By Claudia Loucks
Geneseo Current
The Antique Engine & Tractor Association’s Working Farm Show will mark its 62nd anniversary at this year’s show, Friday through Sunday, Sept. 15-17, at the show grounds, north of Geneseo on Illinois 92, three miles east of Interstate 88, or one half mile west of Illinois Rt. 92.
This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the AE&TA’s featured tractor, Farmall, and special guest will be retired radio personality Max Armstrong, who will be on the show grounds on Saturday.
The Working Farm Show is a popular attraction for residents and visitors of all ages, and is a family event with lots of activities for children, including train rides around the show grounds.
The annual three-day Working Farm Show is where AE&TA members harvest corn and beans with mid-1900’s equipment, show the use of horses for working a field, thresh oats or wheat, run a saw mill, plowing, baling, and demonstrate gas engines as they were used in the early 1900’s.
The annual show gets bigger each year with over 400 tractors, over 100 garden tractors and hundreds of gas engines, plus other agricultural memorabilia on the grounds.
The Women’s Vendor Fair at the Show will feature rug weaving, broom making, crafts, wood turning, gardening and other demonstrations.
The entire show is handicap accessible. Pets are not allowed, with an exception for service dogs.
Admission to the show is $7 per day or $15 for the weekend; children 12 years old and younger are admitted free; and on Friday, Sept. 15, veterans are admitted for $5.
In 2010, the AE&TA moved to its current location after 48 years in different locations. The 40 acres of land was donated to the Association by Bill and June Cole of Hillsdale. AE&TA purchased an additional 10 acres to connect the grounds to Illinois 92, which allowed for a driveway from the highway to the show grounds.
They also rent additional acreage from Orville and Maxine McCord.
Handicap transportation is available and the “people mover” also is a convenient means to transport people around the show grounds.
The AE&TA grounds showcase the timber frame barn that appears to have been built decades ago. The building was constructed using age-old techniques. Trillium Dell Timberworks, along with help from the Timber Framers Guild, assembled and raised the large building.
About 95 per cent of the barn was constructed with timber from Illinois forests. Even though the AE&TA barn was built with new lumber, it appears to have been part of the Henry County countryside for years.
A food building also was added to provide seating for visitors to the show.
The Jordan Mercantile Building was donated to the club in 2013 from Phil and Karen Jordan.
A train building was constructed in 2015, with labor and materials donated by the late Larry Colo, Geneseo, and Bill Cole, Hillsdale
An enclosed walkway, complete with handicap restrooms, connects the timber frame barn to the Feature Building.
AE&TA members share a belief in preserving the historic value of antique, power-driven farm equipment, from early horse-drawn plows to gasoline and steam tractors to equipment from the 1900’s to the 1960’s.
The group also believes in keeping the machines running by putting them to work and that makes the group’s show unique as they use the equipment on display in demonstrations.
Each year the show features a different brand of antique engine and/or tractor, and the International Harvester (Farmall) is showcased this year. For more general information, contact Phil Jordan, 309-314-5000, or Chad Jacobs, 309-314-0783.
The daily schedule of events:
-FRIDAY, SEPT. 15:
-6 a.m. – Gates open for exhibitors.
-6:30 a.m. – Breakfast in the Food Building.
-7 a.m. – gates open for visitors.
-8:30 a.m. – Raising of flag – AE&TA veterans.
-8 a.m. – 4 p.m. – engine and tractor displays.
-9 a.m. – noon and 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. – children’s activities and train rides – with the exception of Sunday, Sept. 17, when children’s activities and train rides will conclude at 4 p.m.
-9 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. – demonstrations including blacksmith, sawmill, threshing, wood carvers, cane press, horse farming and field demonstrations.
-10 a.m. – 4 p.m. – food stands open.
-1 p.m. – parade on show grounds, line up at feature tractor area.
-4 p.m. – lowering of flag – AE&TA veterans.
-5 p.m. – gates close.
- 5 to 7 p.m. - Ice Cream Social celebrating Farmall’s 100th anniversary.
-5 p.m. – gates close
-SATURDAY, SEPT. 16 - Same as activities on Sept. 15 with the addition of:
-8:30 a.m. – Raising of flag – Durant American Legion, Post 430, Durant, Iowa, and Boy Scout Troop 308.
-2 p.m. – Kids’ Tractor Pull.
-3 p.m. – Auction of donated items.
-4 p.m. – lowering of flag by Durant American Legion, Post 430, and Boy Scout Troop 308.
SUNDAY, SEPT. 17 – Same as Sept. 15-16 with these additions:
-8:30 a.m. – Raising of flag – Cordova American Legion.
- 9 a.m. to noon and 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. – children’s activities and train rides.
-9 – 10 a.m. – church services.
-4 p.m. lowering of flag – Cordova American Legion.
-4 p.m. – Show closes.
Phil Jordan, sitting on his 1955 Farmall 300; Bob Delp and Jeff Laleman, all members of the Antique Engine & Tractor Association, are encouraging area residents to join them at the AE&TA’s 62nd annual Working Farm Show, Sept. 15-17. Photo by Claudia Loucks
ABOUT SPECIAL GUEST MAX ARMSTRONG
Max Armstrong, retired radio personality also known as the “voice of Midwest ag,” will be a special guest at the 2023 AE&TA Working Farm Show.
Armstrong has been one of the most widely followed and highly regarded agricultural broadcasters in America of nearly 50 yeas. Based many of those years in and around Chicago, his audience reached urban consumers, in addition to the farmers and ranchers nationwide who relied upon his broadcasts.
He recently retired as Broadcast Director of Farm Progress Companies, where for 14 years his programs were heard on dozens of radio stations across the country. Two decades of Weekly syndicated farm television duties involved hosting “This
Week in AgriBusiness” and programs from every state in America and form more than 30 different nations, including countries as diverse as Chile, Vietnam, Cuba, Germany, Egypt and Algeria.
Armstrong has received numerous awards including an “Oscar in Agriculture” for both radio and television work. He was recognized as the National Association of Farm Broadcasting “Farm Broadcaster of the Year” and was inducted into the NAFB Hall of Fame. He also is a past president of the group.
He is the only person to be recognized as an Honorary Master Farmer by both Prairie Farmer Magazine and Indiana Prairie Farmer. He has also been honored by the Purdue University Old Masters Program, the Purdue Agriculture Alumni Association, the National Agri-Marketing Association, the Chicago Farmers Club, the National Corn Growers Association and the American Soybean Association.
The travels Armstrong ahs enjoyed and the people he has met have been chronicled into books: “Stories from the Heartland” in 2016 and “More Stories form the Heartland” in 2023.
During a period of more than 20 years, Max Armstrong has contributed his time as an appointed Fire Commissioner in Chicago’s Western Suburbs where he helped hire fulltime firefighters and paramedics for one of the highest rated fire departments in America.
He and his wife Linda, now residents of North Carolina, have two daughters and two granddaughters.
