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Those with antique tractors and small gasoline-powered engines are being asked to take part in a special event this June at Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site near Charleston.
The Lincoln Log Cabin Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Show will be held Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and people with those pieces of machinery are encouraged to share them with the visiting public that day. Those who’d like to show an antique tractor or small gas engine should call Lincoln Log Cabin at (217) 345-1845 for more information.
In addition to showcasing a variety of antique tractors this year, Lincoln Log Cabin will celebrate the small but efficient gas engines that provided stationary power to more than one million farms in America by 1914. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century saw some of the greatest changes in farm labor which freed up men to pursue non-agricultural work, while the business of farming was made more efficient for those left on the farm. Farmers used these new 5-6 horsepower engines to saw wood, shell corn, thresh grains and chop silage for their cattle. Smaller engines were also used around the farm to pump water, and to operate milking equipment on dairy farms. These engines were also in some cases used to power batteries which provided the farm houses, and more importantly the barns, with electric lights, a rare sight in the country before the mid-to-late 1930s.
The use of engines on the farm was the transitional factor for many farmers who then purchased tractors after witnessing the power and multiple uses of the gasoline engine in agriculture.
Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), was the last home of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, father and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln. It is located eight miles south of Charleston. For more information, call (217) 345-1845 follow us on Facebook or see us online at www.lincolnlogcabin.org.
Those with antique tractors and small gasoline-powered engines are being asked to take part in a special event this June at Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site near Charleston.
The Lincoln Log Cabin Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Show will be held Saturday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and people with those pieces of machinery are encouraged to share them with the visiting public that day. Those who’d like to show an antique tractor or small gas engine should call Lincoln Log Cabin at (217) 345-1845 for more information.
In addition to showcasing a variety of antique tractors this year, Lincoln Log Cabin will celebrate the small but efficient gas engines that provided stationary power to more than one million farms in America by 1914. The end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century saw some of the greatest changes in farm labor which freed up men to pursue non-agricultural work, while the business of farming was made more efficient for those left on the farm. Farmers used these new 5-6 horsepower engines to saw wood, shell corn, thresh grains and chop silage for their cattle. Smaller engines were also used around the farm to pump water, and to operate milking equipment on dairy farms. These engines were also in some cases used to power batteries which provided the farm houses, and more importantly the barns, with electric lights, a rare sight in the country before the mid-to-late 1930s.
The use of engines on the farm was the transitional factor for many farmers who then purchased tractors after witnessing the power and multiple uses of the gasoline engine in agriculture.
Lincoln Log Cabin State Historic Site, administered by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency (www.Illinois-History.gov), was the last home of Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln, father and stepmother of Abraham Lincoln. It is located eight miles south of Charleston. For more information, call (217) 345-1845 follow us on Facebook or see us online at www.lincolnlogcabin.org.
