April 2025

The Engine from Paradise

By Paul Harvey

Fantastic title but what does it mean?  There are so many meanings.  Take a look in the dictionary and we find Paradise to be a place of everlasting bliss, peace and contentment.  Hmmm!  Ideal, but let’s be realistic.  What did really happen?

Back in 1967, I worked during the summer at the Maple Avenue Hospital and, with a desire to explore, would frequently take back roads home.  I found a lot of very interesting equipment this way, as well as having an excellent educational experience.

This sign along Route US 119 immediately captured my interest by not only directing one to Paradise, but also to Panic and Desire.  With names like those the area was just begging to be explored!  And so I did.

After a few miles driving uphill from the main road, I emerged on an absolutely beautiful rolling agricultural plateau.  This place is PARADISE, both the area and the community.

As I arrived in Paradise, I was greeted by an absolutely huge barn in excellent repair.  Beside it was this portable engine which spent its entire life on that farm.

Coming into the village, one finds it to be three or four large farms along with a church and community building.  This is the same barn!

Paradise does have a “magical” attraction to it that is difficult to describe.  Perhaps it’s just being peaceful, so it is always great to return.

So now let’s turn to the engine.  It’s not often a beautiful engine is found in a barnyard!  It is a Twelve Mule Team with a homemade canopy.

Historically, Associated was formed in 1896 from the Iowa Cream Separator Company.  Growth was fantastic and soon engines were added.  The year 1910 saw the name changed to Associated Manufacturing Company.  The engines gained fame for their durability and simplicity.  Many other firms copied the design!  The company did well until 1946 when it was sold to Hamilton Engine Company of Chicago.  It soon disappeared after that.

Associated had “names” for many of their own engines.  Ours was the Twelve Mule Team, and the largest size built.  It must have been magnificent in its red and silver paint.

Oddly, some 50 years since I found it, the family that owned the engine contacted me and it now runs happily here at Coolspring Power Museum.  So, it indeed is the engine from Paradise!