Threshers didn't lose steam despite the heat

Ash­ley Fritz — Staff

Linda Moody

lmoody@dailyadvocate.com

Heather Meade

hmeade@dailyadvocate.com

Steam thresher enthu­si­ast Wally Bier­nack and his bor­der col­lie, Diesel, came all the way from Canada to attend the Darke County Steam Thresher Days held June 28 — July 1.

Bier­nack brought with him his 1914 Case Quar­ter Scale trac­tion engine. Bier­nack, who is vice pres­i­dent of the Case Her­itage Foun­da­tion, said he has been attend­ing the Darke County reunion for at least 10 years, and noted that it is one of the 20 shows he attends a year.

“This is a nice show,” he said. “You won’t find any nicer grounds. These are a good bunch of peo­ple up here, too.”

The show fea­tured Advance steam engines, Cock­shutt trac­tors and Her­cules sta­tion­ary engines.

Vis­i­tors saw dis­plays of antique, full-size steam engines, scale steam engines, trac­tors and sta­tion­ary engines. In addi­tion, they had an oppor­tu­nity to see some of these machines in use. Four new engines were on dis­play this year, com­ing in from Bluffton, Ind., Ver­sailles, Trot­wood and Brookville.

Fea­tured exhibitors demon­strated the var­i­ous stages wheat goes through to be pre­pared for use. They start with har­vest­ing which includes cut­ting and bundling and next move on to thresh­ing and sep­a­rat­ing. All these processes are done using antique machinery.

There also are flea mar­ket ven­dors located through­out York Woods, hold­ing to the old-time feel­ing of the event.

Despite the heat, ven­dors showed up from North Car­olina to Darke County, sell­ing mer­chan­dise rang­ing from antique tools to children’s toys and hand­made blan­kets. Many ven­dors had to shut down when storms hit, how­ever, and lost valu­able busi­ness hours.

One food ven­dor was able to con­tinue sup­ply­ing the hun­gry peo­ple even after the Steam Thresh­ers lost elec­tric­ity, stat­ing that it was great being able to con­tinue serv­ing peo­ple despite the lack of elec­tric­ity; she cooked rib­eye steaks and ham­burg­ers for the hun­gry cus­tomers after the power was taken out by the strong storm on June 29.

Because of the storms, the events for Fri­day evening also were can­celed. Much of the grounds already were dried up by Sat­ur­day after­noon, but the rains made it pos­si­ble to suc­cess­fully demon­strate some bind­ing skills with barley.

When the storm hit that Fri­day after­noon, the Darke County Steam Thresh­ers Asso­ci­a­tion trustees went into emer­gency mode, said Dave Gib­son, vice pres­i­dent of the association.

“When we heard about the storm warn­ings, we got out and helped every­one get their things under cover and made sure every­one got to shel­ter,” Gib­son said.

“I think it’s great for kids today to get to see how things used to work,” said a local ven­dor from Anso­nia, Mary Jane Edwards. “They get to see how our fore­fa­thers brought in crops.”

Galen Hen­der­son, who lives out­side of Greenville, has been com­ing to the Steam Thresh­ers since he was a child, when he went with his father. He and his wife, Phyl­lis, became flea mar­ket ven­dors to get rid of the stuff they’d accu­mu­lated over the years, he shared.

“It’s like going to a reunion,” Hen­der­son said. “You get to see peo­ple you only see once a year.”

Kristi Price, a ven­dor from out­side of North Star, shared that this was her first year as a ven­dor. Her hus­band, she said, col­lects cards, and that was the cat­a­lyst for decid­ing to become a ven­dor. They have been com­ing to the Steam Thresh­ers for more than 15 years, and Price’s in-laws have an engine at the event. The whole fam­ily pitched in for the goods, with Price’s daugh­ters con­tribut­ing movies, toys and bracelets they made them­selves. They even decided to do a duck game, with prizes for every duck, to enter­tain the chil­dren who come to the Steam Thresh­ers, Price shared.

“We’ve done pretty well, I think.” Price said. “My hus­band had a lot of tools for sale, so those went pretty quickly.”

Vir­ginia Edwards, a retired hair­dresser, shared that her father and her uncle Earl Hunt used to be involved in the Steam Thresh­ers, so she’s been attend­ing pretty much her entire life. Edwards shared that she’d been lucky enough to be offered to share a part of Jody Shuff’s space to offer up the odds and ends she’d col­lected over the years and the crafts she’d cre­ated, includ­ing a sewing machine that had been made to look like a tractor.

“The peo­ple here are just so won­der­ful and good and kind,” Edwards said. “It’s a fun, family-oriented event, and it’s edu­ca­tional for the younger gen­er­a­tions. We need more events like this around Darke County.”

DCSTA offi­cers are Shan­non Smith, pres­i­dent; Dave Gib­son, vice pres­i­dent; Chuck Price, trea­surer; and Lori Grey, sec­re­tary. Trustees are Chris Thorn­hill, Doug Thorn­hill, Katie Smith, Sharon Price, Jesse Shaf­fer, Jeff Hess, Daniel Soward, Rob Sando and Larry E. Simmons.

Posted by Acres Admin on Aug 7 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.