AGRICULTURE MUSEUM ITEMS GO TO BLOOMFIELD

Gene Rhodes likes to talk about the old agriculture equipment he has collected over the years.

"There's a Freeze threshing machine from the early 1900s," said Rhodes. "It was made in Cape Girardeau by the Freeze Brothers Manufacturing Co."

Another item is a two-cylinder steam engine that powers a water wagon.

And there are tractors ... more than 35 of them.

To go along with all of the farm equipment are an old clothes iron that was heated with white gas and an old Maytag washing machine that was powered by a gasoline motor.

And there also is a pea huller.

Many of the old items still work, and most of them are from the early-to-mid 1900s.

The farm equipment -- about 500 pieces -- is being moved from the American Heritage Museum building alongside Interstate 55 across from the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport to the Stars & Stripes Museum at Bloomfield.

Some of the equipment had been moved earlier, but on Saturday a number of trucks from the Dexter National Guard Unit completed the move.

The equipment has been stored in a warehouse at 2967 E. Outer Road north of Scott City for the past decade.

Rhodes, a Cape Girardeau businessman and former city mayor, has donated all of the equipment to the Stars & Stripes Museum, which plans to construct a museum to hold Rhodes' collection adjacent to the Stars and Stripes Museum.

There was even a Stars and Stripes newspaper in the Rhodes collection. The Stars and Stripes newspaper got its start during the Civil War at Bloomfield, where the first issue was printed. The military-oriented newspaper was published throughout the Civil War. It was discontinued until World War I, halted again following World War I, and started back up during World War II. Since then it has been published continuously, and is printed today in Japan and Germany.

The Agriculture museum will provide an added attraction for tourists who visit Bloomfield.

Some of the agriculture equipment is being stored in a barn near the Stars & Stripes Museum. Other equipment is being stored in a vacant factory building in the Dexter-Bloomfield area until space can be added to the existing barn for the complete display.

"The old barn will eventually serve as the entrance to the agriculture museum," said Jim Mayo of the Stars & Stripes Museum. "We hope to get a campaign started soon to raise funds to add to the farm museum.

The museum actually started 21 years ago in Altenburg as the old Mill Town Museum. After its move to the Cape Girardeau area, it became the largest farm equipment collection in the states.