This tribute was written by Don and Penny Olsen and appeared in the Official Program for the 2007 show.
The year was 1912 Woodrow Wilson was elected president of the United States; a large luxury ship set sail from Southampton, England, named the Titanic; Stockholm, Sweden, hosted the 5th Summer Olympics; and on October 17th of that year, in the farm community of Cross Plains, Tennessee, George Paul Swann was born. He was third of five children born to C. R. Swann and Joella Durrett Swann. Mr. Paul, as known by most, left us on December 10, 2006, at the age of 94.
While Paul dreamed of working on the railroad, flying planes and riding motor cycles, life’s practicalities lead him to the family business of farming with his father and brother Joe Caner.
In the winter months, the family ran a custom millwork sawmill for farmers in the community. During the harvest season he and his brother threshed wheat from Springfield to Gallatin moving from farm to farm. Long after the death of his brother and father Paul continued working the earth. Additionally, Mr. Paul drove a school bus for over thirty years. He would say for extra income, but most knew it was for the children.
Paul’s love for steam engines blossomed when, at the age of ten, his father first put him on a Geuser/Peerless to thresh wheat and steam tobacco plant beds. Over the years he worked with several engines; the Peerless, a Case, an 18 horse Keck-Gonnerman and, finally, the 22 horse Keck-Gonnerman, that is now in use at the show.
The purchase of their 1936 Case was a story he liked to tell. Nashville’s Case dealer ordered the engine from the J. I. Case Co. in Racine, Wisconsin. It was shipped to Nashville by river barge. Paul and his uncle picked the engine up at a barge port on Second Avenue in Nashville, where they greased the engine, built a fire to get steam up and started driving it home. When crossing the Jefferson Street Bridge over the Cumberland River, the engine became hung in the trolley tracks. Paul got off, found a place to buy two iron wedges and put them under the two front wheels. Powering forward the center of the wheels came out of the tracks and they were on their way. The first day’s journey took them from Nashville to Goodlettsville — a distance of twenty five miles at an average speed of three miles per hour. White House was the next day’s first stop to steam tobacco plant beds. They continued to stop and steam plant beds for farmers along the rest of the road home.
Mr. Paul’s love for the steam engine lead him to meet with about twenty other steam men at the First National Bank in Springfield. The Tennessee-Kentucky Threshermen’s Association was founded that day some thirty eight years ago. Each charter member put twenty dollars into the Association’s account, which enabled the first show in Adams to become a reality. Mr. Paul was the last living charter member. He loved the show and never missed one from the first to his last in 2006.
He was always eager to share his memories of wheat threshing, engines, farming and life in general with all who wished to listen. There were always friends sharing with him during the show and strangers desiring to know more of the time he lived and the things he saw. His keen memory and joy of giving a glimpse of the past will be something we all will miss, but never forget.
Mr. Paul’s love of steam engines and the show has inspired a legacy. His son Jackie, wife and daughters, even from the time the girls were small, have shared in the work and the joy of the show. Now Jackie, along with his expanding family, honor Mr. Paul’s love of steam as they gather each year to support the show and celebrate a way of life too soon gone. Through re-creating experiences of days long past and by re-telling yesteryear’s stories to our children and grandchildren, the cherished time when steam was king and way of life it represents will not be forgotten.
