Narratives of The Nevards 6

In 1910 Goffs and Nevards went in partnership and bought a threshing outfit between them. It was an Aultman-Taylor thresher with 27 inch cylinder, 42 inch body, powered by an International Famous 20 horsepower engine. It was a six team outfit and fed both sides. Tom Goff ran the threshing machine. They would thresh Goffs first one year and Nevards first the next. They also did some custom threshing for other farmers. Some of which were Jake Martin, Jimmy Gray and Cecil Lewis.

They had some bad luck the first year. During a spell of damp weather when they could not thresh, the separator was burnt beyond repair by a prairie fire. My family was sitting at dinner when they noticed the smoke to the West. Uncle Horrie jokingly commented, "Oh that is probably the separator burning down". The next day Tom and Alf Goff came over with the bad news. They had to buy another separator.
That fall, at the age of 8 years, my brother Bill dug all the potatoes. All the men were away threshing.
One year Dad and Uncle Horrie rented Friedgut's quarter which was the northwest quarter of 18. They grew oats and grew such a heavy stand that Dad got fed up with cutting it and said "lets quit". They left the rest and Friedgut got a man by the name of Witzey from the Garnock district to finish the job.
The winter of 1910 Uncle Arthur and Aunt Daisy spent at Redpath's who farmed in the Parklands school district west of Lipton.
I think it was 1911 when Uncle Arthur and Aunt Daisy held a Church service in their home. The clergyman came from Cupar to conduct the service. He played the coronet and provided the music for the hymns.

Church service at the Arthur and Daisy Nevard home in 1911.

Threshing Syndicate

In 1910 the Nevard brothers, Arthur, Ernest and Horace, went into partnership to buy threshing equipment with the Goffs. Tom, Alf and Jack. It was a major expense and was not paid for in cash but over several years of installments.
The engine was a 20 horsepower International Harvester "Famous" portable. The thresher was an Aultman-Taylor 27 inch cylinder with 42 inch wide body which was a good sized machine in those days.
Disaster struck shortly. Prairie fire swept across Alf Goff's farm where the outfit was set up . Nobody was around in time to fight the fire and the separator was a complete loss. They had to buy a second one to finish the harvest putting them even further into debt. They did a little custom threshing for neighbours Jake Martin, Jimmy Gray and Cecil Lewis to help pay the bills. The partnership lasted into the early 1920s when they decided to go their separate ways and purchased their own outfit for each farm.
In the photo you can see my grandfathers Horace Nevard and Tom Goff.