How About a Model T Tractor?

The Sutton Pullford Co. advertised in 1917 issues of The Sutton News describing their tractor-conversion of a Model T Ford. The dealer was not listed but the company was at the Ford garage.

 

The Sheridan implement company began selling Allis-Chalmers round balers in 1947

Round baler technology got its start in Sutton, way back...

The June 12, 1947 issue of The Sutton News carried this item.

William Sheridan was touting his new Allis Chalmers roto baler and side delivery rake. Old timers in Sutton were recalling 40-some years earlier when a local fellow invented the first round baler. The Sutton News editor came close to getting the story right. He credited the invention to “Luben” saying he was a “banker in our town.” Most accounts, and the Sutton Museum credit the banker’s son, Ummo Luebben for designing and building the world’s first round baler. The basic design survives in today’s machines. The Luebben’s patent for the machine was issued on October 18, 1910, interestingly enough, the day my father was born. Ummo Luebben manufactured his baler in Beatrice and Lincoln before selling the rights to the machine to Allis Chalmers in 1940.

This photo of the folks at Wm. Sheridan & Sons appears on page 125 of “Along the County Line.” In the front row are Roger, William, John, and William Sheridan, Sr. The caption identified the back row as “Those who helped the Sheridans.” Let's have a quiz. Comment below if you know who those back row folks might be.

The background story of Sutton's role in the invention of the round baler was detailed in this year's ago post, linked here.

https://suttonhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com/2008/12/sutton-home-of-round-baler.html

 

Emil Ochsner's Incubators and Brooders, 1914

 

1947 Fairfield Neighborhood Corn Picking Crew

Neighborhood crews helping in harvest and other farm work for neighbors in some kind of stress was a common story throughout the history of the county.

This item, a reprint from the Hastings Tribune, appeared in The Fairfield Auxiliary newspaper on November 11, 1947.

The 1947 County Assessors Go To Work

The April 3, 1947 issue of The Clay County News described the work and the guidelines for the county assessors as they prepared to evaluate county property.

1922 Clay Co Homes and Mini-Bios

The Clay County Sun newspaper in Clay Center sent one of their fellows out to visit the good people of the county 1922 and to report their stories to the readers. 

These first two clippings were from the Sun on February 9, 1922 and the next two were published two weeks later on the 23rd of February.

The first article by Mr. Hall went over so well that the Sun did it again publishing this article on February 23, 1922.

1947 Bender Implement Show & Geo. Carlson Duroc Sale

So, what were things like in Sutton in 1947? This may not have been a typical day, but The Clay County News reported this incident in the February 27, 1947 issue.

Big hog sale in Sutton 75 years ago. Several familiar names among the buyers - Lot #23 stood out for me - looks like a 15-year-old Sutton High sophomore and a long-time Stillwater, Oklahoma resident. You can do the math...

1911 Catalog for the Luebben Baler

We were recently contacted by the family of J. F. Buchmayer of Northern Missouri. Mr. Buchmayer was a farmer with an intense interest in the history of farm machinery.

Among the treasures left by Mr. Buchmayer, the family found this 32-page catalog about the Luebben round baler published in 1911. 

Sometime in these 111 years, Father Time, some chemical, critters, or some other misfortune found the catalog resulting as a through-shot of deterioration to the catalog, but we are going to overlook that blemish and enjoy the remaining fragile content.

The first image reveals the front cover of the catalog.

This image illustrates the gathering of hay, the stationary operation of the machine, and a fellow showing off the finished product. Note that the Luebben baler produced bales with a hole in the center.

The catalog contained a few pages of testimonials by farmers who had used the Luebben round baler. Here are two pages of those.

This drawing gives a good idea of what the machine looked like. The hole in the paper does not detract from the image at all.

 

This straight-on view is, I believe, the view of the rear of the machine.

WINCHARGERS provided rural electricity before REA arrived

The Rural Electrification Administration (REA) brought electricity to farms primarily between 1936 and 1952. WWII interrupted progress and in 1946 farm families were still installing their own electrical systems, primarily using wind chargers like this or gas-powered generators (as our family had until REA reached our farm in 1949.)

New Product at Sutton Manufacturing Co., 1971

This item from April 22, 1971 describes a Sutton business without telling some of us 50 years later what it was all about.

Who? What exactly? What happened?

Time for some research...

1946 Farmers Were Honest About Tax Exempt Gasoline

The relationship between the government and individuals expanded during and after WWII as tax policy addressed concerns and fairness.

I recall mentioning "tractor gas" as different from car gas and being asked the difference. Farmers were strict about making sure they didn't abuse the tax refund on gas used in tractors. They kept records on the mileage driven by "road" vehicles.

My father was really strict about, though when I went off to college and he didn't track the mileage on my car anymore... And, well, that "tractor" gas burned just fine whenever I arrived home with a low tank.

1946 Expansion of Phone Service to Farmers

This item in the February 14, 1946 issue of The Sutton News announced the expansion of phone services to Clay County farms.

 

Edgar Farmer proposes a Farmers Strike Making National News - 1946

Edgar and Clay County made national news in an Associated Press news story about an Edgar meeting of 216 farmers led by V. Hubert Johnson, a local farmer. Johnson proposed a national “strike against strikes” with farmers withholding products from the market in protest of the numerous strikes in various industries. 

Two weeks later this follow-up story appeared in The Sutton News on February 14, 1946

1971 4-H Queen & King - Valentine & Kauk

4-H honors have been perennially news for the whole county. This story is from January 14, 1971.

Geo. Leininger 1920 Farm Sale Ad

 This two-page spread was the ad for the George Leininger farm sale in 1920.

