INSTALLMENT THREE - MEJ's BIO (Transportation)

Transportation

1916 Reo

My father bought his first car in 1916, a Reo. It was built by a company founded by Mr. R. E. Olds, one of the great auto race drivers of that day. It was powered by a four cylinder motor and had a canvas top, something like today’s convertibles, except there were no glass sides. Instead, it had side curtains made out of the same material as the top. The panel behind the back seat and a few of the side curtains had insets of isinglass which was transparent; otherwise the only glass that was used for protection was the windshield. However, this Reo was not the first automobile in the neighborhood. The very first self-propelled vehicle I can remember was a high wheeled truck owned by a butcher from Sioux Falls. This truck had wheels that were about four and one half feet in diameter, about two or three inches wide at the tread, and had hard rubber tires. It was built by the International Harvester company. Since there were no graveled roads and certainly no paved roads, these early cars and trucks did not venture out even after a fairly heavy dew.

1909 Ford

The first passenger car I can remember was a four passenger touring car. The term “touring car” meant that it was larger than a two-passenger job. This car was owned by a member of our church in about 1912 or 1913. It was powered by a two-cylinder motor which was mounted cross-wise under the front seat, and had to be cranked (started) by hand from the side of the car. I have forgotten the name it carried but I found out that it was an assembled job. That meant that Sears Roebuck & Co., the concern that sold it, bought the motor from one company, the steel frame from another, the wheels from still another, and so on, fitting them all together to become a horseless carriage.

After autos became more numerous, more gasoline was also needed. There were no gasoline service stations yet, so gas was sold by hardware stores, blacksmith shops, grocery stores, and anyone else who had room for a storage tank in a building. The gasoline was usually delivered by horse-drawn wagons with tanks mounted on them. It seems that gas-powered trucks could not be trusted. Therefore, it can be said that horses were used to put themselves out of existence.

1931 Chevy - Belonged to Gene Straatmeyer in 1948 who purchased it for $65.

  Since we had never had an auto before, we also did not have a garage in which to keep it. It was therefore decided to use the alley of the granary as a garage. This alley has a sliding door on each end.

After my father had instructions about how to start and stop this new contraption, he decided to put it in the “garage,” namely the alley of the granary. Everything went well until he had gone as far as he thought necessary into the garage and decided to stop. But his mind went blank just then and stop he could not! He did remember that horses used to stop if he would say “Whoa!” but in this case it did no good. Both he and his family were all very happy that both sliding doors were open at the time.

Note: MEJ would have been amazed at the ease with which his daughter collected these pictures of old cars. It is too bad he never knew about the joys of the Internet.