Running the old steam engine in 1919, we started to thresh peas July 8. I kept track of how much money Mr. Morgan (Joshua Brigham Morgan) made every day for 30 days – he made $100 every day. We had a good run. I was on the engine for 98 days.
We had a lot of fun—we stayed with the threshing all week. I remember one night we couldn’t find our bed roll. There was someone always playing tricks on us. Mr. Morgan was doing tricks on someone or talking most of the time. George Taylor was all the time playing tricks on Mr. Morgan. I watched one day – Mr. Morgan had a pump oil can. He backed around the thresher and George played a trick on him. Later, when George was standing around, Mr. Morgan pumped oil in his back pocket and then he went around the machine to laugh about it. I think he was the one who hid our bed roll—we found it on a grain stack.
That same fall, we had a bad accident. We were threshing peas on the Jennings place in LaBelle. There was a cross short belt on the side of the feeder and when the feeder clogged, this belt came off. Mr. Morgan got the belt and proceeded to climb up over the front wheel of the separator to put it back on.
He put it over his left arm and reached to a rod that parted the feeder. He lowered the belt and it caught the main drive belt. I saw his feet come up and one of his gloves come out towards me on the drive belt. I reversed the engine and stopped it. I got to him before anyone got off the stack of peas.
We put him in the old Model T Ford and took him to the doctor. He had a bad cut over his left eye. His hand was cut and his jaw was broken. The doctor sewed his hand and the cut above his eye. They put a wide elastic band about his head and jaws. Elders Heart, Call and Slick administered to him. When the doctors examined his face later, it had all healed up. That shows what faith he had.
I went back and took care of the engine. Mother Morgan (Lucy Jane) stayed with him and took care of him. Eugene (a son of Joshua Brigham Morgan) and I did the rest of the threshing. We had about 2 more weeks to finish up and then we went home. In about a month Mr. Morgan was all right and I thanked the Lord for everything. The next year, he got a new feeder which did not have the little belt and I was glad.
The next fall, I took the engine over and Ivan Morgan was the water man (for the steam engine). We were threshing peas and we went across the dry bed over to George Kite’s place. He had some peas on an island across part of the dry bed so they put 4 horses on the front of the engine and Mr. Morgan steered the engine. We got stuck, but got out all right. The water was not very deep and it didn’t come up high enough to put the fire out in the engine.
One time when we were threshing in Annis, we had to cross a canal bridge and when I got the back wheel on the bridge, the bridge went down on one end and came up on the other. I stopped the machine. Mr. Morgan said to start up and see if the bridge wouldn’t come up when the weight got more in the middle. Well, it did and we planked the bridge for the separator to go across.
Another time I was crossing the slough in to the Reed place and one of the bull wheels dropped down. We jacked it up and put a big post under it and drove out. Father Morgan always had a cool head and seldom got excited over anything. He liked to talk a lot.
Mr. Morgan asked me to go with him to Antelope. He had about 20 or 30 thousand bushel to thresh. We went to Poplar the first day and camped all night. The next morning at day light, we went the rest of the way. The roads were awfully dusty. We didn’t make much time. At the Lane Clark Hill, I got a full head of steam in the engine and we started up the hill.
I had the water tank on behind the separator. It was quite a drag going up the hill. The engine sure talked pretty loud before we got to the top. There was some rock at the top and the old wheels would slip on them, but we made it. The rest was easy. We threshed some that afternoon. The grain on the flat of Antelope was smutty. You would think that there was smoke at both ends of the outfit. I had to be lined up perfect or the drive belt would come off. We had a lot of fun. We threshed 30,000 bushels while we were there.
We threshed at Harvey Parks place. On the way up to his place we had a little trouble with one of the pinion gears. Going up a small grade, it kicked off a cog. When I heard it pop, I shut off the engine, jumped off and put a big block back of the bull wheel so it couldn’t roll back. Mr. Morgan thanked me and fixed the pinion gear, which took about 2 hours.
There was a really steep place in his field. I banked the fire in the engine and we put 4 head of horses on the separator to hold us back. After we got everything ready, we started down. Mr. Morgan steered and I handled the levers. There is no “back-up” on the engine, only a reverse lever. Every time Mr. Morgan would say “Hold her down,” I would pull the reverse lever. I can remember Brig (Joshua Brigham) saying “Hold her down” and I would reverse and the fly wheel would just about stop and I would pull back and let it go a little. We finally got down safe and I said to Mr. Morgan, “I thank our Heavenly Father for being with us.”
I remember one time we had forgotten a cable so the water man walked back for it. Jack and Grant, our horses, were hitched on the water wagon. After we had lined up some stacks of grain, ready to thresh, I looked back and there were the horses with the water wagon—with no driver. Mr. Morgan laughed about it. The old horses didn’t need a driver. They knew all about the machine and would follow along. They knew about setting up to thresh and they knew the way home.
Written by Orian Smout when he was 80 years old. Typed and corrected by Ruth Smout Ormond, a daughter. Re-typed by Sherie Goring 2008
