One of the best documented sightings of a new horseless carriage in Cache
County can be found in Oliver L. Peterson’s diaries in which he recorded
under the date of May 12, 1901, that he “Saw the first automobile pass
through this place.” The view was from the Petersboro area of western Cache
Valley, and very likely the new vehicle was from outside the county. Other
observations were made and it is known by a newspaper article that Mr. and
Mrs. LeRoi Snow drove their automobile from Salt Lake to Logan in early July
of 1904. By August of 1908 Peterson’s diary recorded: “The number of
automobiles through here increasing.” There remains some doubt as to when
the first county resident owned one of the new modes of transport. It may
have been in 1902 when Robert Murdock, the controversial postmaster with
entrepreneurial ambitions, had an automobile with a one cylinder gasoline
engine. The newspapers noted several visitors to the Cache County with
automobiles, and among them were Bishop C. W. Nibley with O. C. Boebe,
cashier of Zion’s Saving Bank and Trust Company, who left Salt Lake City
heading for Logan in October of 1909. It was reported that the men took
their shot guns along hoping to bag a few geese along the way. About the
same time Mr. Samuel Newhouse, a Utah entrepreneur and mining magnate,
brought a party of friends from Salt Lake to Logan in his automobile to
attend a party given at the University club. One way or the other the
automobile attracted attention and soon some local residents came to own the
new machine. One of the early owners or operators was James Hobbs, who
headed a music company in Logan. However, the vehicle was supposedly owned
by the music company and the shareholders in the business were suspicious
that the vehicle was not a necessity and initiated a law suit to check the
economic stability of the music company in 1907. There exists an old
photograph of Roy Cardon of Logan taken in Logan Canyon and estimated to
have been taken in 1910 showing Cardon with his Simplex Touring car. It has
been guessed the model was a 1908 Pathfinder of the powerful and well-built
luxury car, therefore Cardon could have had possession of the car between
1908 and 1910. However his name does not appear on the first automobile
register. It is known that Emamuel E. Colpin, the Smithfield druggist,
bought an automobile at Salt Lake City from the Sharman Automobile Company,
mistakenly reported in a newspaper as a two-cylinder Maxwell runabout on
April 28, 1909. Four days later the same company delivered a Reo model 1909
automobile to Smithfield for an unidentified owner, who proved to be Mr.
Colpin, in spite of falling snow and muddy roads. 1
Possibly the closest thing to an extravaganza in Logan took place on Monday,
September 7, 1908, when a combination of Logan business men, the Cache
Valley Commercial club and a political party planned a large “Boosters”
excursion to the “City of North” (Logan). With extensive publicity and
fanfare an excursion train was to bring hundreds of visitors from the
southern area to Cache, and to ensure all went according to plans, three
representatives of the hosting contingent were to travel aboard the
excursion train which left Salt Lake a few minutes before 8 a.m. The train
with seven passenger cars left Salt Lake with 450 passengers, a stop at
Farmington added another forty, at Ogden a hundred more and an addition of
two more cars to the excursion train and at Brigham City thirty-five more
boosters. Still thinking more could be done, one of the Cache groups
dispatched a committee of ten to travel to Brigham City to meet the
excursionists with printed programs of the day’s events and to ride into
Logan with the large body of visitors. All went well with the scheduled
plans until the group sent to the Peach City arrived (presumable by train) a
little late and found the excursion train pulling out destined for Logan. A
wild scramble ensued as the belated committee telegraphed Logan of their
dilemma of arriving late, making them stranded until the next northbound
train, forcing them to miss the formal greeting, luncheon and planned
activities of the grand day. Those stranded at Brigham City quickly sought
automobiles to take them by road to Logan and secured a couple of cars to do
this. In Logan the planners sent Horace Nebeker, a local lawyer and
political activist, “to rescue the committee in time for” the luncheon and
later activities. The two automobile parties making haste in different
directions met half way in Wellsville canyon where those east bound piled
into Mr. Nebeker’s vehicle and probably at least one more car speeding
towards Logan. When the visiting “boosters” on the excursion train arrived
at the Logan depot, they found vehicles (primarily horse drawn with a few
autos) waiting to take them to the Utah Agricultural College where lunch was
served and they were shown around the college. The late committee “reached
Logan by autos while dinner was being served.” The big meeting took place in
the Logan Tabernacle where greetings, music and talks were given. After
which, according to the newspaper, “Then driving and automobiling (sic)
parties were formed, and several hours were spent in seeing Logan and its
surroundings.” Again both horse drawn vehicles and automobiles were involved
as there were not enough automobiles in Cache County to handle all of the
transporting. 2 But surely nearly all the automobiles of the county that
could be gathered were in Logan on September 7, 1908, and the name of Horace
Nebeker included with the other automobile owners listed above.
In 1909 the State of Utah passed legislation requiring all owners of
automobile to register their vehicles with the secretary of state’s office
with the registration beginning on May 11, 1909. Before the end of the year
six Cache County owners registered their vehicles with an assigned number
which they were to display upon the rear of their vehicles which did not
have to be renewed. Those owners with their assigned number, name,
residence, make of car and filing date were:
248 - Geo. F. Thatcher – Logan, Utah – Oldsmobile – May 26, 1909
587 - Seth A. Langton – Logan, Utah – early June 1909 *
601 - Emanuel C. Coplin (sic - Colpin) – Smithfield, Utah – Reo 1909 Model –
June 18, 1909
615 - E. P. Bacon – Logan, Utah – between June 18 and June 21, 1909 *
626 - Horace G. Nebeker – Logan, Utah – E.M.F. – June 21, 1909
671 - Roy E. Rudolph – Logan, Utah – Buick – July 5, 1909
* NOTE: It can be verified that Langton and Bacon initially registered in
1909 according to a listing of auto owners published in February of 1910,
but in the only dated records available today (on microfilm for 1909 through
1915) it shows each man using his original number recording a second car —
Langton a Buick on June 15, 1914, and Bacon a Haynes on June 21, 1914.
