Corn Item Collectors Association Meeting

I told Ginnie I wished I had a seed corn cap to wear. I settled for my “Our Iowa” cap which I thought was sort of apropos. Not. We were going to a farm near Media, IL for a meeting of the Corn Item Collectors Association. Hugh Forbes, owner of the farm where the meeting was held, sort of harrumphed at my Iowa hat and pointed me toward a box of like-new, 40-year old DeKalb caps. $5 each. Wow. What a bargain!

Growing up in Monroe, Iowa, next to a Pfister Hybrids plant, and having done my share of hoeing, roguing and detasseling, I figured I would enjoy seeing hand-held corn husking tools. I wasn't wrong. The first thing Ginnie and I saw was a variety of hand operated corn shellers. Then there were the glove type pegs and hooks, called corn huskers, used to shuck corn, before being tossed into a wagon with a bang board. (I've seen this in actual operation once when the fields were too muddy to get into with a combine or picker.)

Dick Humes, President of the Illinois State Corn Huskers told us, “The most I ever picked in 20 minutes was 560 pounds. There are 70 pounds to the bushel, and 12 pounds of cob to the bushel. Shelled corn is 56 pounds to the bushel.” Dick is the current National Champion Husker and hoping to repeat this year in Greenville, Ohio.

Steve Link is the president of the Corn Item Collectors Association. His 12-year-old nephew, mentored by Dick Humes, recently won first place in the state and third place at the Nationals.

Dick also mentored John Kane, who started eight or nine years ago. John won first place in the state and first place at national competition. He has won four nationals since then.

Dick worked with a girl from Iowa. She won state and ended up getting second at the nationals. She would have won first place, but she turned her back to the wagon, and kept over throwing the bang board. Ears on the ground don't count.

Shucking crews traveled around in the 1920s and '30s. Someone who could pick 100 bushels a day could earn as much as $5 per day. Shuckers earned from a dollar a day to five dollars, depending on how much they could pick.

I was stopped cold in my tracks by a pair of high-top boots that had a foot long knife blade extending outward from each ankle. “What in tarnation?” I asked. They're called “corn cutters” I was told, and they were worn by the farmer walking through the field, cutting cornstalks close to the ground, in order to make shocks. In the winter the farmer could go out to the field, strip the corn from the stalks, and feed his livestock.

Corn husking tools weren't the only thing on display. There were also feed sacks, hand held planters, pot scrubbers, a cork compressor, billboard hammer, luggage measuring stick used by train porters, an ice thickness gauge, buggy brakes, a funnel style hearing aid (Ginnie said I needed this), something called a “sugar devil,” for measuring sugar, a pie marker, turpentine hacker, and so much more. The owner explained the use of each tool.

Hugh and Sheila Forbes, owners of the farm where the Corn Item Collectors were meeting, are collectors of many things besides corn tools, like old gas pumps, signs, and International tractors. Most people get silver for their 25th wedding anniversary. Hugh and his first wife bought a gas pump.

They also own six “W” or Wheatland Farmall tractors, which are rare as hen's teeth. They're called “Wheatlands” because they weren't used for row crops. They were used mainly for pulling a disk or field cultivator. The Forbes have a 400, 450, WD9, 560, 600, and 650, all Wheatlands, and many more Farmalls, including propane powered tractors, and a couple of “High Clears” used in sugarcane and high crops.

My DeKalb seed corn cap fits just fine. Ginnie likes it too. I'm hoping my old Pfister buddies don't hand shuck and shell me.

Have a good story? Call or text Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant at 319-217-0526, email him at curtswarm@yahoo.com.

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