FERDINAND, Ind. — There has been a virtual welcome sign over the city of Ferdinand during 2015. The whole year has been set aside to mark 175 years of town incorporation. The local Chamber of Commerce ascribes Ferdinand as having been built upon the virtues of faith, religion, family values, work ethics, sense of community, and respect and appreciation for the environment. It is an attitude that has been celebrated in a number of community sponsored events during the 2014 season.

Next up is a Primitive Days celebration Oct. 10-12. The festivities will feature a farmers’ market of fall products and local produce, a memorial car show and an antique tractor show. Then Oct. 18-19, there will be other historic festivities just outside of town with a Primitive Corn Shredding Festival sponsored by Dubois County Tourism, The Early Days Antique Club and the Ferdinand 175 Committee.

“I’m looking at town right now, and we live a quarter-mile outside of the city limits,” said Mike Lindauer who recently had cut silage on the 20 acre field that will be the site for the big celebration of farm life in years past. “We will have five or six steam engines down on the field; I don’t know how many horses, mules and oxen there will be. And, we will have corn shredding and wheat thrashing demonstrations.”

The flier Lindauer had published for the event says the old days festival will be free for all and will include steam engines, antique tractors in-field operations, horse drawn equipment, horse PTO, ear corn picking, animal treadmills, primitive silage and corn cutting equipment, a hay press, a shingle mill and tub feed grinder, and blacksmithing demonstrations. 

According to Lindauer, the paid menu will have chicken tenders, pulled pork barbeque, and hamburgers, and brats. And in the mornings, up to 11 a.m., they plan to have biscuits and gravy, hot chocolate and orange juice. 

The Lindauer family owns Francis Lindauer and Sons Dairy Farm in Ferdinand, where they milk 100 cows. Patriarch Francis, now 86, began collecting steam tractors back in the 1980s. Now they own more than 50 items of antique farm machinery that they keep on loan to a museum in nearby Jasper, Ind.

Maynard Lambertus of Lanesville, Ind., is one of the directors on his own township’s Heritage Celebration board. He said the Lindauers have been supportive of the Lanesville Heritage show for years and have been bringing steam engines and odd tractors to the show. 

In order to help the show at Ferdinand, Lambertus is taking a 1930s John Deere stationary bailer to the festival. He will have three or four men from Lanesville with him to demonstrate primitive hay bailing.  

“I have got a horse club coming in, and eight of those guys will be camping with their horses,” Lindauer said. “I think we will have around 35 or 40 horses.” Draft horses and mules will provide muscle power for many of the demonstrations during the event. 

Lindauer added, “We are thinking it’s going to be a good show, if it doesn’t rain.”