Category Archives: History

Darsts’ International Harvester Museum

Teardrop Trail Log: June 23, 2016

Tracto, the Talking Robot

Next stop – the Darst International Harvester Museum. One online source describes a visit to the museum as a history lesson because the couple, Darrell and Kevin, have a story to go with each item. We met Darrell at our very first Red Power Round Up in 2014 at the State Fair Grounds in Huron, South Dakota. Last year, we had the pleasure of stopping in Madison and seeing both Kevin and Darrell as well as their amazing collection of tractors, thousands of IH keepsakes and memorabilia. Darrell is the editor of Harvester Highlights, the quarterly publication of the International Harvester Collectors Club that provides for the preservation of International Harvester history, products and memorabilia. Tracto, the 8-foot talking robot, built from 227 tractor and implement parts, greets visitors at the museum like he had done at county fairs, state fairs and special events for 60 years. Darst had known Tracto since he was 13 when he met the robot at a corn picking contest and now has lovingly restored him.

Kevin has been described as the queen of IH refrigeration and freezer collectables. She has a corner dedicated to International Harvester refrigerators, freezers, documentation and mementos. My publisher, Lee Klancher introduced us as I began working on Canning, Pickling and Freezing with Irma Harding, the IH “Betty Crocker” spokeswoman for home refrigeration . Kevin had known many of the IH home economists from the promotional team and has letters describing the role of these women in the company. It was good to see the Darsts again as we started discussing another book project.

Marilyn and Kevin with Irma Harding

Touring the Amish Country

Teardrop trail log: June 23

A shock of oats

After the memorable breakfast at Funny Pages, we had a few hours to explore. Our friend Kevin Darst, a mail carrier in the area and International Harvester collector had suggested visiting the Amish country in nearby Clark, Missouri. We set off, expecting to find the businesses located in the center of town but that wasn’t the case. A quick search on the Internet produced a map of the stores in the Amish Community. The colony was founded in 1953 and is one of the three largest in the state. The region is described as “a tightly knit area with Amish farms adjacent to each other for miles along its country roads.” The shops, located at the farms and along the rural roads sell rugs and leather, and other businesses dot the community. Many homes sell eggs, baked goods and produce in season.

Amish high style transportation

We stopped at South Side Sales, an Amish Grocery. A buggy was parked across from the entrance. They specialize in bulk foods with 16 kinds of beans, 18 kinds of flour and over 100 kinds of spices. They also sell produce from neighboring Amish families. Many of the products sold in the store come from a company in Pennsylvania that sells products from many of the Amish farms in the southeastern part of the state. We picked up some egg noodles to enjoy at home, memories of our trip.

: A horse drawn reaper-binder

: Loose Stacking oats

Farming remains an important aspect of life. We watched the farmers cutting and loose stacking the hay in the field with their horse-drawn equipment. What a contrast between men with draft horses doing the tasks and the farm equipment at Red Power Round Up! Watching for the horse-drawn buggies we headed toward Madison.

A friendly wave

Taliesin

Teardrop Trail Log: June 21

We left Governor Dodge State Park and headed to Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and architectural school located in the rolling hills near Spring Green. Visiting Taliesin had been on my bucket list after knowing several friends in Arizona who had attended Taliesin West. The name, Taliesin meaning shining brow, is a nod to Wright’s Welsh heritage. The Visitors Center was originally built as the Riverview Terrace Restaurant in 1953 where we met our tour guide as well as the rest of the folks on the house tour. We drove past the waterfall at the dammed stream and up the winding road of the 490-acre estate. Our knowledgeable tour guide introduced us to the court yard, studio and living quarters. She shared the history and important aspects of his architecture, interior design, furniture and light fixtures. She also discussed the challenge of maintaining the various aspects of the architecture as it was in Wright’s time. He was fond of Asian designs and collected artifacts. But he also collaborated with sculptor Richard Bock on other sculptures. Wright was not a very tall man and he had a fondness for lower ceilings and passage ways that challenged a member of the tour who was seven feet tall.

Wright loved music and felt that music and architecture were closely related. The tour explored the famed living room, complete with the Steinway Art Grand Piano and the unique music stand he designed for a quartet. It had been the scene of nightly concerts. Wright was an accomplished pianist. In addition to the works of many composers, he performed works by his father, William Carey Wright who was a composer, music teacher and itinerant Protestant minister. Please enjoy his 1851 composition, L’ Agréable Réverie, played by Jim for this post.

Stories about the people who had lived in Taliesin were an important part of the tour. From his mother to Mamah Cheney – his mistress, the two later wives, his children, the community of students and clients, the property was the setting of a tempestuous domestic life complete with scandals, murders, fires and other dramas.

After the tour, we returned to the Visitors Center and enjoyed a wonderful lunch in
the Riverview Terrace Café, complete with an awe-inspiring view and equally inspiring meal of local food and beverages.