Some of the early owners became dissatisfied with their first machine and
soon improved their vehicle or possibly gave up on the automobile for a
period of time. As a case in point, George F. Thatcher’s first Oldsmobile
was light in weight and power. By mid-June of 1910 he had a new Oldsmobile
with high wheels, a toy tonneau and much more powerful. A Salt Lake
newspaper reported it as “one of the classiest cars ever shipped into Utah.”
Within six weeks, Thatcher set a new record for hill climbing and “mountain
autoing” by driving it from Bear Lake to Logan via the right hand fork of
Logan Canyon over “the roughest canyon roads known in this country, due to
so many steep and difficult dugways.” In addition Thatcher in June of 1910
wrote to the Utah Automobile club, that was most active in the Salt Lake and
Ogden areas, that Cache County was taking measures to put its roads in good
shape and before the summer ended would have “several courses which any
community in the west might be proud.” Then in behalf of “the motorists of
Cache county,” Thatcher invited the automobile club to schedule a run to
Logan to see what the roads were like, and if they did “they will be shown a
royal time.” George Langton, the twenty-year-old son of Seth A. Langton, was
operating a 1909 Cadillac by April of 1909. Another automobile (an EMF or
Everitt, Metzger and Flanders) operated by Leonard Krogie of the Schaub
Machine Company by 1910. The same year, Mr. A. M. Fleming, a cashier at the
First National Bank of Logan, and his wife used their automobile to
transport their Omaha guest to Salt Lake so he could return home. Then the
Flemings drove back to Logan. Surely there were a number of others that
could be added to this listing and ownership extended into the rest of Cache
County as well. After the first six Cache County automobile owners cited
above, the state register of owners shows the next registered owners in
Cache County as follows(with their assigned number, name, residence and
filing dates): #941 to Dr. I. S. Smith of Logan for his Velie filed April 7,
1910; #1101 to Joseph J. Jensen of Logan for his Studebaker EMF filed May
31, 1910; #1192 to Peterson Brothers of Petersboro for their Cadillac filed
July 9, 1910; #1199 to Joseph Quinney, Jr., of Logan for his Cadillac filed
July 8, 1910; #1208 to Henry Davidson of Hyrum for his Studebaker EMF filed
June 20, 1910; #1215 to Norman G. Allen of Wellsville for his Ford filed
July 27, 1910; #1220 to E. L. Larson of Logan for his Studebaker EMF filed
August 2, 1910; #1221 to Eugene Johnson of Logan for his Studebaker EMF
filed August 2, 1910; #1242 to George W. Thatcher of Logan for his
Studebaker filed August 24, 1910; and #1245 to George F. Thatcher of Logan
for his Oldsmobile filed August 24, 1910. 3
On June 4, 1910, the Deseret Evening News under the title of “Epidemic in
Cache” included a short quote for the Logan newspaper of a day or two
earlier with this assessment of a local problem: “The poverty-stricken
farmers of Cache Valley are acquiring automobile habit at a rate that can
but be gratifying to the dealers.” Whether the judgment behind the negative
evaluation of the situation in Cache Valley was right, wrong or in-between,
the newspaper was correct on seeing that the new mode of transportation was
now becoming more readily accepted by the valley’s residents.
4 In this
contagion in northern Utah were a group of brothers helping operate a large
dry farm and cattle ranch in Petersboro—half way between Mendon and Cache
Junction. The proof of their involvement was cited above and recorded in the
Utah State register of car owners as holding certificate #1192 issued to the
Peterson Brothers for their Cadillac after they registered on July 9, 1910,
for the right to operate their machine on the streets and road of Utah. In
most cases we know too little of the early days of automobiles, however in
this rare instance we have one of the most documented and detailed accounts
of this family getting an automobile, caring for it, progressing through
various stages in adapting to the new age of mechanized individual
transportation.
THE PETERSONS’AUTOMOBILES
Some necessary background information on the family and their various
operations might be helpful. Peter Peterson and his wife had a large family
of seven sons, and they operated a large dry farm and cattle ranch. After
living in Logan a short time, Peter set up his farm at Petersboro in the
late 1870s and established his home and expanded his operations. In time his
sons—by name Oliver and Edward (twins born in 1879), Lee (born 1880), Fred
(born 1883), Willard (born 1886), Miles (born 1887) and Jesse (born
1887)—became involved in their agricultural enterprise. All of the brothers
except Willard and Jesse were almost totally engaged, the latter two were
either in school or primarily working at other professions. A few years
later their family farm/ranch was incorporated as a family business at
Petersboro under the name Peterson Farm & Livestock Company. One of the
sons, Oliver Larsen Petersons would keep a daily diary for several decades
and his multi-volumes were filled with daily activities of family members,
farming operation, chores, seasonal occurrences such as livestock care,
plowing, planting and harvesting. Equipment maintenance and repairs were not
forgotten or the putting up of ice during the cold winter for the following
summer. The comprehensive coverage includedthe many facets of the Petersons’
way of life, beliefs, various activities, recreation and other ventures. For
good measure the diaries incorporated weather reports to specials events
such as viewing the return of Halley’s Comet. This source provided the
information even on their automobile, how it was used, cared for and
maintained.
The family engaged in raising and selling livestock, sold lucerne, wild hay,
grains, coal and possibly ice. Through their influence and providing land
for the project, the railroad put in a spur at Petersboro primarily to
collect the grain grown in the area, but at this spur the Petersons brought
in railroad car loads of coal and sold it. Their numerous activities and
interests necessitated much movement between the home base at Petersboro and
the Logan (where they also owned a home) business district, along with
Mendon (mail, groceries, church and relatives) and the main railroad center
at Cache Junction by several members of the family. The boys bought bicycles
and used them to get around in their multiple activities and pleasures, and
one of the sons purchased a motorcycle in 1909 and eventually the family had
three. Their location was four miles north of Mendon and four miles south of
Cache Junction and five miles west of Logan. At the time when the automobile
came into their lives, four of the five sons most actively engaged in the
farm/ranch operation were still single and living with their parents at the
family home on the farm with married son Fred with his wife and child living
in Logan at the family home. Fred had to travel to and from Logan to the
farm almost every day and return, and someone in the family made daily trips
to Mendon for the mail. With all of this, the family had a wide range of
interest beyond their farming that included political activities, service
for the local school district, community interests, some efforts in behalf
of the Presbyterian Church in Mendon and sports at the Agricultural College
at Logan. They took time to attend the theater or events such as the circus,
races, football and baseball games. Their interest in the new mode of
transport came naturally and they readily accepted it.
