Out of the Attic
Dynamic Dreamers: Lincoln & Frank Fey
In 1895, the two teenaged sons of Henry and Emma Fey were mostly tending to their schoolwork, although they far preferred other amusements. Lincoln, affectionately known as “Link,” was sixteen years old and had already seen his name in the newspaper within a year of coming to Northfield. He was, as the Northfield News wrote with some amusement, “attaining quite a reputation as a taxidermist,” having mounted in his room “a specimen of almost every bird known in these parts,” as well as a handsome pair of ducks in a store display window. Link also spent time observing and befriending the mechanics at work in the Fox and Ferris foundry, a habit that would benefit him later. Frank, three years Link’s junior, was enthusiastic about his brother’s hobbies and probably spent much time hunting and fishing in the Cannon River, a favorite activity of both sons and father.
Life was not entirely easy for the boys, however. Lincoln’s days were marred by asthma, which he believed had been caused by early exposure to the mill dust that his father labored in as head miller of several different mills through the years. Although Link loved being outdoors, it was difficult for him to travel long distances by the horse-drawn vehicles of his time because the road dust that rose beneath his horses’ feet provoked his asthma. He began to dream of machines that would independently be able to travel the same dusty roads as the horses. Such daydreams brought him to the doorway of the Fox and Ferris foundry, where he learned lessons that were not being taught at school: how to construct a steam engine, how the engine operated, and what all of its parts and functions were called. Link made up his mind to design and build an engine-powered vehicle. He first drafted plans for a steam engine and had already constructed it and much of the vehicle’s carriage (with the help of some of his friends in town and at the foundry) when he saw an advertisement for a gasoline engine in a machinery catalogue. Gasoline engines did not require boilers, thereby reducing the weight of the engine in a vehicle’s carriage, and Link thrilled at the possibilities these engines presented. He quickly sold his finished steam engine and hoped to begin work on a gasoline engine soon, but his aspirations did not go unnoticed or unopposed.
