The Superior Express -

Last Tuesday some tourists crossing Jewell County got to see a scene from the past as 13 workers came together on Fred Eilert's wheat field just west of Mankato.  The group ranged in age from 14-year-old Noah Shipman to 84-year-old Harlow Vader.  Their mission was to bind wheat for the upcoming Jewell County Historical Society's Threshing Bee. The t-shirts and tank tops were not authentic to the past but the machinery was true to a time decades ago.

There was an old International binder, the likes of which could have come out the horse and mule era.  In fact, Harlow Vader remembers his dad using horses to pull their binder. The machine was encouraged along by Bill Thomas and Dale Wright. 

After just a couple of starts and stops the binder, ridden by Wright, chugged around the field spitting out a continuous stream of wheat bundles. The machine was pulled by Bill Thomas driving his 1954 Farmall Super M-TA.  Thomas restored the tractor some six years ago.

Vader recalled the wheat on his family farm being bound a bit green and the bundles stacked in "tepees" to dry.  When they were dry, a crew pitched them onto hayrack wagons.  At that time, Vader was too small to pitch the bundles so he drove a tractor pulling one of the racks.

True to his early memories, Vader was again this year driving a tractor pulling a hayrack. This time the bundles were dry and tossed from the field directly onto the rack for transport to the Jewell County Historical Society grounds in Mankato.  Vader drove a 1941 Farmall H owned by the Jewell County Historical Society.  The restored tractor is to be raffled off during the threshing bee.

Bill Thomas pulls an International binder ridden by Dale Wright to bind wheat for the Jewell County Historical Society's Threshing Bee. The work was done on Tuesday, June 28, just west of Mankato in a field owned by Fred Eilert. 

With Vader on the H, and Jack Alcorn driving Hooley Alcorn's 1948 Oliver 77 Row Crop Special, two crews of young men pitched the bundles and stacked them on the racks.  They used "bundle forks" – three tined pitch forks to toss the bundles.

The late Bill Lange, who formerly owned the Super M-TA, was a familiar figure in area harvest fields of yore.  Had he been present this year, he would have told the young men, "A young man's job is pitching bundles, always, pitching bundles."

With enough wheat bound and the two racks filled, the crew was done and the Jewell County Historical Society is ready for the thrashing sessions during the upcoming threshing bee planned for Friday and Saturday, July 16 and 17.

Jack Alcorn, Chris Belden, Brett Ernst, Dayton Garst, Mahlon McDill, Caleb Saathoff, Chris Saathoff, Noah Shipman, Tanner Shipman, Bill Thomas, Aaron Underwood, Harlow Vader and Dale Wright were members of the binding crew.