Heroes, Heroines, and History: Terrie Todd

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Thursday, September 24, 2026

The History of Custom Combining

By Terrie Todd

If you live in the Great Plains or have ever driven through them during the harvest season, you have probably seen combines at work—sometimes ten or more at a time in staggered rows, and frequently working long into the night, headlights beaming across the field. Since no one farmer can afford that much equipment, you know you’re probably witnessing a custom combine crew in action. But the industry’s glory days are past. Starting in Texas and Oklahoma in July and working their way north up through the Dakotas and sometimes into the Canadian prairie provinces, custom combining reached its peak in the 1970s. But let’s go further back.

Using scythes in 1900

Threshing crews predate Combine crews. Early farmers cut grain with a sickle, then separated grain from straw by beating it with a flail and throwing the grain into the air to let the wind drive out the chaff. Those with more resources might have used horses or oxen to tread out the grain. Naturally, cooperative threshing made sense as agricultural land grew more populated and neighbors could work together to bring in each other’s harvests. A group of farmers might pool their resources to purchase machinery shared by all. An enterprising thresherman might assemble a crew of workers and offer his machinery, animals, and labor in one package to farmers, threshing the grain the farmer had already harvested.

By the early 1920s, around 100,000 men found seasonal work on threshing crews. Some were farmers hoping to supplement their income. Many were veterans home from the war or students hoping to earn another year’s tuition.

1920 - a team of 20 mules

The coming of the combine, which both cut and separated the grain, was revolutionary to the industry. These early machines were powered by eight pairs of horses with a driver walking behind each pair. A wagon drawn alongside received the grain. Tractors began to replace horses in the 1930s, and by the 40’s, the self-propelled combine ruled the day.

The life of a Custom Combine crew member left little time for recreation. His day began at dawn with breakfast, immediately followed by the ritual of servicing the machines, greasing and gassing everything up, checking fluids and tires. When the boss declared the crop was dry enough to cut, the combines roared into action and kept going until dark. As each truck filled, it hauled the grain away to the elevator while another took its place. Laborers earned the whopping wage of a dollar an hour.

Accommodations included tents or trailers—often little more than a wooden bunkhouse on wheels. Rainy days were used to catch up on laundry or move to the next location. A typical crew might consist of the boss, one combine operator and one truck driver per combine, a mechanic, and a cook—often the boss’s wife. If she were lucky, she had a helper.

When the team didn’t travel with their own cook, the farmer’s wife became the meal provider. Meals consisted of huge, hot breakfasts that included eggs, ham, potatoes, homemade bread and jam, and gallons of coffee. By midmorning, she’d be taking fresh cinnamon rolls or muffins to the field. The noon meal would be the biggest of the day—roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy, fresh garden vegetables, and homemade pie were considered normal. Meals were eaten in shifts so the machines could keep rolling. A lighter evening meal of sandwiches, followed by another dessert of homemade cake, was typical. The women who prepared and served all this food worked even longer hours than the men, setting the next morning’s bread and washing dishes until midnight, then rising by four a.m. to start again.

With the changing times, more farm operations have grown to where it’s more economical for them to own their own combines, though some custom combining crews are still in operation, with much more advanced, computerized equipment.

Sources:

Custom Combining on the Great Plains: A History, Thomas Isern, University of Oklahoma Press, 1981. Canadian edition, Western Producer Prairie Books, 1982.

Not a single incident of wheat harvest occurs in The Reluctant Healer of Halifax, a novel of the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. It’s a story of love, loss, faith, and honor set against Canada’s most devastating moment of the First World War.

Terrie Todd is the award-winning author of ten historical novels, all set in Canada,
where she lives with her husband Jon. A former church drama team leader and newspaper columnist, she’s also a frequent contributor to Guideposts Books, a mother of three, and grandmother of five.

Follow Terrie here:

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Thursday, September 3, 2026

Author Spotlight: Terrie Todd, a Late Bloomer!

Me in Grade 3

Growing up in a small town in Manitoba, Canada, as the youngest of five kids, I loved nothing more than imaginary play by myself. I’m grateful to have been raised in a family that loved Jesus. I attended church regularly, and the annual week at Bible camp during summer break was the highlight of my year. My earliest recollection of being drawn to the world of books was when our second-grade teacher read to us from Fingerling: Just a Little Man. I loved the story so much I borrowed it to take home and conveniently forgot to return it for a year or more! I’ve since learned that the book was originally written in Dutch by Dick Laan and is extremely hard to find. It was my seventh- and eighth-grade English teacher, Mrs. Armstrong, who first made me believe I might have a knack for writing.