Taliesen

Learn more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and listen to his father’s music:

Building Taliesin: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home of Love and Loss

The Music of William C. Wright: Solo Piano and Vocal Works 1847-1893

The House on the Rock

The House on the Rock defies description. Imagine the love child of the Smithsonian Institution and P.T. Barnum. Begun in 1945 by Alex Jordan as a lofty home perched on a tall chimney rock, it evolved as “one thing led to another” into an attraction with ever-increasing collections — as eclectic as it is enormous.

I was interested in the pipe organ and other musical instruments we had heard about, and based on the Web site, thought that an afternoon would be enough to explore the attraction. We inquired about the pipe organ as we bought tickets and were advised to not linger too long in any one place. We had no idea just how big this place was.

Rub Budda’s Belly …

We set out through the courtyard, rubbed the Budda for good luck and were quickly in the House. First opened to the public in 1960, the House is a series of rooms surrounding The Rock, no two the same size, shape or style.

The Bauer-Coble Mushroom Lamp

It is vaguely oriental, but also includes furnishings from other eras. The Infinity Room is an engineering marvel that hangs out over the valley floor several hundred feet below.

Main Street

The collections that follow are too numerous and varied to describe here, but include a mock-up of a late 19th century main street — complete with fully furnished shops, homes and village services like a sheriff’s office and fire department. With the provided tokens, one can play the dozens of mechanical musical instruments that are scattered throughout the attraction. They vary from small music boxes and pianos to a complete 80-piece orchestra.

Faberge´ Eggs

Along the way, there are collections of dolls and doll houses, firearms, circus models, Fabrege Eggs, agricultural equipment, steam power, stained glass, classic cars, pipe organs, carousel horses and a giant carousel and replicas of the Crown Jewels.

200-foot sea creature

One building contains a multi-level exhibit of several dozen scale models of maritime ships from hundreds of years old to present. Any one of these collections stand on their own, but to have so many in the same place is overwhelming. Suffice it to say, we wished we had allowed more than an afternoon and could easily have spent a couple of days there. Simply Amazing.

Beautiful Stained Glass

Harvester Heritage Interview

Teardrop Trail Log: June 18, 2016

At Red Power Round Up, I was able to connect with Sally Jacobs, the McCormick/International Harvester Archivist at the Wisconsin Historical Society. I had been working with Sally and other staff members as I compiled the material for Canning, Pickling and Freezing with Irma Harding. The collection is amazingly rich, offering publications like Harvester World online. The Internet has radically changed how authors access material. On past projects, I traveled thousands of miles, poured over boxes of papers and books, created countless index cards, before even starting to write.

Irma Harding by Haddon Sunbloom in 1948

Because the 27th annual Red Power Round Up was in Wisconsin, I really enjoyed getting to meet the people behind the emails and phone conversations I’d worked with for several years. As I was walking through the fairgrounds, I noticed a portable recording booth that was part of Harvester Heritage, a project of the International Harvester Collectors Club established to preserve the history. After Sally and I chatted for awhile, she mentioned Harvester Heritage and suggested that I sign up to record an interview about my research on Irma Harding. I walked back to the booth and the process began. I’ll be contributing both the visual and audio parts of my presentations to Harvester Heritage to share not only Irma’s story, but the story of the women behind Irma Harding, the roles they played at International Harvester and how they helped change the mid-western farm families way of life.

1936 Farmall F-12 Restoration in Three Days

Teardrop Trail Log: June 18, 2016

One surprising highlight of this year’s Red Power Roundup was the “flash” restoration of an old Farmall tractor in just three days. Originally the brainchild of Howard Raymond of Wellfleet, Nebraska, the idea had its roots in another restoration completed by volunteers in Madison, Wisconsin in 2009. Deciding on a Farmall F-12 that was stored in a warehouse, the process of gathering volunteers and sponsors took a couple of years, and the unrestored tractor was displayed at the 2015 Red Power in Sedalia, Missouri to encourage participation.

Everything was ready to go on Thursday, June 16th, with 40 volunteers and an unrestored tractor. In the space of three days, it was disassembled, sandblasted, the motor overhauled, new brakes and clutch, the magneto and carburetor overhauled, re-assembled and painted. By Saturday, it was showing off around the ‘Roundup. The restored tractor then was presented to Case/IH for inclusion in their Farmall Collection.

Information regarding the planning process and a picture of the original unrestored tractor is available on the 2016 Red Power Roundup site. What a remarkable effort!

