My Father Said ... 3

On the 5th of July in 1937, my father, Joe Rhode, started to work for Standard Elevator Company as a clerk. In our conversation on the 28th of November in 1998, my father had a twinkle in his eye when he said—with a smile—“Once, when I was working at the elevator, Lee Rhode and Arby Brutus began to argue some point. They kept at it for over an hour. By about noon, they decided to go to their homes. They jumped in their trucks and took off. I had had difficulty working while the argument proceeded. It was so intriguing! I noticed that each combatant had taken the other’s truck. The trucks were nearly alike: a ’36 Chevy half-ton green pickup belonging to Arby and a ’34 Chevy half-ton green pickup belonging to Lee. Within a few minutes, both trucks returned, arriving at the same moment. Not saying a word to one another, the men switched trucks and drove off again.” While I did not know Lee, I did know Arby, and I am sure that, within a very short time, Lee and Arby were back on friendly terms. In my view, Arby could not have held a grudge.

One of Carter Dalton’s Homemade Model Steam Engines

Photograph on Page 12 of The Iron-Men Album Magazine

For July and August of 1956

Life in Pine Village, my hometown in Indiana, was usually serene. Occasionally, circumstances arose that called upon a person’s highest qualities. During a conversation on the 26th of November in 1998, my father said, “Carter Dalton and Jim Hooker were brothers-in-law; their wives were sisters with the last name of High. The wives were from Locust Grove. Carter’s wife died. He took it bad. Jim Hooker listened to Carter’s despondent remarks. Finally, Jim recommended that Carter [take up] a hobby. ‘You’ve always talked about how much you liked steam engines,’ Jim said, ‘so why don’t you build a model engine?’ Carter considered the idea. On another occasion, Jim repeated his idea. This time, Carter took the bait because he had no hobbies and felt he would enjoy trying to build a working model of a steam engine. He then built the Case model. [He] misfigured the boiler size by modeling the diameter when he should have used the circumference of the cylindrical part of the boiler; thus his boiler looked too thin. He [also] made a double Nichols & Shepard rear-mounted model.”

Wood Carving Attributed to Jim Hooker of Pine Village, Indiana

I well remember both models. While the Case provided plenty of fun because it was large and easy to drive around, the Nichols & Shepard was a thing of beauty! As I am not mechanically minded, I stand in awe of the work of machinists who can engineer a working scale model of a farm steam engine! I considered Carter Dalton an artist in metal, just as Jim was an artist in wood.

Jim’s barn was filled with carvings, many of which were lost when the barn burned to the ground. Cinders from the barn blew east across town. Volunteers came to our home several blocks away to ensure that the roofs of our house and barn were not harboring live sparks. Not too many years ago, I found in an antique mall a carving of oxen pulling a wagon. While there is no identification on the piece, I am confident that it is one of Jim’s earliest carvings that I used to see in his barn. Perhaps he gave it to someone. I immediately purchased the antique, as I had always wanted an example of Jim’s work. Incidentally, many years earlier, Jim “ran a Model T sales business from the first floor of the Pine Village Hotel,” as my father told me on the 18th of October in 1997. “He got one of the Model Ts out of the showroom as the fire was beginning, but the other Model T burned in the blaze, which destroyed the hotel.”

Mysteries of Warren County, Indiana: Panoramic Photographs of Steam-Powered Threshing (Last Installment in This Series)

In 1999, my father and I drove in search of the locations of four panoramic photographs of steam-powered threshing taken by Lighty Photo Company of Williamsport, Indiana: a studio recognized for its panoramic images, many of which are in online collections. Brothers Lewis E. and Charles A. Lighty were the photographers. I had obtained prints of the panoramic photographs in Lafayette from Berry’s Camera Shop, which, incidentally, went out of business in 2012 after sixty-four years. My father and I found where three of the four photos were taken. The location of the fourth remains a mystery.

In the time when Lighty produced the photos in the county seat of Warren County, steam engines that powered threshing machines traveled from farm to farm on a ring, or run. The threshers separated grain from the stalks on which it had grown and cleaned the grain, such as wheat or barley. Long thereafter, the generations that had participated in steam threshing, or “thrashing” as the word was often spelled, fondly recalled the season. Families collaborated in the harvest and sat down to tables laden with food during “dinner,” which took place when the whistle blew at noon. My book entitled The Harvest Story: Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen (Purdue University Press, 2001) commemorated the threshing era in all its glory. The Lighty images captured much of the excitement of yesteryear on Hoosier farms.

(Above) Gus Gephart’s J. I. Case Steam Engine

And His Nichols & Shephard Red River Special Threshing Machine

At the Clapham Farm on Bethel Road East of Attica, Indiana

Photograph by Lighty Photo Company, Williamsport, Indiana

(Below) My Photograph of the Same Location in 1999

My father and I discovered that the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Company engine and two-wheel tender, and the Nichols & Shepard Red River Special thresher belonged to Gus Gephart. Gus had the outgoing personality of a promoter. In the 1909 Case catalog, Gus is quoted as saying, “The Case coal tender and tank are convenient, and you never need to wait for water. I would not be without a 2-wheel tender tank if I owned a dozen outfits.” Gus hailed from a farm near Otterbein in Benton County, and he rented a farm near Attica in Fountain County. The photo was taken at the Clapham Farm just west of Bethel Cemetery and east of Attica. In the late 1920s, Gus moved back to the Gephart homestead near Otterbein. Gus held rodeos on the family farm and hired Charles Albert “Charley” or “Cobbie” Cobb’s band to perform music for the rodeo crowd. Charley was my grandmother’s brother. As I recall, the name “Bethel” was written on the back of the original panoramic print. Given that clue, my father correctly guessed that the Lighty image was taken near Attica.

(Above) E. H. Wilson's Baker Steam Engine Threshing

At Charles Weigle’s Farm Near Green Hill, Indiana

Photograph by Lighty Photo Company, Williamsport, Indiana

Photo Reproduced on Pages 102 and 103

In The Steam Tractor Encyclopedia: New Expanded Edition

By John F. Spalding and Dr. Robert T. Rhode

Available on Amazon

(Below) My Photograph of the Same Location in 1999

Barn and Silo Hidden Behind Trees

Charles Weigle’s farm, three quarters of a mile east of Green Hill, was the location of Lighty’s photo of a Baker steam engine and accompanying machines owned by E. H. Wilson. My father knew where Charles Weigle had lived, so it was easy to find where Lighty set up his camera.

(Above) Keck–Gonnerman Steam Engine Threshing

At Henry Lohmyer’s Farm in Warren County, Indiana

Photograph by Lighty Photo Company, Williamsport, Indiana

Photo Reproduced on Pages 42 and 43

In The Harvest Story: Recollections of Old-Time Threshermen

By Robert T. Rhode

Available on Amazon

(Below) My Photograph of the Same Location in 1999

Henry Lohmyer’s farm was the scene where a Keck–Gonnerman outfit was threshing. While my father napped in the car beside the Williamsport–Washington Township Library, I researched the location of the Lohmyer farm and found it in a turn-of-the-century map. The Lohmyer home was two miles north of Hedrick and two miles west on the Illinois state line. We drove directly to the site and recognized it at once.

(Above) Nichols & Shephard Steam Engine Threshing

At Unknown Location in Warren County, Indiana

Photograph by Lighty Photo Company, Williamsport, Indiana

The background of the unidentified photo features a road that runs between a fine brick house at the left (a small part of which can be seen close to the smokestack of the Nichols & Shepard engine) and a white house with a porch and two dormer windows at the right. If anyone recognizes where the photograph was taken, let me know.