Now, in brief form, is the story of their automobiles from Oliver’s diary.
He dutifully recorded the first automobile he saw in his area of Cache
Valley on May 12, 1901 with just eight words: “Saw the first automobile pass
through this place.” Seven years later in August of 1907 he recorded: “The
number of automobiles through here increasing.” His observation focused more
on the vehicles on April 24, 1909, when he wrote that one of his brothers
had a ride in a 1909 Cadillac as a courtesy of George Langton. He observed
three weeks later that he saw two automobiles driving by way of Benson
towards Logan, and on March 21, 1910, two of the Peterson brothers had a
ride in an E.M.F. in Logan by Leonard Krogie of the Schaub Machine Company.
At the same time, some of the boys were avid readers with wide interests
ranging from improved farm equipment to the automobile. By Tuesday April 5,
1910, the family made the decision that it was time to buy an automobile and
they undertook to do it in a planned manner and division of labor much as
they cared for their farm and ranch. Fred, married living in Logan, would go
to Petersboro to help his father with the chores, two of the youngest
brothers were still in school, leaving the examination and actual purchase
of the vehicle to the four other brothers—Miles, Lee, Edward and Oliver. On
the day cited they went by train to Salt Lake City to buy the family’s first
automobile. They arrived in the city about noon and secured a room in the
Wilson Hotel.
Then the four brothers went to State Street to the Sharman Auto Company and
checked out the “famous Reo 30” and rather quickly concluded this vehicle
made a “better appearance on paper than in the garage or upon the road.”
They had lunch and resumed their search of the car best for them. They went
to West Temple Street to the Utah Auto Company and looked at the Cadillac 30
and took a demonstration ride up to Fort Douglas and around the city. While
checking out the vehicles, only the Reo 30 and Cadillac 30 were mentioned,
but they could have looked at others. Whatever, they were the most impressed
with the Cadillac, and this was long before this make of car had achieved
any special status. The brothers attended a concert in the Tabernacle that
night and on Wednesday morning the 6th were back at dealer’s place. They
took another test run in the Cadillac up to Federal Heights and then went
down to the Oregon Short Line Railway deport where they saw a railroad car
of autos being unloaded that included three Cadillacs. Returning to the
dealer’s establishment, they went into serious discussion on the details of
purchasing an automobile. Before 4 p.m., according to Oliver’s diary, they
“bought a 'Cadillac 30' Model 1910 touring car $1900, equipped with 5 lamps
(2 gas, 3 oil); horn, speedometer, storm curtains, etc. etc. (We also bought
2 extra inner tubes, one casing, tire chains, carbide, oil, tire case,
amounting to $76.05 extra, total $1976.05.” But contrary to many new owners,
it would not be an immediate start for home; besides being late afternoon,
the brothers were treated to an evening at the Mission Theater courtesy of
Mr. E. N. Sadler, apparently connected to the Utah Auto Company (Utah Motor
Company). Tomorrow would be the day to return home to Cache County with a
significant addition of a new automobile.
On Thursday, April 7, 1910, the four brothers and their new Cadillac left
Salt Lake City from the dealer’s place at “10:34 sharp” with a Mr. Joy at
the wheel. It remains unknown if Mr. Joy was a chauffer-instructor courtesy
of the motor company or if the Petersons paid for this service. The five men
arrived in Ogden at 1:17 p.m. where Edward and Oliver remained while Mr. Joy
accompanied by Miles and Lee continued the journey northward. The occupants
of the car stopped at Brigham City for gasoline and dinner, experienced a
flat tire and then resumed the drive and arrived home (at Logan) between
5:45 and 6 p.m. It was never explained if the brothers took a turn at
driving during the trip or if they rode and learned how to manage the
operation of an automobile by instruction and observation. Upon their
arrival home they gave “the folks” a ride and put up the auto for the night
at Logan. The two brothers who stopped at Ogden later came home by train to
Petersboro.
The brothers in Logan on Friday, without Mr. Joy, drove around Logan and
took their younger college student brother for a ride up to school in the
new car, which the diarist thought “a rare occurrence.” In the afternoon
Miles and Lee drove over to the Petersboro farm and gave several persons
rides in the new vehicle. While there were chores and other work requiring
their attention, much interest remained with the Cadillac with a close
physical examination including taking the car down to the scale at the
railroad spur and weighing it at 2,925 pounds. A few more rides for friends
and family were squeezed in on Saturday. The next day, Sunday, the family
took a team and wagon into Mendon to pick up a big order from the
Continental Oil Company of Ogden that included a fifty-five gallon tank of
gasoline. This Ogden company would be their supplier of gas for some time to
come until it could be obtained at Logan, and besides the Cadillac, the
Peterson’s possessed a boat with an engine and other stationary engines that
required gasoline. While their new automobile had only been out of the
dealer’s hands for three days with perhaps a little over one hundred miles
on it, they decided to clean it up on Sunday afternoon after their chores.
Two friends came by and were given a ride and gave their “ok” of the
vehicle. Then four of the brothers drove into Mendon and gave “all the
relations a ride”. A week after taking possession of their new automobile,
the four brothers who did the buying worked on their Cadillac. Miles and
Edward installed the speedometer while Lee and Oliver repaired an inner tube
which had punctured a week earlier near Brigham City on the trip home.
The Peterson’s Cadillac with right hand drive was not the only automobile in
the area, as Oliver’s diary of late May recorded other autos passing through
the area daily. They were becoming familiar with and getting used to their
machine, and learning of associated happenings that came all too often—flat
or punctured tires and traversing bad roads. On July 30th it was recorded
that they cleaned the vehicle and inflated the tires to 82 pounds of
pressure (the first pneumatic tires were pressurized to between 50 and 85
pounds per square inch). The following day four of the brothers “overhauled”
the car, tightening up bolts on the gear housing of the rear axle. During
the first six months of service the Cadillac made numerous short trips to
Mendon, Logan, Cache Junction and Trenton along with travel to various
locations on the farm, specific fields, the boat house on the river, etc.
