53rd Annual Drake Threshing Show history update
By Kathy Holte
Threshing show enthusiasts come and go. The lunch menu changes. Special events are added and the entertainment changes over the years. Volunteers are there until they
cannot help any longer but continue to show support. The one thing that has been the foundation of the Drake Threshing Show is an 80 HP Case Steam Engine once owned by Louis Markusen of the Towner area. He had purchased this tractor July 13, 1916, from J.I. Case in Minolta and it was shipped by rail to Karlsruhe, ND. The family farm was 1,200
acres, but the family also did custom work in the Karlsruhe and Denbigh areas through the 1949 threshing year. It was stored in a shed that fall and did not come out of the
shed until the Drake Threshing Association purchased the steam engine to use at their annual show. It had been passed down to his sons, Henry, William, Lawrence and Edwin. Stanley, grandson of Louis, was five years old at the time and remembers that day very well. Albert Bossert, learned of its existence and was instrumental in the change of ownership in 1972. The Markusen’s were customers of Bossert Implement, a John Deere dealer, in Drake. Albert and Eddie Bossert owned the dealership during the 1960s and 1970s. He made the purchase from Erling Markusen for $3,000, along with a 36-inch Nichols and Sheppard grain separator.
