Before tractors

This is a picture of my greatgrandfather Roy and his brother Don with their steam engine. They are building Price rd in Clinton County Mi. This would be around 1890-1910 maybe.

What a sight that must have been in those days.

Those where the days would love to go back in time and sit and watch them working the old steamers there is some thing magical a bout steam power

Holy Cow! I was born and raised on a farm just a couple of miles from there! We were on Walker road, North of M21, between Wacousta and Bauer roads.

You're closer than you think then. This is Price rd between Lowell and Grove. I can identify this with in a couple hundred feet. Today there would be several houses in the pics.

the guys working with them probably didn't think they were so magical ,actually very hard work.nowdays it's surprising how much work working with 1950 equipment was

Great pictures and thanks for posting them.

Big difference in different areas of the country. My Dad was the first on this highway to own a tractor. He bought it in 1948. That was the same year Mecklenburg Electric put ele. power in this area. My dad pulled the wire with his tractor.

State Rt. 40 was upgraded from a single lane dirt road in the early 30's. My grandfather and his family moved to this farm in 1929. My Dad says he remembers seeing the work crew building that road with picks and shovels and some mule drawn equipment. The labor was provided by the Va. prison system. Dad said he saw men with striped cloths on and some had ball and chain. Rt. 40 wasn't paved till the late 30's. I worked a farm beside it years ago and found the old road bed. Still has the ruts from wagons and what few cars and trucks were in this area then.

Never seen any steam engines in my area except on the blue ridge parkway. They used them for sawmills there. In this area they used model A or T to power the saw. We used mules to cultivate tobacco until 1968 and that's when I bought a new 140 Farmall. Before the first tractor dad bought all the tobacco land was turned with a team.

This was and still is a poor area when compared to west and north of us. Even with steam engines those folks worked hard every day.

My experience with steam goes back to my elementary school days. Our school was across from a railway line. You could hear that train coming from a block away. At recess, all the kids would run toward the fence and get the engineer to activate the steam whistle. What a sight & sound. After the railroad converted the engines to diesel hardly anyone noticed the quiet trains coming by. Go figure!