Then on October 9th three of the brothers and two ladies (close friends or
relatives) started on what they called “the longest trip the auto” had made
to that point on a trip to Pocatello, Idaho; the 98.2 mile journey started
at 8:35 a.m. and took until 7 p.m. Neither the trip up nor the return trip
was denoted with vehicular troubles, and the diarist was not present on the
trip. On December 6, 1910, the brothers put their vehicle into winter
storage in the east end of their barn. They drained the water coolant and
jacked the car up and took the weight off the tires just like all the other
automobiles they knew about, thinking their open touring car was not made
for winter weather. Two and half weeks later they had some thoughts of a
different nature as the ground was getting dry on the surface with the roads
becoming smooth where they thought they “may be able to use auto if weather
holds good for a few days longer.” On December 29, 1910, Oliver’s diary
entry stated: “Ground getting dry (freezing dry) can run the auto to town
quite easily if we want to, but we don't.” Thus their automobile remained in
storage for the rest of the winter.
Each spring the Petersons with their teams dragged the county roads in their
area so they could be better traveled, and in March and April of 1911 they
again performed this community service. In addition another spring ritual
came into their lives—preparing their automobile for resumption of family
use. For 1911 it began in early April with one of the brothers removing the
“auto lamp and took out lens to replace with new ones.” A few days later
they moved the Cadillac from the east end of the barn to their machine shop
and worked on repairing the tires and fixing the top. On April 29th they
“cleaned engine on auto” and the following day Sunday they cleaned the
vehicle. May 1st three of the brothers drove their car to Logan to see the
horse show and returned to Petersboro. The following Sunday four of the
brothers worked on the vehicle making it in “good shape for a trip to
Logan.” By May 18th two of the boys began preparations “for grinding the
valves on the automobile engine.” By May 21st the “greasy tiresome job” of
grinding and cleaning the valves was finished. On May 25th the car was
driven to Logan and the four brothers worked on repairing the Cadillac, and
on May 28th they cleaned the brass on the automobile and painted the
cylinders of the engine with aluminum paint. The spring preparation along
with the many other needs of the farm caused the brothers to decide to
create a new lean-to structure for the storage of the vehicle and work
commence immediately on it. Their automobile was thereafter used for longer
trips to Lagoon Resort and Ogden Canyon plus an excursion into Box Elder
County through Garland and Fielding that encompassed 128 miles, along with
the small trips to Mendon, Trenton, Logan and quick trips to various places
on the farm such as to the river for swims and bathing. In mid-July they had
to replace the front right tire with a new one and then vulcanized the old
tire in some places where it had been deeply cut. The tires and inner tubes
were in need of frequent attention. The process of vulcanization was done
with an apparatus wherein they placed a rubber compound into the cracks in
the tire and then applied the apparatus which used heat (earliest models
used a fuel such as gasoline and a match) to vulcanize the tires and some
repairs of inner tubes.
Their automobile was used in the annual trips to Box Elder County for fruit.
Apparently they had no further problems with the automobile until
mid-October when three of the brothers removed the rear axle and wheels and
the housing around the rear pinion gear. Here examination revealed the rear
pinion gear had four teeth “about half broken out.” They ordered a new
pinion gear which came via the railroad which arrived and was replaced
within five days of the discovery. Once again the auto was back in “running
shape.” While being thus repaired, they also greased the springs of the
automobile. The local Democratic Party of Cache County asked Miles to haul
voters to the polls on November 7, 1911, but a snow storm prevented the use
of the automobile. The Cadillac was in winter storage and on December 9,
1911, they probably repositioned the vehicle and put it up on blocks, taking
all weight off the tires and drained the water from the radiator. The
diarist recorded “the auto has been in this place for about 2 months.” But
only the last month being intended storage as if the snow hadn’t come, it
would have been used to transport voters.
The 1912 season would be the third year for the 1910 Cadillac used by the
Petersons. The pre-use work on the vehicle started earlier this year,
possibly, because it was in a facility where it was easy to access. In
mid-February they began working on it, cleaning, grinding the valves and
cleaning and polishing the cylinders. Their work extended to the carburetor,
magneto and “inlet and exhaust pipes, etc.,” and by February 23rd their
inspection “found it in fine condition.” The next day they commenced
reassembling the automobile engine with some work on the vehicle in between
the regular chores and work on the farm. They sewed a mica window in the
back of their automobile top while Edward continued his work or invention of
a tire protector which would be mentioned often and was written up in a
magazine but nothing more found on this invention except it was installed on
the Peterson’s Cadillac. By March they were also engaged in dragging the
county road with a level or drag pulled by their horses to improve the
roads. On March 13 Oliver’s diary stated: “Mud slick! Slick Mud! Hell!
Damn!” Off and on through March there was attention spent on the car, when
on April 8, 1912, it came time to start the engine which “went off on the
first crank.” Four days later the brothers were vulcanizing the auto tires
noted with the observation “the vulcanized works fine and is a big money
saver,” and this continued for several days. On April 19th four inches of
snow fell and the next day another six inches came but the final work of
preparing the vehicle (a “big job”) was finally through. On April 24th the
diarist observed that Edward’s “new tire protector on the auto wheel looks
fine.” They took the car out of the shop and ran it around their place on
Sunday morning April 28th, and in the afternoon took their first trip of the
year into Mendon.
