A McCormick-Deering tractor with a trail-behind gang plough (click image to enlarge, click to shrink)

A John Boughen story:  [2011]
Hurry, the trail of straw on the gangway is on fire.
This is a story about Doug Raby, the Imperial Oil Agent who lived in Port Hope and delivered Imperial Oil products in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Many of you reading this will remember Doug. This story is about how Doug Raby saved our dairy barn from fire.
It is somewhat hard for me to tell this story. I have been thinking about it for a while and I think it is time now to be able to thank Doug Raby and the threshing crew that were there that day. It happened about 1946 or 1947 during threshing grain season.
Doug Raby was driving his gas-truck south on Hwy 28 and when he came over the hill (Bletcher's Hill - I still call the hill north of our dairy barn that) and looked towards the dairy barn he noticed the trail of straw that is brought back on the belt that goes from the tractor pulley to the threshing machine was on fire (the straw is a very small amount but it drops off the belt and falls to the ground on the gangway). The tractor sits to the left side on a level part of the gangway. The threshing machine sits on the barn floor on the left side and the horses and wagon are alongside the threshing machine.
Doug Raby, seeing the fire burning on the trail of straw and not seeing anyone around, knew he had to do something quick. He drove into the farmyard, rushed to the house and realized the men were inside having dinner. He went to the back of the house where the kitchen is, opened the door and said to the men "Come quick, the barn is almost on fire." Everyone rushed out except my Dad, Harvey, who was in the hall off the kitchen talking on the phone at the time.
As the men ran out of the house they grabbed the 2 washtubs full of water that were outside the woodshed (the men used the washtubs to wash up for dinner) and raced up to the barn gangway and threw the water from the washtubs on the burning trail of straw that at that point was just 2 feet from the barn and the straw mow.
When Dad got off the phone and came out to the kitchen, Mom told him everyone had raced out of the kitchen to put a fire out. He then went up to the Barn and thanked everyone for saving the dairy barn and to Doug Raby he said, "I thank you so much. From now on I will be buying all the gas for the farm from you." Dad also gave 2 Barrels of apples to Doug Raby. So from then on all the farm gas and grease came from Imperial Esso (based at Cobourg harbour) and was delivered by Doug Raby until Doug retired.
The reason the straw caught on fire was that somehow a burlap bag had been thrown over the hood of the tractor, a 10-20 McCormick-Deering, and part of the bag touched the manifold of the tractor, setting the bag on fire, and pieces of the bag fell to the ground onto the straw.
I know that this happened about the years I mentioned because by 1948 Dad traded the old 10-20 on an Oliver 88. In 1948 Dad bought the Oliver from Basil Bell who had the Oliver dealership in Campellcroft. I remember the day the 88 Oliver arrived at the farm and they unloaded it on the gangway and loaded up the 10-20 and took it away. I always wondered where that tractor went. Sure wish we had it back to-day. We still have the Oliver 88.
So I want to add my thanks here also to the men who saved the dairy barn and to remember them. Thanks to Doug Raby, and to Dad and Mom's neighbours who were the threshing crew—Don Budd, Allan Meadows, Allan Ough, John Moon, Merwin Heard, Len Bray, George Stapleton, Fred Bamsey and Bill Meldrum.
I don't know if everyone I just mentioned was there that day, but I am thanking them anyway because I do remember them being at the farm over the years and helping out on various threshing bees. I do know that Bill Meldrum was there that day because at a neighbour's funeral a few short years back, and at the reception afterwards at Welcome Church hall, I sat down at a table where Bill Meldrum was sitting, and I was telling Bill this story about Doug Raby saving the dairy barn, and Bill said, "Yes John, it is all true, because I was there that day helping with the threshing." I didn't know that Bill was there that day, so it was really great to hear Bill tell his memory of that day.
Bill Meldrum passed away last December and I went to his funeral to remember and thank him also. At the reception I spoke to Bill's son Scott, and Brenda, about this story and Scott said his Dad had been talking about that day just weeks before he passed, so thank you Bill again.
All the men I mentioned are all gone now. With this story they will be remembered.
My Dad built the dairy barn in 1936, so if this did happen in 1946 the barn was only 10 years old, and I know it was a big deal for him to have a big hip-roofed barn with modern Beatty stabling and roomy horse stalls for 8 horses, and pig pens and large hay and straw mows, with 45 feet up to the roof peak. And when Dad's uncle Billy Palmer came out that summer of 1936 when the barn was finished and looked up at the 2 hay mows he said to my Dad, "You'll never fill it boy, you'll never fill it boy." Well, Dad said he did fill the mows with hay that summer.
Uncle Billy Palmer said the same thing to me in the summer of 1964 when I built the cement tower silo 20 by 40 feet high. He came out from Port Hope and I took him over to the silo and he looked in through one of silo door openings and looked up. He said to me, "You'll never fill it boy, you'll never fill it boy."
Well, we did fill it that fall of 1964 with corn silage, right to the top. In 1966 I added 35 feet to the silo and have filled it every year since. We're filling the silo today and it is about 3/4's full now.