BEVERLY - Although Richard McNabb wasn't at Monday's Beverly Lions Club's annual Antique Engine and Tractor Show, his presence was still felt.
McNabb, who died about four months ago, helped start the show with fellow club member Louis Bauerbach, who was unable to attend Monday.
However, McNabb's family and friends - along with multiple engines he once owned - were on hand at the event, held behind Fort Frye High School.
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Photo by Evan Bevins
Harrisville resident Steve Jarrell adds water to the radiator of one of six engines he had on display Monday at the Beverly Lions Club’s annual Antique Engine and Tractor Show in Beverly.
"It's kind of a sad day today because he just passed away in March," said McNabb's widow, Wava, of Beverly.
But she and her daughter, Wandalea Westfall of Parkersburg, said they were glad to see people enjoying the show, much as Richard enjoyed restoring the engines and meeting people through shows like Monday's.
Westfall said her father went to shows from April to October and loved working with the engines - "tearing them apart, putting them back together and showing them off."
Fact Box
In Brief
The late Richard McNabb was missed at the Beverly Lions Club's annual Antique Engine and Tractor Show.
McNabb passed away four months ago.
The show delighted engine fans of all ages.
Walt Schaad, who helped organize this year's event for the club, said McNabb and Bauerbach were mentioned by several people Monday.
"They meant a lot to the club because you could depend on them to do anything that you asked of them," Schaad said.
Sunbury resident Jay Fletcher made the 104-mile trip to Beverly with a more-than-100-year-old Bessemer engine he bought from McNabb. The 12-horsepower engine with 56-inch flywheels once pumped four wells in the Parkersburg area.
Fletcher met McNabb and Bauerbach at an engine show during an ice cream festival in Utica, Ohio, and they frequently wound up at the same events.
"We'd always sit down there and just yak, yak, yak and bat the breeze," Fletcher said.
Fletcher and others seem to enjoy the people they meet at the shows just as much, if not more, than the engines themselves.
"Man, we've met a bunch of good people," said Harrisville resident Steve Jarrell, who brought to the show six engines he's restored with his father, Joe. "We've had a lot of fun."
Jarrell bought his first antique engine 11 years ago at the West Virginia Oil and Gas Festival in Sistersville, which means he's actually newer to the game than a lot of other participants at Monday's event.
Marietta resident Richard Arnold went to his first engine show in 1960, when he was 10 years old. His family owns Arnold's Repair Shop outside Marietta, and Arnold and others picked up the hobby from his father.
Arnold's two brothers, his sons and several other family members were at Monday's event, displaying a variety of engines, tractors, model engines, pedal tractors and even a 1963 King Midget, a 9-horsepower, two-passenger car built in Athens.
"We got a lot more that we don't take," he laughed.
While many of the exhibitors spent the day looking at each other's items, they weren't the only ones walking the field and hearing about the machines.
Waterford resident Kim Kearns, 31, said her favorite part of the event is her 2-year-old son Xaiden's enjoyment of it.
"He likes the tractors," she said.
