A 1/4 scale threshing machine owned and operated by Harvey Haakenson that will be demonstrated during the Festival.
A 1/4 scale model steam engine owned by Harvey Haakenson that will be displayed and running during the Festival.
A special attraction at the German Fest in New Leipzig will be a Model E Rumely Oil-Pull tractor, owned by the Kevin Roth family of Elgin.
In 1912, Zeller and Nagel Hardware Company of Elgin sold a brand new Model "E" Rumely Oil-Pull tractor (for about $4,000) to Gottlieb Rivinius, a Minnie Township farmer. By 1920 the same tractor was under ownership of Gottlieb Zeller, Sr. and sons of rural Leith. Zeller's custom harvesting crew traveled from farm to farm, driving the Rumely with a wooden Red River Special threshing machine in tow. The Rumely had been silent for about 50 years before it returned to Minnie Township in the care of Kevin Roth. In early winter of 2001, the "E" settled into a heated shop where it would stay until it was made to cough and sputter to life in February 2004.
Kevin and family did the restoration work on the 13-ton tractor including: sandblasting, manufacturing and casting parts, machining, riveting, babbitting bearings, modifying tools to do various jobs, and all the priming and painting. Four new valves were made. Cylinders were bored and new pistons and rings were cast by a family friend in Canada. A new wooden platform was built and Emmanuel Zimmerman created a replica tool box. New sheet metal was used for the fenders and radiator.
The Model E Rumely was built in 1912 by the M. Rumely Company at LaPorte, Indiana. The Rumely Co. was started in 1853 by Meinrad and John Rumely who were German immigrants. They built threshing machines and steam traction engines. In 1910 the Rumely Co started building the famous Rumely OilPull tractors. They built 56,647 OilPulls in 15 different sizes until 1930 when they came out with the Rumely 6, a modern-type tractor with an in-line 6-cylinder engine. Allis Chalmers bought them out in May of 1931.
The Model E was rated at 30hp on the drawbar and 60hp on the belt. It has two cylinders with a 10 inch bore and a 12 inch stroke. Rated engine speed is 375 rpm. They were designed to run on low cost kerosene and injected with water under load. It has one speed forward at 2 mph and reverse. It weighs in at 26,500 pounds. It was designed to pull an 8 bottom plow and the biggest threshing machines built. The Model E was built from 1910 to 1923 with 3,235 being built.