The auctioneer was Henry Bender, one of three sons of Jacob Bender. Gus Bender was the partner in the implement store. Johnny Bender was a college football coach among other things. 

Area Round Barns in 1970

The county paper did a story on the round barns in the area in 1970.

This round barn on the Reuben Sell farm east of Sutton was featured in Nebraska History magazine along with other Clay County round barns. Clay and Lancaster Counties each had four round barns, more than any other Nebraska counties. 

There were a total of 36 round barns in the state. In the upper left here is the best preserved Clay County round barn in 1970. It was on the Dana Gail Schliep farm a mile south of Fairfield and was in use. The barn in the upper right was on the Earl Fate farm southwest of Clay Center. It was believed to have been built in 1914 by H. M. Graham. The barn at the lower left was located three miles east of Edgar and was built in 1910.

The fourth barn in this collage is clearly not round but it made the cut for the article as a brick barn, solid brick. Not a usual thing.

The article accompanying the photo of the four barns on June 25, 1970 goes into detail about these barns. 

The headline in the article is was kind of an unfortunate sign of the times, or something.

Early County Threshing Crew

This threshing crew photo comes from south of Sutton - the Edgar/Ong area actually. The photo is undated. 

The key gives the names and the name of the "duty" position on the threshing crew. Reading from the left: Jimmie Hill (in buggy), Oliver Cassell (water wagon), Sam Washburn (Engineer), Alex Devitt (Sep. Tend. (Separator tender?)), Dave Cassell (Sep. Tend. & my grandfather), Joe Washburn (cook), The "Rackers" were Art Hill, Henry Shipley, Andy Anderson, Clarence Smock, John vickery, Walt Woodhead, C. Jordan and Hwd Jordan. The "Pitchers" were Ben Jordan, Earn Hill, Earl Smock and Adolph Gemmer. "Wagon men" were Andrew Olson and Fred Woodhead.

Oliver Cassell's team was Fred & Frank.

H. Shipley had Tom & Jerry

C. Smock's horses were Kid & Nell

John Vickery brought Dan & Bess to the crew.

Sutton - Home of the Round Baler

Sutton enjoys a number of distinctions or “Claims to Fame” among of which is the invention of the round baler.  The Clay County Historical Society included that story in their Summer 1984 newsletter so the tale may be ripe for repeating.  The story also appears on a couple of internet sites, including that of the Patent Office.

The invention of the round baler is credited to Hugh Luebben and his sons Melchior and Ummo of Sutton.  Work on the invention may have started as early as 1892 with the patent being issued in 1903 or 1905.

The origin of the idea for the baler was described by a William Watts who arrived in Nuckolls County in 1874 and reported that fuel was often in short supply during the harsh winters.  He said, “The buffalo chips were gone, coal was not to be had, and our prairie was devoid of wood.  We began using straw as a source of fuel, twisting it roughly into the shape of a rope which could then be rolled into a ball and burned in a stove.”  The Luebben’s adopted and mechanized this process to build a device that attached to the back of a threshing machine and shaped the straw into round bales.

The Machine - Sutton's own contribution to agricultural mechanization.

This first device was not successful as it had, in today’s engineering terms, a low MTBF – Mean Time between Failures – it kept breaking down.  A later, improved model was a standalone machine with its own engine and worked for hay and alfalfa and a capacity of four to seven tons per hour.

The Luebben’s arrived in Sutton around 1890 where Melchoir was as a banker with the First National Bank of Sutton.  By 1900 he was bank president and among the town’s elite drawing mention in the local newspapers for social activities as well as his business endeavors.  Ummo Luebben appears to have provided much of the inventive genius for the baler while Melchoir handled the financial arm of the enterprise.

A side story of the baler’s invention involves the Melchoir’s financial dealings in support of the baler and a $79,000 question that led to the closure of the bank in 1910 and ten year sentence for elder Mr. Luebben.  The scandal also involved a Mr. Masters of a Harvard bank who was still fighting his conviction in 1921.  After Melchoir Luebben was released from prison he moved to St. Louis and then to California.

Ummo was not impacted by the scandal and continued working on the baler.  He moved the business to Lincoln in 1910 and to Omaha in 1920.  The company produced from two to sixteen machines a year from 1920 to 1940 when Ummo sold his company to Allis-Chalmers.  He continued to work on the baler until his death in 1953.  As of 2000, Allis had sold over 77,000 round balers.

Sutton’s round baler invention is identified by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers as one of their 50 Historic Engineering Landmarks.  That list is at: http://www.asabe.org/awards-landmarks/asabe-historic-landmarks/luebben-round-baler-31.aspx along with a video describing the invention.

Another reference appears at agupdate.com   (Blog entry updated July 10, 2019.)

Sutton enjoys a lesser connection to another of those 50 landmarks, the UC-Blackwelder Tomato Harvester.  The item only briefly describes this dual-pronged invention.

Early attempts to automate tomato harvesting resulted in smashed tomatoes and lots of red juice on the ground.  A three-way partnership between the University of California at Davis, Blackwelder Implement and the H. J. Heinz Company tackled the problem.  While the Blackwelder engineers worked on the machinery, UC-Davis developed a thick-skinned tomato that would withstand the mechanical picker.  Heinz ketchup processors had a major financial stake in the project and the Heinz representative to the project was Homer Anderson of the Tracy, California Heinz plant.  Homer was born in Saronville, Nebraska in 1910.

The Anderson family was among the first from our area to migrate to California in 1919.  As farms became larger and farmers became fewer, Sutton Germans migrated to Lodi, California and Saronville’s Swedes chose Turlock as their new home.

My source for the tomato harvester story?  Several delightful conversations with my father’s first cousin, Homer Anderson during the 21 years we lived in Tracy, California.