Just over two weeks later on May 14, 1912, the brothers drove their auto
into Logan to attend a meeting of “Cache automobilists for the purpose of
organizing an auto association.” The diarist termed the meeting a “fizzle,”
but three of the brothers were given a ride in Mr. George F. Thatcher’s
Oldsmobile Limited car in the evening. By this third year the Petersons were
noted for their knowledge and work on automobiles and many came or called
them for information and assistance. Erastus Yonk came for a run down on the
Cadillac and a test drive, and the Ricks brothers called for their help in
starting a balky E.M.F. car. Oliver’s diary is no longer as specific in the
way of travel to and from the various locations whether by animal, walking,
motorcycles or automobile as he was initially. He mentioned they drove to
Logan to take in the Wild West Show, and later went to Logan via Benson Ward
because the grade on the lower road was wet, therefore slick. The trip to
Logan was so the brother attending college could haul visitors from the
railroad depot up the Agricultural College. The Petersons bought a “Big
Four” gasoline tractor and began doing much contract plowing with it. In the
late fall the diary tells of putting the big tractor into winter storage but
not the automobile. The tractor was fixed up for winter on December 2nd and
two days later the diarist wrote: “Ground dry, dust flying behind autos,
team, etc., 51 degrees above zero at 2 p.m. today in shade.” It remains
unknown if the Petersons’ vehicle was kicking up any of the dust mentioned
in the diary entry. However, the Petersons and others were becoming more
comfortable with their automobiles, and over time they chose to have their
vehicles ready for use whenever the weather and roads permitted their use.
Therefore the earlier winterization was modified to the point that when
wanted the vehicle could with a minimum of work be made available for
driving.
For the 1913 season of using the Cadillac, the preparatory work again began
in February with the first effort in vulcanizing auto tires for other people
and then their own tires. While the diary doesn’t detail work on the
Cadillac, some probably took place as before. Two of the brothers were
engaged in dragging the county roads. On April 29, 1913, Miles drove up to
Cache Junction in the automobile to get a few hundred pounds of flour. The
following day he drove the automobile to a friend’s or relative’s to get a
few bushels of barley. Only for Sunday May 11th were any specifics related
in the diary such as on this day three of the brothers cleaned and oiled the
automobile, and then Edward drove into Mendon to pick up a number of
relatives and drove over to Garland for a visit. On May 22nd four of the
brothers drove over to Logan to attend the circus (“or see the crowds”). On
June 18th another trip to Brigham City to get cherries and returned via
Mantua and Wellsville canyon. There were numerous short trips to Mendon,
Logan, Cache Junction some without mentioning the mode of travel. In
mid-August they started purchasing their gasoline in Logan instead of Ogden.
In late September they installed an improved Preso-Lite lamp on the
Cadillac. In October diarist Oliver married and lived in Logan where another
married brother resided. These two needed to go the farm and back almost
every day to help their three unmarried brother with the farm and ranch
work. The 1910 Cadillac was the family-business car and was seldom used to
transport the two Logan-residing brothers to and from the farm, instead they
relied on rail transport, motorcycle and occasionally walking.
In October of 1913 there was work and repairs on the automobile during the
first part of the month, and then on October 31st they “examined the rear
axle on auto and found it in bad condition owing to a few broken parts, and
unfit for further use until repaired.” Three days later three of the
brothers removed the rear axle and examined the damaged gear and confirmed
that the Cadillac could not be used until repaired. They ordered a new part
and after its arrival they reassembled the rear axle on December 15, 1913,
and then tested it by an evening trip to Logan. Oliver’s diary records the
putting away of their farm machinery and going to the river and bringing
their “launch to put away for the winter,” but nothing was recorded about
putting the automobile away for the winter.
On January 3, 1914, the folk at the Peterson farm received a telephone call
from the Ogden hospital that their father, who had been operated on
recently, was in critical condition. The folk at the farm telephoned those
in Logan and they hired an auto to carry them to the farm. One brother
remained on the farm to do the chores and four traveled by train to Ogden,
arriving after their father's death. Later on February 3rd they began using
wagons instead of sleds in their work about the farm. By mid-March they were
using their car, and Oliver recorded in his diary for March 20th: “Many
autos passed through this locality this p.m. roads getting quite good.” By
early May Miles, the brother who had the first motorcycle and was almost
always in on any work on the family auto, decided to get his own automobile.
On May 6th he went with a man named Kimball in an automobile to Salt Lake
City to buy a vehicle. By May 10 he had a 1914 Buick Roadster 24, and this
vehicle in the diary is almost always referred to as Miles’ car. On May 30,
1914, diarist Oliver left the farm and went to Logan on a motorcycle around
noon. He and his wife went to the Cache County Fairgrounds along with his
brother Fred, wife and son. They saw the auto races “a big crowd, hundreds
of autos, thousands of people” at the “Decoration Day” celebration. With two
automobiles being used by the Petersons, the diarist kept track of them by
calling the Cadillac either by name or “big” or “large car” or “our” car or
automobile, while Miles’ vehicle was the Buick, a Roadster or Miles’ auto.
Initially Oliver was fairly precise in detailing which vehicle was used, and
there were times when both were in service at the same time. Most of the
travel dealt with short trips. On October 9, 1914, brothers Edward and
Miles, in the latter’s car, traveled down to Salt Lake City to the State
Fair and took in some airplane and auto races with “Barney Oldsfield &
Lincoln Backey” at Lagoon. The automobiles were noted as being used through
November but not mentioned during December. Apparently the weather guided
the autos use, and diarist Oliver paid attention to the weather; in late
December he noted that the 27th was cold down to two degrees above zero but
by the 29th the weather was quite mild and for the 31st it was “a quiet
pleasant day a little cold.”
In 1915 the Petersons were in their sixth year with automobiles; and like
the more venturesome fellow automobilists they continued to expand the time
period during which they used the vehicles. January’s snowfall was light
with an inch and a half to two inches early in the month, causing the family
to use sleds in feeding their animals but the auto for several trips.
