired for help and they'd not come back. I believe the thinner of the 2 older men pitching bundles into the thresher is one of grandma's brothers who used to help out. Not sure of the other one.

Dad's other 2 sisters were never as involved with farm help. At the time these pictures were taken, the older of them was married w/kids and lived in Iowa, and the middle one I think may have been in nursing school, not real sure on dates. I didn't come along until '66 so only have 2nd hand info on those days.
 
Jeff, a big thank you for sharing your great pictures of your family, and history, I will comeback and look again.
 

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