Dale C. Maley: Fairbury was home to a national mechanical corn picker champion
Before World War II, annual national championships were held to determine who could hand-harvest corn the fastest. Fairbury native Ted Balko won the national contest in 1934 and 1938.
Ted hand-harvested at a rate of 19 bushels per hour for the 80-minute contest. The average farmer was satisfied with a speed of nine bushels an hour over a whole day of work. When two-row mechanical corn pickers were invented, they could harvest 300 bushels per hour, making hand harvesting obsolete.
Although mechanical corn pickers could harvest corn quickly, they were incredibly dangerous. The most common accident was when a farmer reached into the machine to free the rollers plugged with weeds. The spinning rollers would become free and then draw in the farmer's hand before he could move out of the way. Many farmers lost hands and arms using a mechanical corn picker.
Manufacturers of tractors and mechanical corn pickers wanted to demonstrate to farmers that corn pickers could be safely operated so that they would buy their pickers. These manufacturers sponsored national corn picker contests. The contestants were judged on the rate of corn harvested and on following safe practices operating the machines. In 1952, Elmer Bolliger from Fairbury won the national corn picker contest.
The story of the Bolliger family began with the birth of Heinrich "Henry" Bolliger in Switzerland. Henry married Elizabeth Meulleur in Switzerland. The couple had a total of eight children, with two of them dying in infancy.
In 1868, the Henry Bolliger family emigrated from Switzerland to America. They left Hamberg, Germany, on a ship named the Cimbria. The family arrived in New York on Aug. 11, 1868. The Henry Bolliger family eventually settled in Fairbury.
One of Henry and Elizabeth Bolliger's eight children was John Bolliger. He was born in Eureka but grew up in Fairbury. In 1901, John Bolliger married Sophia Boller in Fairbury. Sophia was the daughter of Henry Boller (1833-1924) and Lena Z. Siegfried (1835-1916). Henry and Lena Boller were both born in Switzerland. When they married, John Bolliger was 28, and Sophia was 25 years of age. John and Sophia Bolliger had eight children.
John Bolliger first worked as a wallpaper hanger. He then learned how to dig wells with Abraham Bills. John Bolliger then started his own well-drilling business with his brother Henry helping him.
In 1905, Elizabeth Bolliger died at the age of 72. She was buried in the Apostolic Christian section on the east side of Graceland cemetery. Her husband, Henry Bolliger, died three years later when he was 72. Henry was buried with his wife in the same section of Graceland Cemetery.
Well drillers never know what unusual things they will find when they drill a new well. In 1907, John Bolliger dug a 26-inch diameter well for Bud Glennin six miles north of Fairbury by the Vermilion River. John struck natural gas at a depth of 56 feet. The force of the gas lifted his drilling auger machine two feet into the air. Many local experts had suspected there was natural gas along the Vermilion River.
In 1919, John Bolliger had another unusual well-drilling experience. He was drilling and installing a four-inch casing on the farm of Mrs. Sarah Westervelt 6½ miles south of Fairbury. John struck an artesian well. John added a piece of one-and-a-half-inch pipe to the top of the four-inch well casing. Water from the artesian well gushed five feet above the ground and flowed at 13 gallons per minute. The Blade reported that finding an artesian well in Fairbury was extremely rare.
One of the eight children of John and Sophia Bolliger was Elmer Bolliger. He was born in 1908 in Fairbury. Elmer married Verna Ruth Yergler in 1934. Elma and Verna were each 25 years of age when they married. Their three children were Sharron, Jon, and Donn. Elmer worked for his father, John Bolliger, in the well drilling business.
In 1941, John Bolliger sold his well-drilling business to his three sons, Carl, Elmer, and William. John Bolliger then farmed his land four miles south of Fairbury that he had bought from O.D. Hanna.
In 1950, when Elmer Bolliger was 42 years of age, he changed his occupation from well drilling to farming. After just one year of farming, Elmer was the runner-up in the national mechanical corn picker contest in 1951.
In 1952, Elmer finished in second place in the Illinois state contest. Elmer went on to win the national mechanical corn picker contest at Rushville, Indiana. Elmer was a representative of the Ford Motor Company, Dearborn Division. Elmer used a Ford Tractor operating a one-row corn picker manufactured by Dearborn-Wood Bros. The local implement dealer who sponsored Elmer Bolliger was Schrof Bros.
After Elmer won the national corn-picking contest, he was honored by the city proclaiming "Elmer Bolliger Day." Mr. Bolliger was in a parade with his Ford tractor and picker that won the national contest. Other new farm equipment was in the procession. High school bands from Fairbury, Forrest and Chenoa participated in the big parade. WGN radio made a special broadcast about the Fairbury parade.
In 1956, John Bolliger died at the age of 83. He was buried in the Apostolic Christian section of Graceland Cemetery on the east side. Eight years later, Sophia Bolliger died at the age of 88. She was buried with her husband on the east side of Graceland.
Also, in 1956, Elmer and Sophia Bolliger moved to Silverton, Oregon. Elmer operated a wholesale and retail egg-producing business in Silverton. In 1974, Elmer retired from the egg business. Elmer and Verna Bolliger moved to the Keizer Retirement Center in 2000. In 2002, Verna Bolliger died in Silverton, Oregon, when she was 92. She was buried in the Bethany Pioneer Cemetery in Silverton. Elmer Bolliger lived to be 96 years of age and was buried in 2005 with his wife at the Silverton cemetery.
Ted Balko, two-time national corn husking champion, and Elmer Bolliger, national mechanical corn picker champion, are essential parts of Fairbury's rich agricultural history.
This article originally appeared on Pontiac Daily Leader: Fairbury was home to a national mechanical corn picker champion