Grade 10 at Sunshine

Influenced by our pastors’ family, whose daughter was a good friend, I attended high school at Sunshine Bible Academy near Miller, South Dakota, because I loved the idea of learning from Christian teachers and being surrounded by like-minded friends. My four years there were a wonderful experience where I grew in my faith and expanded my horizons. That’s also where I met my future husband, a South Dakota boy named Jon Todd, whose parents had meanwhile moved to Manitoba! We married four months after my graduation in 1977.

October 1, 1977

We spent our first five years of married life in Longview, Texas, where Jon attended LeTourneau College (now University), where we made more lifelong friends, and where I worked at a McDonald’s restaurant for a year and then at a swimming pool company. By the time we returned to Canada, our first son was born, and our daughter was on the way. Another son was born in 1986. We’ve stayed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, all these years. We now have five grandsons added to the family, and we’re a little more geographically spread out than I’d like.

Our family in 2022. Our 45th anniversary.

Although I loved being a stay-at-home mom, financial reality had me trying a variety of careers. I cleaned homes for a decade, was a clerk at a community college for four years, followed by 14 years on staff at my church as an Administrative Assistant and Creative Arts Director. Drama was a huge part of my life during those years, and I later published some of the scripts I wrote for our church drama team. I’m still involved in my local community theater group.

An Easter monologue in 2013. Photo by G. Loewen Photography

My "Covid" project

In 2009, at the age of 50, I decided that if I wanted to pursue writing, I needed to carve out time and get serious. I left my full-time job at the church and took a part-time position as an Administrative Assistant at city hall, another wonderful learning opportunity. With more free time, I began working on my first novel. I chose the historical genre because it seemed like it would be easier to get my characters into trouble, and I made this first project split-time because that’s what I loved reading. I joined writers’ groups, read books on the craft, attended conferences, and entered contests. During those years, I began writing a weekly faith and humor column for our local newspaper, which continued for 14 years and financed my writing habit. In 2020, I published a volume of my most popular columns, called Out of My Mind: A Decade of Faith and Humour.

Mom (80) and me at the Christian Writers Guild conference in 2012. My novel was a finalist, but my friend Peter Leavell won.

From the time I began writing my first novel, The Silver Suitcase, it took four years to land my first agent, then another two years for her to find a publisher, and another year before I could hold the book in my hands. My second and third novels quickly followed.

Author photo by G. Loewen Photography, with some AI magic I added for fun.

At age 60, I retired from city hall to write full time. It’s been much harder than I imagined, but I am pleased to currently have ten novels and a nonfiction book published, with a few nice awards won along the way. On the Acknowledgments page of each of my books, you’ll see the same closing line: “Above all, my thanks are due to my Redeemer, Jesus Christ, master storyteller and main character in the greatest story ever told.” Jesus understood better than we do how the power of story can break through barriers and reach hearts. My prayer, first and foremost, is that my stories will do just that.

Follow Terrie here:

Edwin Beard Budding - Wikipedia

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Monday, August 24, 2026

The History of Lawn Mowers

By Terrie Todd

Have you ever observed a robotic lawn mower performing its daily task and wondered how we got here? Given the fame of English gardens, we shouldn’t be surprised that the invention of the lawn mower is credited to an Englishman.

Edwin Beard Budding

Edwin Beard Budding, born in 1796 in Gloucestershire, watched a machine in a fabric mill that trimmed the irregular nap from woolen cloth to a smooth finish. Like any engineer worth his pencil, he wondered if the idea could be adapted to cut grass on sports grounds and large gardens. He was granted a British patent in 1830, though it would be another ten years before a machine that could be pulled by animals was released.

His prototype was 19 inches wide and surprisingly similar to today’s mowers—minus the motor! His first two machines were purchased by Regent’s Park Zoological Gardens in London and to the colleges in Oxford. Budding partnered with another engineer named John Ferrabee, who financed the development and acquired the rights to manufacture and sell the devices.

In the 1850s, Thomas Green & Son of Leeds introduced a mower called the Silens Messor (“silent cutter”), which used a chain drive to transmit power from the rear roller to the cutting cylinder. Lighter and quieter than the existing gear-driven machines, they were more expensive. They proved to be a more efficient alternative, however, to scythes or grazing livestock. As lawn sports grew in popularity, so did the demand for mowers.

