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- The Janesville Gazette, Friday, August 22, 1975, p. 4
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Everyone is getting into the Bicentennial act this year, but the Rock County Thresheree Association will go into it with 18 years of experience.
The 19th annual Rock County Thresheree, to be held in Thresherman's Park Saturday through Labor Day, Aug. 30, 31 and Sept. 1, will have "everything we've had other years but with some improvements," said Walter Durst, Shopiere, president of the association.
One of the added attractions will be an astounding demonstration by Tillman's Tigers, a Chicago team that will assemble a Model T Ford from a pile of parts and drive it away, all in less than two minutes. The Tigers will put on the act several times each day.
Returning will be such "days of yore" exhibitions as threshing machines, the old "puffer bellies" spitting out chaff along with the grain; steam engines pulling eight plows, "a highlight in itself," says Durst; more throbbing steam engines sawing logs; pile drivers at work; an old buckwheat mill grinding flour; an old stone mill turning corn into cornmeal; threshing of oats, using both gas and steam.
Assembled at the 100-acre park over the Labor Day weekend will be a quarter-mile exhibit of tractors, gas and kerosene varieties. Most of the machinery will be full-size, but there will be some miniature versions, too.
Durst says that in other years, many have enjoyed getting up early in the morning to be at the park between Janesville and Edgerton by 8 a.m. They make this effort so they can see the crews firing up the steam engines, hitching up the horses and other early American sights that are now seen only at Thresherman's Park.
There'll be plenty to see and do all day long, ever for those who get there the earliest, Durst promises. Old-time music will be heard all three days, thanks to the Janesville Senior Citizens Band and Beloit's Senior Citizen Sizzlers. The Green Beret Band will also give a marching-playing drill around 1 p.m. each day.
Thresheree arts and crafts "will be in full gear daily, too," according to Durst. These will include rope twisting, spinning and weaving dog hair, Indian rug weaving and working on a potter's wheel.
Durst will have his Rock River Cannonball running day and night, giving rides around the two-mile track to 50 persons each trip.
The Thresheree is never complete without its queen and the honor this year goes to Mrs. Frank Loveland, Monticello, who, with her husband is now ill, has been active in the event for many years. She will share honors with Barbara Edge, 18, Clinton, the Rock County 4-H queen who will also be present.
There'll be food aplenty through the day, thanks to the Green Beret Parents organization which will serve a hearty breakfast, full dinner and lunches. The parents spend their "holiday" weekend over a hot stove preparing the food as one of the major fund-raisers for the band.
Men of St. John Vianney Catholic Church also take the Thresheree as an opportunity to raise money for their church by handing the parking detail. Parking is unlimited at the large park.
There'll be a bit of sadness added to the nostalgia associated with the event this year. John Horton, Rt. 2, Edgerton, who is credited with starting the Thresheree in 1957, died in June.
The whole thing started when August Handke told Horton, "I'd like to cut and thresh my grain just once more." Horton, a former thresherman, fired up his Gaar Scott steamer and belted up his Avery separator and the job was on, with an audience of about 400 that today has grown to between 15,000 and 18,000 men, women and children.
Horton ran his rig on his own farm the next year and in 1959, the action moved to the Edgerton Park.
Marshy land of the park in Edgerton failed to support the huge machines so a club was formed to put on the threshing bee with Horton as president. Members bought 70 acres on Highway 51, since adding to increase its size to its present more than 100 acres.
The association makes the park available to organizations which use it for picnics and other events.
Members have erected structures to cover the old equipment which they bring out from under cover for three days each year, to the delight of many who like to remember the bygone days and enlighten youngsters who have read about the old ways of farming in their school books, but have never seen them.