January 26, 1915, three of the brothers were in their shop attempting to
repair the radiator on the family auto. No details were given on the trouble
with the radiator, leaving the possibility that without anti-freeze and
winter use the radiator may not have been drained quick enough to prevent
some freezing damage to the small thin tubes of the radiator. Apparently the
problem was not severe as the following day Ed drove the Cadillac to Logan
on a pleasant day with mostly sunshine with the snow melting. For some
automobilists the days of jacking their vehicles up for the winter were over
and road conditions governed the usage of their vehicles. On March 17th
Miles went to Logan in his automobile and got stuck in the mud at the west
side of Logan and had to be pulled out. He stayed in Logan overnight and the
next day returned to the farm via another route through College, Wellsville
and Mendon to avoid the “mire in the road” west of Logan. A couple of days
later, Fred went to Logan in a cart pulled by horses, perhaps due to the
road conditions. Oliver in his diary mentions repairs to the Cadillac and
getting it “in running condition” several times as well as work done on the
motorcycles for the same purpose. Through all seasons the farm and ranch
operations kept the family occupied with the daily work and chores, however
Sunday, although much work was accomplished on this day, was the biggest
change wherein there seemed to be some spare time. Taking a Sunday drive
with the family took place fairly frequent. A recorded example of this came
on Sunday, April 25th when one of the unmarried brothers in the Cadillac
picked up the two married brothers and their families in Logan in the
afternoon and drove out to the family farm at Petersboro for a few hours of
visiting, and then returned to Logan where they rode about town for about
three-quarters of a hour.
In May the brothers did some work on the family automobile such, as
“varnish, enameled, etc. auto,” and put a nickel finish on the brass parts
and filled the vehicles oil lamps. The mechanical skills of the brothers
were usually sufficient to take care of their machines, but in the summer of
1915 Oliver’s motorcycle proved a severe test and was out of operation for
an extended period and finally taken to another repair facility. During this
summer Oliver mentions traveling to Logan most often with his brother Miles
in the Buick Roadster, which again became struck in the road mud going to
Logan. For several weeks the local newspaper had heralded a coming event of
the Liberty Bell passing through Cache Junction en route to San Francisco
where it would be featured in the Great Trans-Pacific Expedition honoring
the 400th anniversary of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific
Ocean. The huge bell would be transported on an extraordinary car on a
special train with strict security and timetable. On July 10, 1915, the
train with the bell made short stops in Ogden and Brigham City before making
its only stop in Cache Junction at 6:25 p.m. for its fifteen minute stop.
Diarist Oliver didn’t go to see it, but Lee, Miles and Fred with his wife
and son went to see the sight. Besides the bell they saw “hundreds of
automobiles filling the valley with dust.” The Cache County sheriff
anticipated a crowd of 3,000 but afterwards it was guessed it was closer to
8,000. A newspaper reporter counted the automobiles at the event and came up
with 356, which a later commenter observed was “probably the majority of the
automobiles in the entire valley.”
Whenever possible they continued to operate their automobiles, perhaps
stopped more by muddy slick roads than anything else. The diarist recorded
for Sunday, Nov. 7, 1915, “roads very muddy, we were compelled to put the
tire chains on the auto wheels and then we were unable to move faster than
about 6 or 8 miles per hour.” Throughout his diary Oliver mentioned the use
of tire chains many times in connection with muddy roads which he often
described as “greasy.” December 4th, he related the “Roads very greasy, not
many autos on public roads by here.” He inserted a note at the top of his
diary page “Both autos are in Logan,” an unusual situation perhaps caused by
road conditions. On the last day of 1915, Oliver and Lee got the family auto
ready to carry Fred’s wife Emma and baby to Ballard Junction (the Benson
cutoff about half way from the ranch and Cache Junction) where they could
catch the train to their home in Logan. Oliver's wife Neveva and their baby
had gone to the Haws ranch east of Newton on December 24, 1915, to spend the
holidays with her family. On Sunday, January 2nd, Oliver rode the train from
Petersboro to Cache Junction and then walked via the railroad track to the
Haws place east of Newton some three to five miles. The following day the
Haws’ family carried Oliver, Neveva and the baby to Cache Junction in their
automobile. At the junction the Petersons boarded a 5 p.m. train for Logan
via the Benson cutoff, arriving home in Logan about 6:15 p.m.
A couple of days later the Peterson brothers began harvesting ice from the
Roundy slough and placing it in their ice house at the farm. While engaged
in this work, Dr. K. Campbell mired his automobile in a wet low place on the
county road near the Peterson’s gates on the railroad crossing. Fred went
and pulled the doctor out, but the diarist’s didn’t reveal this was done
with a team. But the weather soon shut down all automobile traffic in the
county with a heavy snow with much drifting to the point that the interurban
cars were stopped for a time due to the snow drifts on January 18th. Two
weeks later the heavy snow came with fifteen inches in one day with up to
twenty on the ground at Petersboro which stopped the trains and the
interurban in early February. The Petersons used a sleigh, riding the train
or walking to get their mail at Mendon or travel to other points. By
mid-March the Peterson family used the auto for short trips in their area
due to the muddy road after the snow melted. By April 5th they had a caller,
Mose Dahle, with trouble with his vehicle having a pinched tire and the
brothers helped him. Most often the calls for assistance came from persons
whose vehicles because stuck. The prospects brightened as the “Road getting
dry lots of auto passing everyday,” according to a diary entry. The
Petersons called a veterinarian in Logan to come out to Petersboro to doctor
a very sick cow, and he came in his automobile. More often and important
were calls for Logan doctors, who in their cars came out to perform their
services.
With the coming of spring, one of the Ecklund brothers from Newton came to
the Peterson place on April 4th selling some “carbon remover auto polish.”
The salesman made his sell and a week and a half later he delivered the
carbon remover to the Petersons. Nothing more was found in the diary as to
whether it worked or not. In May of 1916, Miles worked on his Roadster,
changing tires and making sure it was in good running shape. The Cadillac
had an axle problem and after getting an axle from Logan two of the brothers
repaired the family auto axle, and by early June they were again working on
the Cadillac, apparently the water pump. The highlight of the year 1916 came
in July when Oliver moved his family to the old Maughan house at Petersboro,
ending his dreaded exile in the city, returning to a country life he loved.
Another high point came on August 24, 1916, when a party of Utah County
farmers "numbering nearly two hundred came to the farm in forty-three
autos.” The diarist thought it was "a red letter day for the farm." Two of
the brothers showed the visitors about the place, who were interested in its
varied enterprises and how it was operated. These visits by farmer groups
came quite often with some returning annually to see the Petersons’ setup
and operations. The family Cadillac found frequent use carrying gas, oil and
other supplies to the big tractor and for the threshing crew, but on
September 4th the big car stopped on the road. Three of the brothers took
the Buick out and towed in the big car. Two days later after a brother had
worked on the Cadillac, it was still out of commission and then the Buick
"went on the blink,” and they did not know what was wrong with either car.
