Full Steam Ahead

AHEAD Participating in Milton’s annual Steam-Era festival is a long-held tradition in this family

- Helen Rayner

Our family’s story begins in 1913 when my grandparents, Ernest and Anna, were married at the Anglican church in Palermo, Ont. They soon returned to Penzance, Sask., to work the family farm—a 160-acre parcel of land that had been granted to my great-grandfather, William Sr., in 1904.

In Penzance, the Rayner men purchased a 75-horse power JI Case steam engine and, over the years, a threshing team was established to assist neighbouring farmers harvest their grain. Unfortunately, in 1922 my grandfather died of pneumonia, leaving my grandmother to raise their three children. Anna returned to the Boyne, Ont., area following his death and built a home on a oneacre parcel of land that her brother severed from his own farm.

In 1947, my grandmother purchased a farm close to her in hopes that her children could make a good living, It was 100 acres of happiness, with fresh air, unique smells, John Deere tractors and work horses.

Growing up on a farm as one of four daughters, I learned to drive our John Deere tractors at an early age. My first opportunity and experience was with a John Deere AR model. It had a hand clutch that seemed hard to operate at nine, and I spent hours going up and down the fields. As each summer passed, it definitely got easier to drive.