50th Anniversary Special

L.E. Spear Gasoline Engine Company, Northfield, Minnesota

The story of the L.E. Spear Gasoline Engine Company begins during the 1890’s. A young man in Northfield, MN named Lincoln Fey was experimenting with building first a steam engine, and subsequently a gasoline engine for use in an automobile. During 1893 at the age of 15 with limited capital, local machine shops let him use some of their equipment. One such business was Fox & Ferris which was both a machine shop and a foundry.

There he learned about pattern making and foundry work and made his first steam engine. He subsequently determined that a steam engine with a boiler would not be practical for an automobile.Lincoln’s first exposure to a gasoline engine was at the Stanton, MN grain elevator. It was large, used hot tube ignition and had an early vapor-based carburetion system. Lincoln set out to design his own lighter version.

Mr. F.E. Bates owned a bicycle repair shop and allowed Lincoln to use his foot-powered lathe to make his own wooden foundry patterns and to machine the engine castings. During 1896, Lincoln had built his first gas powered automobile. It was a tricycle style and he sold it to Mr. Alfred J. Smith from New Prague, MN.

Armed with $65 of new capital from the sale of his automobile, Lincoln began on the next version of his automobile. He made arrangements to use equipment at a different bicycle shop that was owned by L.E.

Spear. Mr. Spear had a Star lathe and a Barnes drill press powered by a recently reconditioned gasoline engine. Lincoln sold his second vehicle for $170. During the winter of 1900-1901, Lincoln moved to Denver, CO for health reasons. Upon his return to Northfield during the spring of 1901, he discovered that L.E. Spear had established a successful farm gasoline engine business using Lincoln’s foundry patterns. Modifications were made to Lincoln’s design to add a sub base and a governor mounted in the base. Mr. Spear had used the foundry patterns as payment for the prior use of his machine tools by Lincoln.

This was the origin of the Spear Gasoline Engine. It is not known at this time how many engines were built, but only a handful are known to exist
today.  This information was taken from America’s Youngest Builder of a Horseless Carriage by Lincoln Fey.

This is a Faribault side shaft engine that will be at our show this year. They were manufactured in Faribault, MN in the very early 1900’s. Back in the 70’s, there were 5 or 6 of these engines in this area owned by different people and these families would travel around to all the shows and display these locally built engines. Like with most of this old equipment, as time went on, these pieces were sold to people outside the family and these engines were moved to other parts of the country. Come visit our 50th Anniversary show where these rare pieces will be displayed this year!