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Bryan O’Day is closely intertwined with his community of Fredericksburg, a town of around 980 people in southern Chickasaw County.

The 82-year-old was a farmer, the mayor of Fredericksburg for nearly a decade, and is now active in the Northeast Iowa Antique Engine and Power Club.

During the club’s annual show in August, O’Day talked to members and onlookers near a steam-powered tractor from the early 1900s that whirred and blew out steam.

“We're all bound to the Earth when we live in Iowa, one way or another, because of, you know, manufacturing, because of machinery,” O’Day said.

Chickasaw County, which sits south of Howard County and is less than an hour's drive from Waterloo, has roughly

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