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
