What I Saw Today, Elsberry Mo.

Walt in Jaxn Tn.

Well-known Member
This happened by accident. I was on my way to South east Iowa to meet up with a friend (my girlfriend from when I was 14 back in 1961), and we were going to out 45th class reunion for Richwoods highschool in Peoria Illinois. actually I haden't graduated with the class, but only attended school with them my freshman and sophmore years, so had to go as a guest with my old girlfriend. I hadn't seen these folks for 48 years. I completed highschool in north central Missouri where my family moved to a farm back in the early 60's. Confused yet? Amyway, Tractor Dan called me when I was leaving the St Louis area on hwy 61 and asked where I was and I told him and he said I would pass near the Linclon County Old Threashers show and I said mabey I will have time to go by and check it out Sunday morning when I am on my way back to Tennessee. Well I remembered to turn down the county road that goes to Elsberry and the Lincoln County Old Threshers show grounds when I was on my way back home. I expected to see the remains of the show with a few floks cleaning up and the last of the tractors and old machinery stragling out the gate as I approached but, no, when I got there around noon, it was still a good show with lots of stuff still there. I'd say only half of the tractors had gone. That was a good thing. The bad thing was I had to pay full price. The same as if I had arrived Friday morning and planned to attend all three days.
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This is me and Christine (Miller) Shirey at the reunion at Childers restaurant in Peoria. The waitress took the photo and I thought it was good enough to post here. We got there at 5:45 and the reunion didn't start till 8:00
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I didn't tell you that I went canoeing with my brother and sister and their family (baby brother and his son and sister and her husband) on the Eleven Point river in southern Missouri, a little over a month ago. This is one of the photos that I took around the Boze spring. It is the mill dam. You can see the spring in the back ground. My brother in law and I used to swing out on a rope from a big sycamore tree into the middle of the spring, a deep clear water "blue hole". The tree died and you cannot swing out anymore like the child at heart that we were. Email is open if you would like the full size photo for a wall paper for your desk top or what ever.
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These are members of the Elsberry FFA that took care of the ticket booth and general maintenance of the show gronds for the show. Let me know what you think and should we go back next year for the full show. Any photos that you want full size, just email me and I will forward to you. Leave feed back and constructive comments.
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Baring the Fairbanks. This is not how you start it. The flywheel has to be in the right position before the compressed air can be shot into the cylinder to get the engine turning over.
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Western Special, second one built. If you look at the photos, check in the back ground, there were a lot of Massey Harris tractors there.
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Thanks for sharing your pictures, Walt, you always do good.
I enjoy them as my way of attending tractor shows, since I don't have the mobility of my younger days.
Mike Shelby from Piggott, Arkansas, just north of where Hwy 412 goes though Paragould.
We always used 412 to get to I-40 at Jackson, TN and points east.
 
The "H" is sitting close by the big Baker for size comparison. The front wheels of the Baker are almost as big as the rear wheels on the "H"
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Notice the whistle on the side of the engine. It is connected to the compression relief hole on number 3 cylinder, instead of the petcock
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Baker tractor. One problem with photos is that they do not relate the size of objects to the veiwer. This tractor is much larger than it looks.
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Big Minneapoiis Moline. Check out that long 6 cylinder engine. This tractor still used the hand clutch long after John Deere gave it up.
Acording to not a few tractor experts, these tractors were the Cadillacs of the tractors. You just could not get service or repairs when you did need them and that killed the tractor.
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Girl ready for the pull on a F-14. I asked her what her name was (and forgot it) and where she was from/her home town. She said "Silex" I said "what" she said "Silex". I never did understand until later when I saw a sign saying "Silex"
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I'm not sriprised that this thresher was covered but what caught my eye was the canvas tarp. You don't see canvas anymore. Mostly plastic
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This Case pull type combine caught my eye. I'd never seen a Case pull type combine. I saw the orange and green and thought it was a "New Idea"
Notice the engine. It's a 4 cylinder inline air cooled engine and I do not know the maker. I do not think it's a Wisconsin. Does anyone know?
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First photo is a John Deere "G" waiting to go home form the show
They had a tractor pull and normally I am not interested in antique tractor pulling but this was a stock pull, no modifying that I was aware off. Nice for a change.
This is country and not that far from St Louis. No reason why anyone could not visit this show.
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Great photos. I cultivated corn for a neighbor 50+ years ago using an F12 Farmall just like the picture, single front wheel, round spoke rears. It still had the diamond tread original tires at the time. Sure made me appreciate Dad's JD H.
 