Photo of Volunteers "flash" rebuilding the Farmall F-12

Volunteers “flash” rebuild the Farmall F-12

Waukesha Model Farm

Teardrop Trail Log: June 17, 2016

Each year, a local group hosts the Red Power Roundup, in this case Chapter 4 of the National International Harvester Collectors, Club, Inc. in Wisconsin. Other local clubs exhibit in the Chapter House, and I went there next. There is often a raffle, and I always register hoping a classic tractor will follow me home. Having completed that important bit of business and looked the various chapter tables over for interesting swag, I was about to leave when I spotted a model farm setup at the opposite end of the building.

It was a large and elaborate setup, with at least a dozen toy tractors and I stopped to look. As I made my way around the exhibit, the model owner introduced himself and we began to chat. It seems the model farm had a good story, and the owner, Allen H. Martin enjoyed telling it. Always on the lookout, I asked him if he would tell the story on camera, and he readily agreed. The video you see here was the result. He tells the story better than I can so …

Victor Horizontal Hit-Or-Miss Engine

Continuing my stroll through the machinery exhibits, I encountered a Victor Horizontal Gasoline Engine. You see “hit-or-miss” engines at every Red Power Roundup, but this was the largest model I had ever seen. Judging by the size of the fly wheel, this beautifully-restored single-cylinder engine must have been rated at about 20 horsepower. With the integrated wagon, it was considered portable and was even equipped with the optional cooling tank and muffler.

The Victor Horizontal Engine

According to Dun’s Review, International Edition (Vol. XX, September, 1912), the Victor was “A reliable, economical and convenient source of power for various purposes around the farm, shop or mill” and was “built in eight sizes, ranging from 4 to 25 horsepower”. The “make-and-break” ignition on the four-cycle engine used a “hit-or-miss style governor” to control the speed. It could run on natural or artificial gas (a mixture of hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide), alcohol, kerosene or gasoline. “A catalogue giving full details and illustrations of these engines” could be requested from International Harvester by mail. It was high-tech in 1912.

As I watched the machine operate, it was fun to see how people reacted to it. We take compact, portable and inexpensive power for granted today (think: lithium-ion battery powered tools, bicycles or automobiles for example) but such an engine would have been special in its day and represented major labor savings when pumping water, milling grain, cutting wood, or running anything that required rotary power on farms that wouldn’t have electricity for some decades. A marvel of the age indeed.

International Auto Buggy Rides

Teardrop Trail Log: June 17, 2016

After breakfast, Marilyn went to her first book signing event, and I was free to explore Red Power. I see new things each time, and this year was no different. Walking into a shed at the far end of the fairgrounds, I was transported back to yesteryear — A line of International Auto Buggys from the turn of the 20th century. We had seen Auto Wagons — the farm truck version from the same time period — at the Sedalia Red Power, but here was a line of several motorized carriages that were more elegant and clearly intended for passengers. Best of all, they were in running condition and the owners were giving rides!

International Auto Buggy

The Auto Buggy was a 2-cylinder, air-cooled motor car produced between 1907 and 1916. An immediate success, it marked International’s first foray into the world of motorized vehicles. Octane Press has an excellent article about the vehicle and a sales catalog is also available to scratch that curiosity itch.

Some started easier than others and I watched one owner struggle with the buggy, while his colleagues were driving away. Patience paid off though, and he was finally successful. It was such fun to see passengers load up — especially one gentleman who appeared old enough to have ridden in one of these wagons the first time around. It was clear he relished the opportunity.

International Logo from early sales catalog

Mark Twain’s Birthplace

Mark Twain’s birthplace in Florida Missouri

photo of Mark Twain's birthplace bedroom

The bedroom as it was

Teardrop Trail Log: June 15, 2016

After a night in Mark Twain State Park, we decided to visit his birthplace, accidentally discovered the day before. The original two-room clapboard structure is housed in a substantial museum, with exhibits, a reading room, several first editions of his novels and a handwritten manuscript of Tom Sawyer.

The house itself was moved from it’s original nearby site, now flooded in the reservoir created by damming the Salt River. It is furnished, and gives a good idea of early nineteenth-century life in the midwest.

Samuel Clemens, who went by the pen name Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri on November of 1835 and lived there for the first four years of his life. The family then moved to Hannibal, Missouri — more famously known as his boyhood home.

Without doing any work …

One exhibit on flax, a primary crop of early America, shows the stages of production. From planting in the spring to harvest, to processing, spinning and weaving with period tools. A river boat exhibit shows various artifacts including a wheelhouse mockup. Another outlines Twain’s interest in technology including the first private telephone in the world. It is complete with handwritten records showing service outages — perhaps the forerunner of modern Internet uptime agreements?

: Spinning wheel and loom

: Loony river pilot

: First Telephone

: Carriage

Finally, there are several exhibits of furniture and other effects from his late nineteenth-century home in Hartford, Connecticut. The exhibit includes a carriage and street diorama.

: The man himself

: Cabinet detail

: Chair and table

: Carriage

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