The Threshing Crew, 1881

By Clara Agnes Luse Koenig, from the Luse Family History

The following is an excerpt from the Luse Family History and journal kept by Clara Agnes Luse Koenig, daughter of Allen Timothy Luse and Maria Allen Luse. Allen and Maria Luse came to Kansas in 1859, settling near Mound City, Linn County. They then moved several times in and around Jefferson County.They moved to a farm near Winchester in 1863, then to Nortonville in 1891. This was submitted by Linda Lloyd Kaiser, granddaughter of Clara Luse Koenig, Great Bend.

1881: This is the year my father and brother Charlie bought a threshing outfit which consisted of a separator and a ten horse power unit. This meant that the ten horses turned the power unit that turned the separator that threshed the grain. The power unit consisted of a circular middle section of machinery, cog wheels, etc., from which extended five removable levers to which the five teams were hitched. A platform was placed over the center machinery on which the driver stood with his long whip keeping the teams moving steadily around in a circle. A long rod was attached to this cogwheel machinery, near the ground, and was extended to other cogwheels on the separator. This was called the tumbling rod and was in sections. Driving the teams was a dizzy job as the platform on which the driver stood kept turning as the machinery turned and after hours of steady work relief was necessary.

Drawing of a horse-powered thresher from a French dictionary
(published in 1881) from WikiMedia Commons.

Bundle wagons brought the grain to the separator and tossed them onto the band shelf at the front end where a man with a band cutter, a large sharp knife, cut the bands on the bundles and shoved them over to the feeder. The man feeding the machine had to pull the bundle apart and feed it evenly into the feed cylinder for if too large a bunch was fed in, it might clog the cylinder and cause delay or even a break in the machinery. As the grain passed through the machine, the kernels were threshed out, the straw was carried on through and into the straw carrier at the back end. This carrier was an endless belt of canvas the full width of the machine, operated by a belt that moved it up and out. The grain flowed into a covered box and downspout on the side of the separator into receptacles. Father spread a canvas on the ground and then set his half-bushel measure under the spout to catch the grain. Father kept tally of the number of measures of grain on a tally sheet. When they threshed at home, I stood near Father and held a grain sack open so he could pour the grain in. All our grain was sacked, as grain-tight wagons were few and we had none. The straw carrier was stationary so there had to be pitchers there to pitch the straw away and build a stack. It was a very dusty job with chaff getting all through their clothes and the men all fought shy of being on the straw stack. It usually took three to handle it. It was a slow process all the way through and took thirty or more men to do the work. Father, Charlie, Will, Frank (brothers of Clara) and Jim McClure, a neighbor, was the crew that went along with the machine. Frank was band-cutter, Will was feeder, Father tallied and Jim was driver on the horsepower. Charlie was relief man to keep the machinery running or on errands.

There were not many threshing outfits around as they were quite expensive so they traveled all around over the country from early July until October. Separators were huge clumsy affairs and required two teams to move them, especially over rough roads that were common at that time. Moving from one job to another was quite a process, special care being taken in crossing bridges or fording small creeks. They had many funny experiences as they traveled from place to place threshing. The farmers’ wives had varied reputations as to feeding threshers and it sometimes took considerable ingenuity to make a job terminate or last long enough to get to a certain place for the next meal. The crew stayed with the machine all week, coming home for Sunday if there wasn’t repairs to make on the rig. 

The Rumely company was known for steam-powered threshers.
Photo from Jefferson County Genealogical Society Library.

One family was noted for being slack and dirty about the house, so they had a hard time getting threshers to come there. Finally Father couldn’t get out of it any longer and had to go there. They had quite a lot of grain and they had to stay for two nights. The boys insisted on sleeping out on the straw stack, but Father was the big boss and must have the courtesy of sleeping in the house. Well about ten minutes after he went to bed he found he was not alone, in fact a whole regiment of company had moved in to dine on him. He fought and killed relentlessly for a couple of hours then gave up, put on his clothes, stole out of the house and joined the boys on the straw stack. There was considerable activity around the house the next day and that night when Father was refusing to sleep indoors, they insisted strongly that he sleep inside so he finally went in to bed. He found the room had been thoroughly cleaned and not a bed bug showed up that night. It rained that night and the boys had to forsake the straw stack and sleep under the separator.

Horses thresh wheat in Denton, North Carolina.

The wife of the wealthiest farmer in the community was the stingiest provider and they hated to eat there. Threshing is hard work and the men always have enormous appetites, but one time she gave them mush and milk for dinner. Another time when they were eating, she came in with a pie and said, “Pie, pie, anyone want pie, if you don’t, I won’t cut it,” and never giving anyone a chance to say anything took it back to the kitchen.

It was always hot at threshing time and with a wood stove going in the kitchen they often set the table out in the yard where there might be some breeze. Then it took a couple of little girls with peach tree switches to shoo the flies off of the table during dinner. It took a mountain of food to appease their hunger and pies were stacked three deep on a plate and cut in quarters for a serving.

 

Horse-powered threshing on YouTube

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This article appeared in “Yesteryears” in October 1985.