Farmer Owns Amazing Antique Tool Collection

Farmer Owns Amazing Antique Tool Collection AG WORLD Ag World 21-4-21 You can find tools for just about any occasion in the antique tool collection of retired Monticello, Ill., farmer Stanley Mackey. To name a couple: a buggy jack which was used to take off buggy wheels so axles could be greased, and a second edition single duck bill shears used for cutting wire off oats and wheat bundles. Mackey, 81, began collecting tools during his 43 years of farming. His collection now contains more than 1,000 pieces displayed on eight sheets of plywood. He has other rarities, too, like more than 180 types of barbed wire. Among the oldest tools he's collected is a rope bed tool that was used to tighten ropes on bed frames. It dates back to the late 1700's and early 1800's. A couple of Mackey's four all-wood meat grinders date back to the middle 1700's, while the rest are from the late 1800's. Perhaps the rarest tool in Mackey's collection is a "clothes stumper" patented in 1892. It's spring-loaded and was used to wash clothes in small containers like buckets or dishpans. Mackey estimates his collection's value at $15,000 to $20,000. He displays it at shows across the Midwest. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Stanley Mackey, 103 Quail Hill Road, Monticello, Ill. 61856 (ph 217 762-8392).

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