SYCAMORE – When you call Bob Johnson of Sycamore, you can take your pick of which Bob Johnson you want to leave a message for: Farmer Bob, Mailman Bob or Corn-Picker Bob.
Johnson, with his many different jobs and titles, can add another to his list: author.
Bob and his wife, Phyllis compiled a book about the history of corn pickers, an early predecessor of modern combines that harvest corn by stripping ears from stalks.
The Johnsons' 804-page book, "Corn Pickers: And the Inventors Who Dreamed Them Up," was published in August and quickly sold out of its first and second printings. The book's third edition can be purchased through the website www.cornpickerbook.com.
The Johnsons are currently working on their second book, "Corn Cribs: Every Farm Had One." They are accepting photos and stories for the book via email, pajspages@yahoo.com, with the subject line "Corncribs."
Bob and Phyllis Johnson met with MidWeek reporter Katrina Milton to discuss corn pickers, their corn picker book and their love of local agricultural history.
Milton: Why corn pickers?
Bob Johnson: We’re either a crazy or a very interesting couple. I have 25 corn pickers, and Phyllis has 28 walking plows. Collecting corn pickers started as a hobby. I used to restore tractors in the ’70s and ’80s, and you can buy corn pickers for cheap or even get them for free. I’ve always liked corn pickers because they pick the entire ear of corn – they don’t shell and pick only the corn kernels the way a combine does. I think that the ear of corn smells best, especially right after it’s been harvested and is in the wagon.
Phyllis Johnson: There are books about combines and tractors and horse plows, but there isn’t a book only about the history of corn pickers. Corn pickers are still used. Bob has a few corn pickers he still uses. He sometimes gets one of his corn pickers out and picks corn.
Milton: Do you have only one type or brand of corn pickers?
Bob Johnson: I lean towards John Deere, and I started with John Deere first. Now I have all makes and models. I remember when I bought a red Massey-Harris corn picker. My daughter was surprised because it was red and not John Deere-green. She said, “Who are you and what did you do with my dad?” But now we have all makes and models and colors.
Milton: How do you purchase corn pickers?
Bob Johnson: We see them in “for sale” ads, magazines, or people contact us. We have corn pickers people have never heard of before. The farthest we’ve traveled for a corn picker was the very western edge of Nebraska. We’ve also traveled to southeast Ohio, too.
Milton: What is a corn picker?
Bob Johnson: A corn picker picks the ear of corn off of the corn stalk. Combines pick the ear of corn and take the kernels off the cob, “combining” the tasks. A corn crib is where the ears of corn were dried and stored for future use.
Phyllis Johnson: Before corn pickers were available or invented, farmers and workers picked the corn by hand. Mechanical pickers became an unbelievable labor-saving device for farmers.
Milton: Can you tell me more about the history of corn pickers?
Phyllis Johnson: The first patent was in 1850, but it took 40 years to make the corn picker actually work. After the first patent, corn pickers were made of wood, which was not strong enough. It was only after 1890 that they used something stronger: iron and metal. By the 1930s, pickers were finally powerful enough. Corn pickers could utilize the tractor’s power takeoff. Also, in 1930, three boys from Somonauk mounted a corn picker on a tractor for the first time. Before that, pickers were pulled along, behind a tractor.
Milton: Can you tell me more about your corn-picker book?
Bob Johnson: Phyllis did the writing, and I helped compile the book. It’s 804 pages and it weighs a little over 6.5 pounds. We have every make of corn picker in the book, and we explain the history of the companies.
Phyllis Johnson: The book has a lot of pictures and patent drawings.
Bob Johnson: I’ve been gathering sales literature for more than 20 years, and we traveled the country and visited museums.
Phyllis Johnson: I also used online genealogy sites. I was in touch with several relatives of the inventors. I remember getting in touch with a great-granddaughter, who was surprised to learn her great-grandfather, a DeKalb resident, developed a corn picker. She had no idea.
Milton: How long did it take to write the book?
Phyllis Johnson: It took us about two years to write and work on the layout. I would find information and we’d talk about it. Often it was over dinner, or I’d tell him about an inventor as we fell asleep. Most research began with a quick internet search, and then I’d read books and find as much information as I could.
Milton: Why is the history of corn pickers important?
Phyllis Johnson: Before there were corn pickers, farmers didn’t have much land, maybe 40, 80 or 120 acres. One to five acres were for vegetables and most of the land was for hay, wheat, oats and small grains for livestock. They planted maybe five acres of corn as a cash crop. They didn’t have acres and acres of corn like we do now.
Bob Johnson: After the corn picker, farmers could plant hundreds of acres of corn. Corn pickers revolutionized farming.
Milton: What is something interesting you learned through doing research?
Phyllis Johnson: I was shocked at the number of ties corn pickers had to the DeKalb County area. Three Somonauk boys, LeRoy Breunig, E.S. Breunig and W.B. Dolder put the first mounted corn picker onto a tractor in 1930. W.B. Dolder’s sister-in-law, Helena Dolder, was a woman sheriff in DeKalb County in the ‘20s, and she was tough.
Bob Johnson: We love all the local ties and local history. I grew up on a farm in Sycamore, and my father picked corn by hand. Then he had a John Deere corn picker, then a New Idea. He was thrilled to finally have a corn picker and then a combine. Sitting up in the combine together, I remember him looking back and telling me, “It would have taken me all day what we did in a manner of minutes. I lived a good life to see all of these changes.”
Milton: Why was writing the book on corn pickers so important to you?
Phyllis Johnson: I’ve always been big on preserving history. It’s been fun to write about and share history. I am thrilled at how many DeKalb County inventors there were, right here in our neighborhood.
Bob Johnson: It’s important to share the impact that this invention had on farmers and picking corn. I’ve had people walk to up me and thank me for preserving history and what life was like back then. Some people call it an encyclopedia or “The Bible of Corn Pickers,” it’s so full of information.
Phyllis Johnson: I think the main reason we even wrote the book was because corn pickers had such a short, limited history. It’s being forgotten, and we don’t want it to be forgotten.
Milton: Can you tell me more about your second book?
Phyllis Johnson: Our second book is about corn cribs, all the different types, with lots of photos and the history of corn cribs.
Bob Johnson: Corn cribs receive very little use nowadays. Corn is stockpiled in bins, or ground up and stored in silos, you very seldom see a corn crib with corn in it.
Phyllis Johnson: Yes, they’re all deteriorating. Other farm buildings, like barns, are still being used and built. But corn cribs were used for a single purpose, and either they’re in bad shape or are being torn down.
Bob Johnson: So we’re traveling the country, taking pictures of corn cribs, learning about their history and sharing stories of them.
Milton: Is there anyone you’d like to mention or thank?
Bob Johnson: We’d like to thank Max Armstrong for all he has done to help promote and get the word out about corn pickers and the book. We’ve been talking for as many as 15 years about corn pickers, and he helped us gather stories. We were guests on his radio show and he invited me on the TV show “This Week in Agribusiness” on RFD-TV.
For more information about Bob and Phyllis Johnson's book, "Corn Pickers: And the Inventors Who Dreamed Them Up," visit their website www.cornpickerbook.com or call 815-761-3709.