The Monday After: Stark-built plow gets spot in museum

The Bucher & Gibbs plow discovered on farmland in Pennsylvania has found a home.

"I donated it to a local group that Allen Boyd belongs," said Ken Recker of Everett, Pennsylvania, who discovered the plow while clearing brush on a neighbor's property in Bedford County at the edge of the Allegheny Mountains. He enlisted Boyd to research the farm implement and get it to where others could enjoy seeing it.

The final destination for the B&G plow, manufactured in the 1800s by Bucher & Gibbs, is Southern Cove Power Reunion in New Enterprise, Pennyslvania , a group that holds tractor events and plow days. The group also operates an exhibit building sitting on several acres of land upon which it harvests wheat and hay. "Our mission is to preserve the farming lifestyle of the past," its Facebook page notes.

Stark County-made implement unearthed: Pennsylvanian preserves remnant of Bucher & Gibbs Plow Co.

"They are going to restore it," Recker said, "and display it."

Boyd is planning to get the plow ready for the public to view at an upcoming event sponsored by Southern Cove.

"I am going to get that plow sandblasted," he said. "It will be displayed at our tractor show in September."

Plow hidden from view

The plow had been tucked in weeds and forgotten for years before Recker came across it.

"The owner, Walter Weyant, used the plow when he returned from World War II at his family farm on Black Oak Ridge in Bedford County," Recker said. "His dad fell ill so Walter took over the farming with the mule-drawn plow for a number of years. His father passed away and they pretty much quit farming. Apparently, Walter kept the plow through numerous moves, and it was left outside where I rescued it. Walter passed away a few years ago.

"He was a great guy. He also collected Indian motorcycles. He had five or six when he passed."

Decendent of B&G Plow Co. helps out: Plowing through decades of the past

Weyant's former home was going up for sale by its current owner as Recker cleared some overgrowth.

"I saw it in some brush,” Recker said. "I didn't know if it was valuable. I didn't know if it was worth anything to anyone. I didn't know if a museum would want it."

Reckert asked his neighbor who owned the property if she wanted to keep the vintage farm implement, and she said, "No, just take it."

So, Reckert, who "didn't want an antique to go to the scrap heap," enlisted his wife to move the plow to a corner of his garage while he did research on it with Boyd.

Descendant provides history

The story about the plow has unfolded in a pair of articles published in The Canton Repository previously this year.

"This one is a flip plow and I'd guess it would have been on the newer end (of B&G's product history)," said Boyd. "I think it would have been extremely innovative for its time."

Following the initial report of the finding of the B&G farm implement, a descendant of Joshua Gibbs, the partner of John Rex Bucher in the the B&G Plow Company, stepped forward with some history about the farm implement manufacturing firm originally founded in 1836 by his great-great-great-grandfather as the Joshua Gibbs Plow Co.

Attorney Richard Gibbs, who practices law in North Canton, noted that the newly discovered plow is a symbol of Stark County's prominent place in the manufacturing of farm implements – B&G was one of a handful of companies manufacturing agricultural equipment in the 1800s – in much the same manner the pair of images on the clock tower of the Stark County Courthouse representing industries driving the economy of the Canton area in the 19th century.

"One of which is the manufacturing of plows depicted in the left angle of the tower," he noted.

Becoming a display in a museum

Gibbs reached out to Recker and Boyd telling them how pleased the Gibbs family was that the plow had been recovered.

The pair at the time the original article was published noted that they were hoping to have the plow displayed as an historical artifact.

"I like to preserve this kind of stuff," said Recker in January, "and put it somewhere that people can see it."

Now that wish has become a reality.

The Southern Cove Power Reunion is the name for both the organization and its September event. The three-day celebration of antique tractors will be all day Sept. 20-22 at the organization's land at 145 Cave Road near New Enterprise, north of New Bedford and south of Altoona in the south-central portion of Pennsylvania.

Among activities at the Reunion are grain threshing, straw bailing and corn bonding and chopping. A tractor parade is held daily and farm stock is available to be viewed. Food vendors also set up their shops.

"We have tractor pulls at night," said Boyd, whose father helped organize the Southern Cove group.

An antique tractor pull is scheduled at 4 p.m. Friday Sept. 20 and a children's pedal pull will be at 1:30 p.m. Sunday Sept. 22.

The B&G plow will be on display at the Reunion, likely in an honored place just outside the entrance of the Reunion building, where it is expected to "draw people in," said Boyd.

Plans call for refurbished museum

The plow will be a static display, since the wooden handles on it – long since disintegrated – have not yet been replaced.

Although plans call for it to be an outdoor display for this event, ultimately it probably will be brought inside the building to be exhibited in a more museum-like setting.

Efforts are being made, Boyd said, to pour concrete on the floor of the Reunion structure, and more properly display the implements kept inside it.

"Our vision is to get it real organized," said Boyd. "We've got some neat stuff in there. Our focus is to get it displayed like a museum."

Ultimately, the B&G plow will be one of the implements given a prominent place in the revamped display space.

"I'll get the plow sandblasted and looking good, and put together with the pieces we have," Boyd promised. "If we find parts through future years, we'll get them on it. It's pretty cool."

Reach Gary at gary.brown.rep@gmail.com . On "X" (Formerly Twitter): @gbrownREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: The Monday After: Stark-built plow gets spot in museum