Anyone who has been involved with the farm toy hobby for any length of time knows the name Ev Weber – Ev and Myra Weber have been part of the National Farm Toy Show scene almost since the beginning.

The farm toy hobby will never be the same because on July 7, 2010, Everett C. Weber – who was 75 years, 10 months and 20 days old – passed from this life into the next.

What set the Webers apart from many toy makers, besides the detailed work of this engineer, was the educational aspect of Ev’s creations. Ev and Myra have completed many displays and most of them tell a story that many do not know, or may have forgotten.

Amanda Schwartz, with the National Farm Toy Museum in Dyersville, Iowa, indicated it has several of their pieces. “Ev was always a huge supporter of the museum. He will be missed, but his legacy will live on in the museum,” she pointed out. “We have several of his dioramas and rotate them.”

At the 2010 National Farm Toy Show on the first floor there were several portions of Ev’s creation “Small Grain Farming.” He began at the very start, with a short scythe in Europe. By 720 B.C. he displayed flail beating, and then there was animal treading, wind cleaning and the flint sickle in Egypt.

From the cradle scythe to the fanning mill to machinery, Ev moved the viewer step by step through the years. Men invented the thresher in Maine, reaper in Virginia and pull-type combine in Illinois.

Everett and Myra researched their displays so thoroughly that in the end they have taken you from origination up to the present. Ev always had time to stop and answer questions. None was too simple or undeserving of his time. Everyone who asked walked away with an appreciation of the man and his craft, and many Weber originals live on in private collections and in museums around the country.

Ev was a family man. He lived in Lima, Ohio, and was father to five children: Ed, Keith, Vincent, Anita and Karen. Ev and Myra have seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Myra brought a few items for the auction to this year’s National Farm Toy Show.

One of the gentlemen who bought a few of Ev’s pieces commented that he had been “the Picasso of the toy makers.”

Myra set up at a table with her sons in Hallway Two at Beckman High, where they were for years.

Many attendees didn’t know that Ev had passed away, before they came to the show.

While his health had been precarious for a few years, it was shocking to find that he was really gone.

More than a few tears were shed across the display table.

While Ev is gone from the toy scene, he is definitely not forgotten. His pieces work so well, Schwartz said, “because they share history.”

Ev’s personal history, his kindness and his talent will live on for this true toy pioneer.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication.