Reist To Share Knowledge Of Farm Artifacts

More than 30 years ago, Art Reist of Manheim Township went to auctioneer school in Mason City, Iowa. As one of his exams, he was asked to identify 100 items in a pole barn full of antiques. The professor boasted that no one had ever received a perfect grade on the test. "I named every one," recalled Reist, who noted that the teacher pointed out that there was one item even he could not identify. "It was a tool that was used to seam stovepipe together," said Reist.

Reist will share his knowledge when he presents "Antique Farm Tools and Artifacts," a program sponsored by the Manheim Township Historical Society, which will be held at the Manheim Township Public Library, 595 Granite Run Drive, Lancaster, on Saturday, Aug. 21, at 10 a.m. Reist said he plans to bring about 50 items, including tools relating to tobacco, Conestoga wagons, and farming antiques, to the venue. Guests are invited to bring old artifacts and tools to the presentation for Reist to identify. Reist, who has nearly 40 years of auctioneering experience, noted that if he cannot identify an item, he will say so.

In addition to his auctioneer training and experience, Reist comes by much of his knowledge through his father, also named Art, who taught history at Conestoga Valley High School for decades. "Dad cleaned the chicken house out, and he started collecting tools to take into the classroom," recalled Reist, who noted that as farms around the area were sold, his father attended sales and filled the chicken house with items such as anvils that were made in the 1600s and devices used to make tools that were instrumental in making Conestoga wagons.

Reist still lives on the farm his great-grandfather Linnaeus purchased in 1875 when he was 19 years old. Linnaeus married Susan Herr Landis and began farming 30 acres of commercial tobacco, building a barn from oak trees located on the property.

Among the many items Reist has in his collection is a denglestock, which is a type of anvil used to sharpen scythes, along with a tool that resembles a large pizza cutter that was used to measure the circumference of a wagon wheel to fit the cast iron on. Reist plans to bring a number of items related to tobacco farming and processing. He has a mold for torpedo cigars and boxes to sort tobacco leaves according to size. Leaves were sorted by length and quality, with the shortest representing the poorest tobacco. Other farming tools in the collection include a wooden shaking fork for straw. "You always use a wooden fork to shake up the straw behind a cow or a horse," explained Reist, who noted that an animal that kicked was less likely to be injured by a wooden implement. He also has a sheave fork used to throw wheat on a wagon and another used to feed the wheat into a threshing machine.

Other items include rare advertising specialty items, such as a piece naming the teamster that would be attached to a horse collar. He also has a knitty knotty used for wrapping thread. "There are so many things I can bring," said Reist.

Readers who would like more information may email mthistoricalsociety@gmail.com or call 717-569-6638.