{"id":23663,"date":"2023-03-22T13:55:20","date_gmt":"2023-03-22T17:55:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=23663"},"modified":"2023-03-22T13:59:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T17:59:59","slug":"episode-784-my-name-is-samuel-merner-why-does-no-one-love-my-threshing-machine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=23663","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 784 \u201cMY NAME IS SAMUEL MERNER { WHY DOES NO-ONE LOVE MY THRESHING MACHINE?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 784   \u201cMY NAME IS SAMUEL MERNER { WHY DOES NO-ONE LOVE MY THRESHING MACHINE?\u201d<\/div>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
March 22, 2023<\/div>\n

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1890\u2019s Hamburg Threshing Machine made by Samuel and Simeon Merner <\/div>\n

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SAMJUEL MERNER SPEAKS FROM THE GRAVE…Imaginary conversation aided by Alan Skeoch<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy name is Samuel Merner,  I build threshing machines and cannot for the life of<\/div>\n
me understand why you do not love them as I do.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMr. Merner, this is the year 2023, the days of the threshing machine are long gone. We now<\/div>\n
use motorized combine harvesters.  Your machines are just dust collectors in museums.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNow that hurts my feelings\u2026’dust collectors’ is an insult.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cTell me about yourself, Mr. Merner, maybe we can appreciate you more.”<\/div>\n
\u201cMy parents migrated here from Switzerland in 1837 when I was 14 years old.  Got a small<\/div>\n
farm near New Hamburg where others like us, so called Pennsyvania Dutch people had setled\u2026Germanic<\/div>\n
people from the Rhine River Valley.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAre they those people dressed in black?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMennonites and some Amish.  Protestants.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow is that connected to threshing machines?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLong story.  As a boy I was fascinated by the local blacksmith and was lucky enough<\/div>\n
to be trained as such.  Farmers needed metal tools.  I began making them and opened a shop<\/div>\n
in New Hamburg in 1844. \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cAlone?\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
My son Simeon Merner also became a blacksmith and both of us began making bigger machines.<\/div>\n
\u2026threshing machines.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLike the machine you want to give away today?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe machine I would like to give to a museum was made around 1890\u2026we kept improving our<\/div>\n
threshing machines but tried to keep them as small as possible.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cLocal market?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo.  Our machines were sold all across Ontario and even on the<\/div>\n
western prairies.  <\/div>\n

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Threshing machines have hearts as we humans do.  This is the<\/div>\n
heart of a thresher\u2026.the Cylinder that spins ripping gran sheaves apart<\/div>\n
and hurling the grain\u2026.<\/div>\n

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VOICE FROM THE GRAVE: SAMUEL MERNER  (assisted by Alan Skeoch)<\/div>\n

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 \u201cOUR company was specially successful after my death.\u201d<\/div>\n
(Imaginry dialogue continues)<\/div>\n
”  By 1897 investors helped form the New Hamburg Manufacturing<\/div>\n
Company.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow come?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cMy son Simeon was a good businessman and  our company was able to lure<\/div>\n
Werner Brodrecht as manager back in 1888\u2026his skill expanded the business and<\/div>\n
we even begn making tratcion steam engines.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe factory burned down in 1901\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, but we rebuilt the whole operation and were successful until 1914 when we failed.<\/div>\n
\u201cAttempts to revive New Hamburg Manufacturing in the 1920\u2019s failed thereby endning  80 years<\/div>\n
of production\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cI take it yo are disappointed today Samuel. \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cI am.  I would like to donate this sole survivor of our company\u2019s threshing machines but <\/div>\n
no one seems to care.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cI thought the booming city of Mississauga had the machine.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, donated by Alan Skeoch.  But Mississauga had no place for a threshing machine<\/div>\n
and no real interest in agriculture.  Someone called Alan and asked him to get<\/div>\n
the machine out of the tiny Bradley Museum barn.  So Alan and his Son Andrew persuaded <\/div>\n
Bill Books to store it in his drive shed while they searched for a new home.  \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWell, first attempted to make contact with the Wellington County Museum who have a huge barn<\/div>\n
with a largely empty threshing floor.  Perfect place. \u201c<\/div>\n
\u201cNo response.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRecently made contact with Doon Pioneer Village.  Alan gave them a beautifully stencilled<\/div>\n
thresher a few years ago\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAny response?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes, they are considering the offer.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat is the problem with museums?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cRunning a museum is a thankless job. Viisitors are few in number.  Storage space limited.<\/div>\n
Staff limited as well.  If tax revenue shrinks then first thing on the discard block is local<\/div>\n
museums.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat about the Province of Ontario.\\?<\/div>\n
\u201cAre you trying to be funny.   The Province of Ontario does not give <\/div>\n
a sweet goddamn about agricultural artifacts.   Look what happened to <\/div>\n
the Ontario Agricultural Museum in Milton.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cPut in mothballs 20 years ago.  Now just sits there on precious land\u2026and let the cobwebs thrive.\u201d<\/div>\n

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\u201cSamuel,  what do you think will happen to your ancient thresher?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cIt will go to the dump once Bill and Leah Brooks need the space in their machine shop in Limehouse.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHow did Alan Skeoch get  your threshing machine in the first place?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHe bought it at an auction of the Thompson collection 40 years ago\u2026<\/div>\n
bought four threshing machines that day.\u201d\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHe said he could not stand to see historic artifacts like our Hamburg Thresher go<\/div>\n
to the scrap man.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy would a scrap man want a threshing machine?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cFor the iron parts.  They set those old wooden machines of fire and  gather up<\/div>\n
the pulleys and threshing cylinders and haul them to the steel mill in Hamilton<\/div>\n
or any local scrap yard.\u201d<\/div>\n

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GHOST OF SAMUEL MERNER SPOKE  (aided by Alan Skeoch)<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 784   \u201cMY NAME IS SAMUEL MERNER { WHY DOES NO-ONE LOVE MY THRESHING MACHINE?\u201d alan skeoch March 22, 2023 1890\u2019s Hamburg Threshing Machine made by Samuel and Simeon Merner  SAMJUEL MERNER SPEAKS FROM THE GRAVE…Imaginary conversation aided by Alan Skeoch \u201cMy name is Samuel Merner,  I build threshing machines and cannot for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}