Will County Threshermen's Association, Park Forest, IL
The Will County Threshermen's Association continues to commemorate America's agricultural heritage by having an annual show in the Manhattan, Illinois area. Long-time friends of the organization remember that, in its early years, the show took place at the Fred Francis 4-H Field in New Lenox, Illinois. At the fourth annual show, twenty-five acres of oats were fed through a steam-powered thresher while plowing with oxen, horses and steam engines making history come to life. An ad promised ten steam engines, thirty gasoline tractors, twenty-five gasoline engines and fifteen antique automobiles.
By the 1970's, the show had grown and moved to the Peotone Fairgrounds. Later, it moved to Burns Woods in Wilmington, and in 2004, to the Dollinger Farm in Shorewood. In 2013 & 2014, the show was held at the Round Barn Farm Park, in Manhattan, the area where it had first begun, then in 2015 to the Crawford Farm in Manhattan. In 2016 & 2017 the show moved to Charlie and Jeannie Kestel's farm in Frankfort. The association at present, since 2018, is holding its annual show on the Steve Spiess Farm in Manhattan, Illinois around the end July.
In 2014, the Will County Threshermen's Association became a 501(c)(3) organization.
