Antique Steam engine tractor, ca 1959
Modern farm equipment looks entirely different from this antique steam powered tractor featured on a used postcard. Vincent Tortora is credited as the photographer on this card published by James E. Hess of Lancaster, PA. The cancellation mark provides the date of 3 Oct 1959. An information blurb is at the upper left corner on the reverse: “Greetings from “The Penna. Dutch Country.” Antique Steam Engine Tractor leaving farm yard. Many of these old-timers are on display at Arthur Young’s of Kinzer, Pa. where an annual get-together is held displaying the limitless power of these aged engines. Many are still in use today used mostly to Steam Tobacco beds. This process is to kill weed seed in the soil before the tobacco seed is sown.”
Steam tractors similar to the one depicted on the card were used in the late 19th and early 20th century. The first ones were specifically designed for agricultural uses. Horses pulled the portable engines that were built on skids or wheels for ease in transporting to work areas. These machines were used for threshing grain and plowing. The owner/operator of the engine would travel from farmstead to farmstead. Oats and wheat were the common types of grain; however, other grains could also be threshed using this type of engine.
Usually there was a “threshing day” when all the neighbors would work together to complete the massive job. Women and girls were in charge of cooking the noon meal that was brought out into the fields. The engine did not do all the work, children had jobs suitable to their ages such as pitching bundles into the threshing machines, driving the bundle racks, supplying water for the steam engine, hauling the freshly threshed grain into the granary. Because the steam engine was so expensive, several farmers might pool their resources and join together forming a cooperative. The power of this type of engine allowed for the threshing and plowing to be completed quicker and easier than by hand and/or with horses or mules. Some of the largest steam engines had 150 horsepower and were known as “Road Locomotives.” In the mid-1920s these engines were phased out by lighter, faster-starting internal combustion tractors that were fueled by kerosene, petrol or distillate.
Kinzers, Pennsylvania is an unincorporated community in Lancaster County. The Rough and Tumble Engineers Historical Association has held an annual reunion in mid-August each year on Arthur S. Young’s farm since 1948. A number of steam traction engines are showcased during the reunions. Originally there was also a publication called Iron Man Album, founded by editor Rev. Elmer Ritzman, that was devoted to preserving the heritage of threshing and farm life in general. Today Ogden Publications now owns that magazine and has renamed it Steam Traction Magazine.
For additional information, see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam-tractor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinzers_Pennsylvania
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rough_and_Tumble_Engineers_Historical_Association
