Red River Special is the name given a threshing machine that was made in Battle Creek Michigan. It was first purchased by Charlie {Claus} Erhorn in about 1900. He and Len Spencer ran it for a few years. The machine's frame and sides were all of w ood. Later on most machines were built with angle iron and sheet steel. It was powered by a Nicholas Sheppard steam engine. It first came out with a straw carrier instead of a blower. A man had to cut the twine on the bundles and feed the machine by hand. It was a hard tiresome job that took a certain amount of skill to do the job properly. About 1905 Claus sold it to Len Spencer and my dad, William Peterson. My dad was only about 21 years old at the time.
They ran it together for more than a dozen years. A blower was attached to the back taken from a corn husker. It was necessary to move it from one machine to the other as the seasons changed. Other names came up in the operation. I heard my dad mention a Henning and a June Wiggins. Scott Holmes was hired to haul water with the water wagon to be used by the steam engine. It took a team of nearly five men to run the machine, besides the bun dle haulers and the grain carriers. A major operation that included most of the community. The quality of the job of this machine was outstanding. It was equipped with a baffle wheel that was positioned just behind the cylinder, beating the last kernels of grain loosened by the cylinder and knocking them to the separation tray before the straw entered the straw racks. This baffle wheel was advertised as the "man behind the gun" and was the only machine to have it. My dad sa id that it gave the Red River Special an advantage over other makes. All a farmer had to say when he took his grain to the grain elevator was that it came from the Red River Special and he was given a premium for his crop. Shortly after World War 1 William Mienel bought out Len Spencers share in the machine and he operated it with my dad. In nineteen twenty four they up dated it with a self feeder to eliminate the dusty dirty tiresome job of hand feeding. A new elevator and scales and bagger were added at the same time. In nineteen twenty five a neighbor who had a fifteen-thirty Mc Cormick Deering gasoline tractor was hired to power it, but the next year a new Allis Chalmers 20 35 tractor was purchased to power it. The Nichols and Shepard steam engine was retired. It sat around for a few years making an excellent place for us kids to play around on.
William {Baldy} Mienel and my dad ran the machine until after the start of World War 2 Baldy took a job in a defence plant leaving my dad to run it alone. It was to much for him so it set idle for a year or two. My return from service gave me the job along with my dad to run it in 1946. I operated the tractor and dad the threshing machine. The next year we purchased a smaller machine that could be powered by a much smaller farm tractor. So the old Red River Special was retired. It sat in the shed for a few years ,until we sold it to a son of Ed Henning, who had been part of the crew many years before. Robert Henning sold it to a museum, where it still stands . It is now approaching the century mark. I plan to ma ke a visit to the place south of Grand Haven where it is being stored in a pole building.
The 20 35 tractor stood around in the way for a few years and was sold for junk. A crane was brought in and lifted it up and dropped to the ground breaking it in peaces, A very inglorious ending for a machine that carries so many memories for me.
My dad was around a threshing machine every year as an operator until the early 1960's giving him nearly sixty years as a thresherman.