I have viewed the pictures of Elsberry very good. If interested the show is held the 3rd weekend (Sat)(Fri. Sat. & Sun) of Sept every year 3 days. Thur is kids day. I will tell the club of the internet at our meeting in Oct.
very good!
 
Dad had a Case pull-type combine, but his had a v-4 Wisconsin on it. I learned a lot of swear words because of that engine. He'd squirt oil into the cylinders when he was done harvesting, and then the next season it would be stuck again. He also got so tired of hand cranking on it when it was warmed up that he made an adaptor so he could use a really heavy duty(you know, the kind that weighed about 30 lbs and had a 16" pipe to grip opposite the handle) drill.

Lon
 
Great pictures. Looks like a lot of show stuff. The town of Elsberry was started and named for my wifes great, great, great grandfather and his family. There are some still farming in the area.
 
I am impressed, i lived in lincoln county from the day i was born till i graduated high school and had no idea that show was going on.

Tommy
 
Awesome photos. I would have loved to have seen that tractor pull. I agree that most of the tractors appeared to be mostly stock tractors as well local drivers/owners with minimal pulling experience. I hate the tractor pulls that have all modified tractors and experienced drivers.
 
I do not understand why anyone can not attend a antique tractor show unless they are in a iron lung.
I may be speaking out of turn here but, There should be a way to get just about anyone who wants to attend a show, to a show, and let them be an active part of that show in some cases. This photo was taken at the Mt Pleasant show last year (A year ago this last Labor day) I knew that there would be a need for a photo such as this one. Does it make a point?
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I would not say 2 years is a long time. Look at how long deere kept the 2 cylinder when every one including deere said it was outdated. we had one parts was not a problem. Not sure where you are getting your info.
 
I was not sure how long they (Minneapolis Moline) kept the hand clutch but have heard (from other folks over the years) that lack of service and dealer network (not as many dealers as other companies) held the company back. I have been hearing this since the early (1962) 60's when I first started getting into antique tractors.
 
Real nice pics. I went to high school in North Central Mo. also. Class of 71 Grundy Co R5 Galt. Went to 40th Labor Day weekend had it at Chillicothe. About half showed up, some hadnt seen in 40 years. Been is west Tx last 27 years. Would like to move back northeast about 600 miles.
 
This link says 1958-1962, and it gives lots of other info.

www.external_link/farm-tractors/001/6/7/1670-ford-961.html
 
Biggest problem with MM was the lack of tractors to sell. which led to there down fall. The 50 series like the G1050, G1350 and G950 would have sold great but with less than a 1000 made it know wonder they went broke. I have known many old dealer that complain that they had many sales pending but no tractors. We have 14 MM's and we have not had any real problems with them or parts for that matter.
 
Whats a Gibson tractor worth? my dad has one sitting around... it doesn't look like this as good as this, but he got it from an uncle i believe...
 
(quoted from post at 22:16:36 09/19/11) This Case pull type combine caught my eye. I'd never seen a Case pull type combine. I saw the orange and green and thought it was a "New Idea"
Notice the engine. It's a 4 cylinder inline air cooled engine and I do not know the maker. I do not think it's a Wisconsin. Does anyone know?
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My Dad bought that Case 75 combine from a Mr. Doyle near Wright City Mo. in the early 1970s. We used on the farm just south of Hawk Point Mo. only for wheat harvest. We used a Massey Clipper for beans. It had always been shedded and taken care of. We usually pulled it with our DC. If you look closely, there are three holes in the rims. During a wet wheat harvest around 1980 we fashioned a set of "duals" on it by connecting a second rim with tire to the rim on the combine using threaded rod and a 14 inch car rim in between. We pulled it with an IH T9 crawler that year. Dad donated it to the Elsberry Old thrashers since it was never used after that and was just taking up shed space, nobody really used that small of a combine at that time, and was far too good to scrap out.
 

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