60 Years Behind the Wheel. Bill Sherk
new contraptions. Horseless carriage, gas buggy, and motorcycle were some of the early attempts to label this new invention.
Two-car Garage, Leamington, 1912
THE TWO-CAR FAMILY BECAME widely popular in the 1950s, thanks to the rising tide of prosperity that followed the end of the Second World War. Back in 1911, William T. Gregory built a two-car garage that still stands at 43 Mill Street West in Leamington, Ontario. The building to the right was his office, used until recently by his nephew, the late Herbert T. Gregory.
In an interview shortly before his death, Herb Gregory recalled his family owning an Autocar (not the car in the photo), which was garaged in this building. It was tan in colour and built by the Autocar Company of Ardmore, Pennsylvania. Inside the garage was a large green container of bulk oil with a crank to pump it out. “I used to love turning that crank as a boy,” he said.
Another make of car Herb recalled was the Hupmobile. His dad and uncle prospered as agents of the Imperial Tobacco Company, with an office in Leamington. The company purchased a fleet of four or five Hupmobile roadsters around 1911 for their tobacco agents to visit farmers. Herb said, “They were little two-seater cars with chain drive and a canvas top. I remember them well.”
The large touring car parked in front of William T. Gregory’s garage is difficult to identify because of the angle of the photo. Glenn Baechler, co-author of Cars of Canada, reports, “ I really exhausted all the candles on this one as it really is a great picture. [The car] has all the features of a Buick but from this view it appears like a longer wheel base. I think it is either a Westcott or a Kissel.”
Although the car carries a 1912 Ontario plate, it can’t be a 1912 Cadillac. That’s the year Cadillac introduced its legendary electric starter, along with electric headlights and cowl lights. The car in the photo has the more primitive acetylene lights.
The car has right-hand-drive, as did most early cars, so the driver could keep a close eye on the ditch while struggling to keep the vehicle on the road. The absence of a rear bumper was the norm in 1912, although many makes offered them as an option. The tool box on the running board was a vital necessity. The spare tire (sometimes two) is presumably mounted on the far side of this car. The identity of the two men is unknown.
The front wheels have ten wooden spokes, while the rear wheels have twelve, no doubt a reflection of the muddy roads and rear-wheel-drive. The extra strain of ploughing through the mud is better spread across twelve spokes than ten.
As a car aged, the wooden spokes would dry out and shrink, causing the wheels to wobble. You then parked your car up to the hubs in a nearby river. The dry spokes would swell up and tighten the wheels, making them as good as new.
Motorcycles and Sidecars, Toronto, circa 1912
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF HENRY Ford’s assembly line in 1913 and the start of high-volume mass production, cars for most people were expensive and unaffordable. Hence the early popularity of motorcycles (Harley-Davidson dates back to 1903). Cheaper to buy, cheaper to operate, easy to store — and if you wanted passengers, you could add a wicker sidecar like the two shown here in front of a Tamblyn’s Drug Store, circa 1912.
LEWIS JEFFREY AND HIS WIFE are sitting in this new 1912 Model T touring near the Albuna Town Line and 5th Concession a few miles north of Leamington, Ontario. Its the last year for the fully vertical two-piece windshield and the first year a Model T was available with front doors. American-built Ts had a false door on the driver’s side to reduce the cost of the car. Canadian-built Model Ts had two fully opening front doors because many Ts built here were sold in other provinces and parts of the British Empire where they drove on the other side of the road. British Columbia did not switch from driving on the left until 1923. The Ts sold in these areas had the steering wheel on the right.
Henry Ford pioneered the idea of the steering wheel on the left with the first Model T built in October 1908, at a time when most cars had the wheel on the right. Henry apparently had decided the driver needed to watch the oncoming traffic more closely than the ditch — and this viewpoint was consistent with his goal of building a car that nearly everyone could afford. During its nineteen-year production run, over fifteen million Ts were built. A Ford historian has estimated that 2 percent of these have survived. And 2 percent of 15,000,000 is a staggering 300,000!
1912 Model T Touring, Leamington, 1939
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS (AND SEVEN miles) separate this photo from the previous one. Note the white-on-black 1939 Ontario plate mounted not in front of the rad but just ahead of the windshield, perhaps for better cooling.
Two names are hand-written on the back of the original photo: “Harry Hartford now dead, Ray Serviss now dead.” The author has been able to identify all five occupants, thanks to Jack Hartford and his younger brother Harry Hartford. Their dad, Harry Hartford, is behind the wheel. The front-seat passenger is Jack Robertson. Seated in the left rear of the car is Harry Page. In the centre is Gord Stockwell. Seated in the right rear and wearing a cap is Ray Serviss. It is believed that the car did not belong to Harry Hartford but was lent to him to drive in a parade through town for the Old Boys’ Reunion of 1939. Harry owned a Penny Farthing bicycle back then, and “Cider” Hillman may have ridden Harry’s bicycle in that same parade.
Harry Hartford operated a Red Indian Service Station on the northeast corner of Talbot and Victoria in Leamington in the 1930s and 1940s (on the original site of Leamington Auto Wreckers dating back to the 1920s). By the 1950s, Harry’s station was a Texaco and was operated by his son Jack Hartford.
Is this the same car as the T in the 1912 photo? It’s possible, given the same area, but unlikely in light of the high number of Model Ts built and sold. Dick Forster was the first Ford dealer in Leamington, followed by Stodgell and Symes, then Campbell Motors until 1942, then Eaton Motors (1942–54), then Jackson Motors. The current dealer (Land Ford-Lincoln) is preparing to vacate its Talbot Street East property (a former Studebaker dealership) for larger premises on the Highway 3 bypass north of town.
If we look closely at the Model T in the 1939 photo, we can see signs of its age. The headlight lens on the passenger side is cracked, some rad fins are bent, and the top is missing. And yet the car appears still in good shape after nearly three decades on the road (some Ts still driven by then were held together with baling wire). The stickers on both windshields are likely souvenirs of trips to other places.
The three fellows seated in the back appear to have sufficient leg room. When Henry Ford was designing the Model T, he reportedly said the distance between the back of the front seat and the front of the back seat had to be wide enough for a farmer’s two milk cans. To keep the cost down, most Model Ts had no fuel pump, no oil pump, and no water pump. When questioned about the lack of shock absorbers, Ford reportedly said, “The passengers are the shock absorbers.”