Herald& Review
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HARRIS AGRICULTURAL MUSEUM
Growing collection Former ag business owners now display a slice of farming history By DONNETTE BECKETT H&R Staff Writer
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TWOOD — After retiring from Harris Companies, Inc., an industrial and agribusiness provider, Roger Harris found it hard to leave the business he founded in 1960. “I’m usually at the shop at about 6:30 of a morning,” he said of his daily routine. But Roger Harris and his wife, Glenna, spend their time these days in more relaxed part of the business. “He’s more or less retired,” his wife clarifies. In 2000, the couple opened the Harris Agriculture Museum adjacent to the company’s building to display the large collection started by Roger Harris’ parents. “His parent’s home was full GO INFO of collectables,” Glenna Harris The Harris Agriculsaid. tural Museum is The 120-bylocated at 521 N. Illi90-foot building nois St. in Atwood. houses farm Hours are 8 a.m. to 4 equipment datp.m. Monday through ing from before Friday. To schedule a Herald & Review photos/Jim Bowling the 1920s. Much Roger Harris shares the history of items on display at the Harris Agricultural Museum in Atwood. Harris, along with his wife, Glenna, display the large collection of tour or for more inforof the machinmation, email harris agriculture items that his parents began collecting. ery is from the agmuseum@harris Mechanization companies.com or process to the world of farming. The press is now in the era, “when they didn’t use steam call (217) 578-2231 middle of the museum. engines or oddball tractors,” or (217) 578-3040. And that’s only part of the first floor. Roger Harris explained. On the upper level are various exhibits of what Glenna Many of the pieces have been Harris calls “a woman’s world.” refinished, such as the 1935 Oliver Hart Parr tractor and After traveling up two flights of stairs, visitors will the 1938 Oliver tractor that Roger Harris bought sightstep into an open floor full of displays sectioned off into unseen from Ohio. A tractor with steel wheels dating individual rooms, almost like a home, each representing back to 1922 is the oldest tractor in the collection. times past. The museum also displays other forms of transportaThe couple started construction of an old-fashioned tion, such as a 1949 and a 1958 Cushman motorcycle. The elevator on the exterior of the building, but “you’d have exhibits all have a motorized theme. For example, a fillto pull yourself up with the ing station display of equipment fits comfortably among pulley,” Glenna Harris the tractors and other machinery. But some of the pieces warned. The elevator require manual labor, such as the 1920s thrashing remains in pieces on the first machine that takes up the length of most of the museum. floor. Many pieces have their own claim to fame. In 1904, the The first stop in the World’s Fair in St. Louis presented the Whitman hay “home” is the kitchen. The antique tables in the exhibit have utensils and mixing bowls laid out, almost as if a family were ready to make supper. A restored kerosene A 1919 Ford Model T grain truck is on display at the Harris Agricultural Museum. stove was given to the couple Roger Harris, as a gift for their 50th museum owner anniversary in business. “We try not to have replicas,” Glenna Harris said. “Some pieces have been refinished.” “Everything in the museum is usable, workable or operable,” Roger Harris said, except a 1930s refrigerator. “We can’t find the parts,” Glenna Harris said. As visitors travel through the displays, they will pass a living room, children’s room and a bedroom, displaying a cross-stitched quilt of important Atwood businesses. Although they don’t have a replica of a 1920s bathroom, one corner of the museum displays Glenna Harris’ collection of nearly 100 antique bed pans. After collecting a few potties, the collection began to grow. “The bed pans just appeared,” she said. The farm theme continues as visitors travel around the second floor to an elevator office. “All of this was A replica of a grain elevator office from the 1920s and There are 12 antique tractors exhibited at the Harris Agricultural Museum includ1930s is exhibited in the upper level of the museum. MUSEUM/PAGE 2 ing this 1935 Oliver Hart-Parr tractor.
‘Everything in the museum is usable, workable or operable.’
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