Shifting gears across time

BLANDINSVILLE, Ill. -- One of the many activities at the recent 117th Blandinsville Farmers Picnic was an opportunity to visit a man and his passion of the last 40 years.

Martin Calvert is the collector and curator for informal museums full of horse-drawn farm equipment, early 20th century automobiles and products, along with a smattering of kerosene and carbide lanterns from the mid 1800s.

The pride of Martin Calvert's collection at Great "Grate" Place is a 1914 Carter car with a four-cylinder gasoline engine, a friction drivetrain and a touching story.

Calvert obtained the antique in Mount Pleasant around 1975.

"The former owner had the car running," Calvert remembered of the car's condition when he bought it. "I had it painted and bought new tires."

The drive back to Blandinsville was harrowing for Calvert, as he and his son, Karl, drove separate cars home.

"He was driving so fast he had me scared to death," recalled Calvert. "He was used to four-wheel hydraulic brakes that could stop on a dime, this one has two-wheel mechanical brakes -- but we made it back OK."

The friction drive on the Carter is unlike anything used today. There is no clutch or automatic transmission, but rather an accelerator and a lever that incrementally increases the maximum speed, kind of a gearshift with a limitless number of gears in between first and fifth.

"It's not the easiest thing to drive," said Calvert. "My son and I were the only ones that could do it."

From son to daughterThat's why, when Calvert was divvying up his car collection for his sons, he gave the Carter to Karl. But last December, Karl died at age 39, less than a year after Calvert lost his wife, Pauline.

Karl had been the one to drive the Carter in Blandinsville's parades, so Calvert had to train another driver for the 117th version of the Farmers Picnic.

Appropriately enough, Karl's daughter, Heather Calvert, took the wheel.

The back of Martin Calvert's Great "Grate" Place contains not only the Carter, but a 1927 Ford Model "T" truck and a 1929 Model "A" Ford truck that belong to Calvert's sons, Lee and Wayne. There's also a second Model "A" that belongs to Calvert's distant cousin, Jeff Broadhead.

The front houses Calvert's extensive vintage oil can collection, stretching back to the beginning of the sale of canned oil in 1910. Calvert also has some of the individual bottles that stations would fill manually from larger barrels, used before that period.

The filling station, formerly owned by Pearl Grate, has classic license plates lining the walls, including some of the first issued in Illinois in 1889 and the rare fiber board plates from the World War II period.

Calvert also boasts a thorough antique lantern collection including kerosene and carbide versions, some dating to 1860. Across the street is a barn with Calvert's horse-drawn farm equipment collection.