Nate Shradar and a tractor with a fringe on top

I've been admiring what presumably is a canvas fringe sheltering the "cab" of the tractor Nate Shradar was operating here during 1892 to power a threshing machine somewhere in Lucas County. You can see the big belt that linked the tractor to the threshing machine on the right.

That's Mr. Shradar in the foreground with his hand on the tractor, according to his daughter, Frances (Mrs. Willard Davis), who donated the photograph to the Lucas County Historical Society during 1976. The other two people are not identified. There doesn't seem to be a brand name anywhere on the side of the machine visible here.

Nate Shradar was born Oct. 13, 1870, in Pleasant Township, and married Sarah F. "Fanny" Casebolt during  February of 1892. They became the parents of 12 children --- so there most likely are plenty of descendants still out there.

If the date of the photo, "1892," is accurate, it was taken during the first year of his marriage, when Nate was only 22. There's no way of telling exactly where in Lucas County the photo was taken.

The Shradars eventually retired to Chariton, but apparently had farmed in the Russell area --- they're buried in the Russell Cemetery. He died Feb. 18, 1952, at the age of 81. Mrs. Shradar died during 1961.