However, a week later both were back in use again. By this time Fred had
built a home near his mother's home, and Oliver was living a mile away;
there was seemingly constant need of someone going to Mendon, Cache Junction
and Logan for the mail, groceries, something for the farm, personal items,
school district business, charities and etc.
Finally, Oliver bought a car for his family, a new 1917 Model T Ford.
Brother Ed brought the car from Logan on October 26, 1916; its first use
came the next day when brother Lee took the school teacher and Fred’s son
Conrad to the school house. On October 29th, Oliver and his family took
their first ride in their new Model T, traveling to the Haws farm east of
Newton with brother Lee as chauffeur. For Thanksgiving many of the extended
family was invited to the Farrells’ place but perhaps due a cold snap Oliver
couldn’t get his Model T started, so they resorted to the old ways and went
by team and wagon. By December 7 there was four inches of snow on the level
ground with temperatures down to zero, resulting in using horse drawn power
on sled boxes and sleighs for a short period of time. Then the weather eased
a bit and on December 17 Miles with his Buick made a couple of trips to
Logan and went to Mendon for the mail. A few days later the snow returned in
full force that by Christmas buried the area in two feet of snow which
Oliver noted was the “heaviest for many years.” The snow and drifts put all
the Oregon Short Line trains late and those that moved had two locomotives
on each train. Taking advantage of the deep snow
two of the Peterson brothers decided to hunt coyotes which were troublesome
and found the depth of snow advantageous since it greatly hindered attempts
at escape. On the last day of 1916 Miles walked to Mendon to get the mail
and returned on the seven o’clock train to the Petersboro spur and traveled
to Logan and back via the trains. Winter continued and in February it became
worse with cattle and horses starving and freezing to death, according to
the diarist, by the hundreds in northern Utah and southern Idaho. By
February 20 the blizzard of snow with severe wind blocked the tracks for the
O.S.L. and the Ogden, Logan and Idaho interurban trains for two days. Oliver
wrote in his diary noted he had shovel out 600 feet of pathways four times
due to the snow and drifting. It definitely was not favorable weather for
the automobiles.
But spring did come along with the usual period of muddy roads and driving
with chains. An important change came when Oliver began teaching wife Neveva
to drive their car. While the diarist didn’t give details the learning
involves handling the braking, the interplanetary transmission with the
three pedals, the hand throttle and spark advance levers, steering and
starting the vehicle. By 1917 many of the cars came with electric motor
starters but not the Model T. So the instruction process had to include this
element which was generally thought to prevent women from operating
hand-cranked machines. Neveva had grown up on the Haws’ farm and after she
and Oliver moved to Petersboro, she raised chickens, took care of the garden
and normally did the milking of their cow or two kept at their place. She
learned that the low compression Ford engine during periods when it wasn’t
cold could be cranked without brute physical force with proper adjustment
and a coordinated short turn of the crank. On July 6, 1917, Neveva made
perhaps her initial run accompanied by her two children going to Mendon in
the Ford and did some shopping; Oliver’s twin brother Ed accompanied them.
This run was followed five days later when Neveva drove the Model T to Logan
and returned about four o’clock and upon reaching the lower main farm where
she remained for an hour or so to allow the engine to cool off. The engine
had overheated due to the drain plug in the gear case coming out through
being loose. She had experienced no other problems and had the wisdom to let
the engine cool down before traveling another mile to her home. On July
24th, Neveva with her two children and two sisters-in-law were out shopping
and had a blowout on one of the car tires. A telephone call to the farm
brought a quick response and the four brothers converged at the scene of the
trouble; the ladies and children were taken home while three of the brothers
replaced the tire. Thereafter, Neveva was an important part in the
transportation of the Petersons. She cared for her children, home and her
chickens and cows, and much more. She frequently took her sister-in-law Emma
(Fred’s wife) to get the mail, groceries and other shopping or running
errands. Oliver’s diaries note many of the times Neveva picked him up from
one farm location and drove to another, or brought him home saving at least
a walk of a mile after his day’s work. Judging from the diary entries it
would appear that Neveva made many more trips in their automobile and
covered more miles than her husband.
In the latter part of the summer of 1917 Miles Peterson was taken into the
U.S. Army due to the world war. At Fort Douglas he had a physical and
vaccinations, then to New York State for training and finally shipped to
France in November. While Miles was in the service, the family hired another
person to assist in the farm work and chores on a regular basis. Initially
Miles’ Buick was used by others in the family, but either this stopped or
the diarist did not record anything on this vehicle. Instead there was
mention of several acquaintances or neighbors trading in their first cars
for larger or “DeLuxe” models with visits from salesman trying to interest
the Petersons in the same upgrading. However, the Model T continued in
service and seemed to be used for or by others in the family quite
frequently. Perhaps in part due to his infrequent driving of the Ford,
Oliver related a November 22, 1917, problem he encountered with it. The
previous Sunday the 18th he had taken his wife and children to the Haws’
farm and after dinner he left Neveva and the children for a few days. On the
22nd Oliver drove over to the Haws’ place and had a good breakfast and
started home with the family. On the return trip the Ford engine gave
trouble in overheating which the diarist acknowledged was due to his
forgetting to close the pea cock valve where the oil level was checked. This
allowed some oil to splash out and with the trip to the farm and back enough
had escaped to the point that the engine overheated. This was a frequent
problem for Model T operators, perhaps second only to trying to start the
Model T when it was cold.
