Herr Has
BY PAT PURCELL
MILLERSVDLLE, PA “Dur
ing that wonderful period in the
life of a young farm boy when
one is big enough to watch the
goings on, but, is too little to help
very much with the activities,
there were three annual events
of particular interest to me.
Those events were Soil Steriliz
ing in the spring, Grain Thresh
ing in summer and Fodder
Shredding in late fall. Those
events meant that Dad’s custom
thresherman would bring his
steam traction engine and
related equipment to the farm to
perform those three operations
for us.” Roy H. Herr
How many people can take a
child hood desire and turn it into a
lifelong vocation? Not many. But
Roy H. Herr has managed to do
just that for the past 41 years, A
dream which began as a fascina
tion for the steam powered equip
ment brought to his father’s farm
was made reality in 1946 when
Herr started in operation in the
seed cleaning business with Flory
Newcomer, Mt. Joy.
He woiked for the now deceased
Newcomer in the spring and fall of
1947 and 1948. But in 1949 he built
his own mobile seed cleaning unit
out of wood. It was the type which
could be bolted to the bam floor,
but his unit became mounted on a
truck bed. He used it through the
the fifties and the early sixties.
As a young boy, Herr admired
the family thresherman, J.H. Bru
baker from Rohrerstown,
Pennsylvania.
‘The Brubakers and my parents
were friends and when they visited
together it was great for me to hear
Mr. Brubaker relate some of his
experiences in the field. But most
Good Mem
of all, it was quite a thrill, whenev
er I had the chance to do so, to
watch his perfectly maintained,
immaculately kept, steam powered
equipment in action,” said Herr.
In 1960 Herr ordered a larger
one from the factory in Saginaw,
Michigan. He purchased just the
bare insides of the machine and
spent many, many hours fabricat
ing the metal framework and the
accessories which incorporated the
factory bought piece into a crea
tion which was truly of his own
invention.
According to Ken Porter, of
Centre Hall, who has taken over
for Herr, the seed cleaning and
conditioning machine is truly one
of a kind.
“This is the only thing I’ve ever
owned that no one else has one like
it. There’s only one in the world
like it. This machine was designed
by Roy so it could be fixed. That is
not the way things are designed
nowadays, so that the machine
can’t be fixed and you have to buy
a new one. Not with this,” said Por
ter. “Everything with Roy is first
class.”
For nearly 40 years Herr has
been on his own and on the road
covering an area which reaches
into southern York and Lancaster
counties, while the bulk of his cus
tomers farm in Mifflin, Hunting
don and Centre counties. And now.
at age 77, Herr is retiring. Porter, is
in the process of taking over for
Herr.
“I think it’s time I hang it up, so
to speak, while I can still coach a
successor.” said Herr. “It has been
a fascination to me to work with
something that is one of a kind
with such a combination of
mechanisms, perform as well as it
(Turn to Pago A 39)
ones Of The Business He Leaves
Roy Herr ties a bag of grain seed at the David Frey farm on Letort Rd., near
Washington Boro. Life on the road as a seed cleaners has given him many
good memories.
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