The first U.S. patent for a reel lawn mower was granted to Amariah Hills in 1868. The race was on! In 1870, Elwood McGuire of Richmond, Indiana, designed a lightweight, human-pushed lawn mower that met with success. In 1899, John Burr patented an improved rotary-blade lawn mower. He altered the wheel placement for better performance.

Gasoline-powered lawn mowers were first manufactured in 1914 by Ideal Power Mower Co. of Lansing, Michigan. Gang mowers, those with multiple sets of blades to cut a wider swath, were built in the United States in 1919 by the Worthington Mower Company.

The first “ride-on” mower was produced by Ransomes Engineering of Leicester, England, after World War I. The operator could ride behind animals that pulled the large, chain-driven machines.

Once engines became small and powerful enough to run the blades at high speeds, rotary mowers were developed in the late 1920s and early 1930s. With minor improvements along the way, lawn mowers have changed little in the intervening years. Major adaptations include electric mowers, both walk-behind and ride-on, and now robotic mowers that engineers like Edwin Beard Budding would never have believed possible.

Sources:

Lawn mower - Wikipedia

Not a single incident of lawn-mowing occurs in The Reluctant Healer of Halifax, a novel of the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. It’s a story of love, loss, faith, and honor set against Canada’s most devastating moment of the First World War.

Terrie Todd is the award-winning author of ten historical novels, all set in Canada,
where she lives with her husband Jon. A former church drama team leader and newspaper columnist, she’s also a frequent contributor to Guideposts Books, a mother of three, and grandmother of five.

Follow Terrie here:

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Friday, July 24, 2026

The Great Halifax Explosion and Vincent Coleman

By Terrie Todd

A single warning can make a difference.

One of the nearly 2000 people killed in the Halifax Explosion was Vincent Coleman, a train dispatcher, at the age of 45. But thanks to him, others survived who would not have without his brave final act. Coleman was on duty on the morning of December 6, 1917, along with his boss, William Lovett.

Vincent Coleman by Unknown author - The Nova Scotia Museum, Department of Tourism and Culture, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46418062

Coleman’s job was to control the massive rail traffic generated by the crowded wartime harbor. He sent orders to the countless trains feeding freight into the ship-filled wharves of North End Halifax, as well as routing passenger traffic passing into the North Street Station.

As Coleman relieved the night dispatcher at the telegraph, he noticed a column of black smoke rising above the rows of parked freight cars in front of the station. The French munitions ship Mont-Blanc had caught fire after a collision with the Norwegian ship, Imo. A sailor burst in to warn everyone that the Mont-Blanc was full of ammunition and about to explode. Coleman started to leave with Lovett, but turned back to use the telegraph key.

Coleman was concerned about Passenger Train No. 10, the overnight train from Saint John, New Brunswick. Due to arrive in Halifax at 8:55 am, it had about 300 passengers on board. If not intercepted, it would pass along the tracks directly in front of the blazing ship.Coleman, knowing he could not possibly survive the imminent explosion, tapped out his final, famous message:

“Hold up the train. Ammunition ship afire in harbor making for Pier 6 and will explode. Guess this will be my last message. Good-bye boys.”

Seconds later, the largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bombs destroyed much of Halifax. Later, Vincent Coleman’s telegraph key, watch, and wallet were found among the ruins and are on display in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax. While his wife and children survived, their nearby home was destroyed. His wife, Frances, and their youngest child, Eileen, were wounded.

Coleman's Telegraph Key

Not only did Coleman manage to delay the No. 10 train, but his message got the word out about the explosion before it happened, taking down telegraph lines with it. Help was able to arrive far sooner from across Canada and the U.S, most notably, Boston. Vincent Coleman is considered a hero in Halifax and Canadian history.

Coleman's grave in Halifax. CC BY-SA 4.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65632485

Sources:

https://maritimemuseum.novascotia.ca/what-see-do/halifax-explosion/vincent-coleman-and-halifax-explosion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vince_Coleman_(train_dispatcher)

Vincent Coleman is mentioned briefly in The Reluctant Healer of Halifax, a novel of the Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. It’s a story of love, loss, faith, and honor set against Canada’s most devastating moment of the First World War. It releases August 1, 2026.

Terrie Todd is the award-winning author of ten historical novels,
all set in Canada, where she lives with her husband Jon. A former church drama team leader and newspaper columnist, she’s also a frequent contributor to Guideposts Books, a mother of three, and grandmother of five.

Follow Terrie here: