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Escarpment Magazine Harvest & Holiday 2013
Elwood began building other miniature
items from the past, but his prized piece
was the Lobsigner thresher that actually
worked as a thresher… if one could find
grain small enough to fit it. Every part was
measured then scaled from the full sized
thresher parked in his yard in Leith. These
threshers nicknamed ‘The Lion’ were built
inMildmay, Ontario from the 1880s to the
1930s. Ralph showed so much interest in
the project that Elwood offered the full
sized unit to him as a gift when he decided
to move from Leith. But while pulling it to
Meaford one of the wheels broke off and
the Lion ended up in a ditch beside the
gravel backroad. Ralph wasn’t sure if he
should get a match to finish the job or call
a tow truck. It was finally towed to his home
inMeaford where it rested for many years.
Elwood went on to produce about a dozen
of the Lions as well as other farm imple-
ments and other antique memorabilia. An-
other craftsman that carved wooden farm
replicas for many years was a Mr. Young
of Maxwell, Ontario.
His specialty
was building
wooden mod-
els of steam
traction tractors that were a common sight
in the early part of the twentieth century.
Ralph picked one up at an auction and
brought it to a historical event when a
young man approached him and proudly
said, “My dad made that.” He went on to
say how his father had built these models
without plans… he just started carving.
DuringWorldWar II there was a shortage
of materials like metal and rubber so most
farm toys were made out of wood. Ralph
has an extensive collection of these rare
toys including tractors, wagons and har-
vesters. The designs are simpler then
today’s highly detailed scale models, but
they kept farm children happy with their
bright colours and sturdy construction.
One of the oldest pieces in Ralph’s collec-
tion is a reaper that was made in the late
1800s. Ralph picked it up at an auction
and does not have very much information
on it, but speculates that it could have been
a salesman’s sample.
Because of the model’s like new condition,
it was most likely never used and was
stored in a warehouse until it was sold.
Among the shelves of well preserved toys
that looked like they just came off the pro-
duction line were tractors and other farm
implements covered with scratches, scuffs
and chipped paint… toys that children had
played with and enjoyed for many years.
One antique looking toy that Ralph
showed me was a crawler from around
1958. It was made out of tin and had been
battery powered. The treads were well
worn and the paint was scratched in
places, but you could see it had been
loved. Ralph said it was his when he was a
young lad.
Though he left the farm to pursue another
career, the farm never really left Ralph. The
toys are his way of returning to the Fall har-
vest when neighbours would help each
other in the fields and then pass the time
telling and re-telling stories of past harvests.
Ralph holds great affection for farms and
especially for farm people—clearly, that
will never change.
|E|
FEATURE |
it’s all about the ride
{
I thought in two or three years
I could collect every farm toy
made… boy did I have
my eyes opened!
Above: In 2012 Ralph and Joanne Jolley were honored as inductees in
the National Farm Toy Hall of Fame - The story was featured in Farm Toy Magazine.
Elwood Snider’s first hand carved reproduction of a horse-drawn carriage.
~ Ralph Jolley
Left: Young’s steam tractor and
Elwood Snider’s Lobsigner Lion
Thrasher.
Below left: A painted tin crawler that
Ralph played with as a small boy.
COMMUNITY
|
ralph jolley’s toy harvest