Oliver complained in his diary on January 21, 1918, that he spent most of
the morning attempting to start that “celebrated ‘Ford’ engine” and
concludes it was one “hell of a job” before getting it to run. Sunday,
February 10th, Oliver walked the mile to the lower farm to do chores and
returned to his house for dinner and again went through the trial of trying
to start the Ford engine which required two hours. With the Ford running, he
and family drove down to the lower farm and visited with the folks. Two days
later he experienced the same trouble, and after some unsuccessful cranking
he decided to try something else. He brought in a team hitched to a sled and
tried to start his car in gear by compression via pulling it around the yard
only to observe in his diary that the “engine was too cold for gasoline to
vaporize.” However, he found that the pulling facilitated it so the engine
could be more easily cranked and started by hand. With the Ford running, he
drove his wife and others to the Petersboro siding where they boarded the
train for Logan. While Oliver’s family remained at the Haws home in Logan,
he took another approach to starting his Ford in cold weather. He was
frustrated with the difficulties of starting his Ford in cold weather to the
point of trying another technique, and it remains unknown if he came by this
on his own, or heard or read about this method. On February 15th, being home
alone, he arose at 5 a.m. and made a fire and put a boiler of water on the
stove “to be used in warming up the ‘Ford.’” Prior to this time, the engine
coolant water was drained out when the car was not to be operated for a
period of time. When wanting to use the car, cold water was put into the
radiator before attempting to start the vehicle. They were not using any
anti-freeze prior to this time. At 6:30 a.m. he began warming up the Ford by
pouring in the heated water into the drained radiator. Now after the hot
water was poured in warming up the engine and by 8 a.m. he had in his words,
“the engine actually running” in a short time. Allowing the Ford engine to
continue running, he shoveled a road from the storage garage to the road and
milked their cow, and then at 9 a.m. he started his trip to Logan with the
car engine thoroughly warmed. He had dinner at the Haws home with Neveva and
the kiddies, and then he spent an hour in the business part of Logan, and
returned home alone in mid afternoon. He made fires in his kitchen and
parlor and then drove down to the Petersboro Spur and picked up his wife and
children, returning home in the warmth of a closed train car. Thereafter
Oliver frequently used the heated water technique to start his Ford in cold
weather.
In between a host of activities such as Red Cross drives, Liberty bond
drives, German measles breakout, “hellish weather,” and influenza the
automobile was used often. It also received care, as there were things such
as springs that broke and Oliver found it wise to regularly clean the spark
plugs on his car. There also continued the parade of tire problems and
getting the car stuck in the mud. However, the next important learning
experience came in December of 1919. On the 5th of the month Oliver took his
family to the Haws’ farm east of Newton and after lunch and a short visit,
he returned home by himself. Three days later on the 8th he set out to bring
his family back home. On that morning he did the usual chores, and then
“warmed up a tea kettle of water, gave it to the Ford as an inducement to
start without much cranking.” Starting for the Haws’ place he had no
difficulties with the road and was soon traveling east of Newton crossing
the creek and ascend the “long hill” when the engine stopped. He cranked it
up again and it ran a few seconds and stopped, and he repeated this until
the car wouldn’t start. By now he decided the difficulty was a combination
of low level of gas in the tank and in ascending the hill which prevented
the gravity feed from supplying fuel to the carburetor. He walked back into
Newton and was able to procure three gallons of gasoline and returned to his
Ford and poured it into the tank. But on the cold day with the temperature
not much above zero, he found the engine was too cold to start. So he walked
back to the nearest house (home of John Jenkins) and was able to obtain a
tea kettle of hot water and returned to his vehicle. According to his diary,
he “was compelled to drain [the radiator] as the bitter cold N.W. wind was
freezing things up.” He poured in the small amount of hot water and started
the engine, realizing he had an insufficient amount of coolant water for his
car. Most likely he turned around and drove back to the creek and “carried a
bucket full of water and refilled the radiator” and returned the tea kettle
to its owner. Oliver was by this time now suffering from the cold, his
fingers and hands were numb, and his right ear was frozen and swollen to
twice its natural size. In his diary he wrote that he could not remember
ever suffering “so intensely from the cold nor for so long a period during
life.” The morning trip had turned into an ordeal, and it was 3:40 p.m.
before he had everything ready to continue in the Ford, but he decided it
was risky to continue so he “turned around and sailed for home.” Within
three miles at Cache Junction he was forced to replenish the water supply in
the radiator. Instead of going directly to his home at the upper farm, he
stopped at the main farm pulling the car in a shelter and drained the
radiator as the temperature dropped below zero. At his mother’s home where
two of his brothers lived, he or they tended to his hurts, gave him
something to eat and a ready warm place to sleep. He was disappointed in not
being able to get his wife and family back home, and he knew his automobile
had some problems.
The next day after breakfast he walked to his home on the upper farm and did
the chores and returned to the main farm afoot. He poured hot water in the
radiator and started the Ford intending to take it to the upper farm but
found the snow crusted to make it better to leave the car where it had been
parked overnight. With the temperature at six below he drained the radiator.
The cold wind continued to blow and the temperature dropped to eleven below
zero. Due to the cold weather and possibly the feared condition of the
Ford’s radiator, Oliver waited several days before taking a team pulling a
sled with a wagon box with an enclosure for people and picked up his family
and returned home. On Sunday, December 21st, he went through the process of
putting hot water in the radiator, starting car, driving to his home on the
upper farm and draining the radiator. The next day he went through the
ritual of starting the Ford and left early for Logan, finding that with a
“very leaky radiator” had to refilled twice on the short five to six mile
drive. He took the Ford to a repair garage to have them work on his
radiator. About seven hours later he picked up his car to drive home,
wondering if he could reach home without trouble, which he did. Over the
next few days he used the car around the farm and mail trips to Mendon. On
Sunday, December 28th, Oliver and the whole family planned to drive the one
mile down to the main farm, and while he did not detail the process he
recorded it took “about two hours preparation” before they drove that mile.
Some of that time involved pouring a small amount of hot water into the
radiator and starting the car, then finish filling the radiator with cold
water and allowing the car to warm up sufficiently to run smoothly. On the
last day of the year 1919, Oliver drove his car to Logan and took it to the
Cache Auto Company garage “to have the radiator filled with a non freezable
solution good for 20 deg. below zero--water 1/3 and alcohol two thirds, it
doesn't freeze, but evaporates rapidly, and is therefore quite expensive.”
Now the car was winterized more than ever before but anti-freeze did not
solve the difficulty of starting in cold weather. However, it gave greater
flexibility and put an end to draining the radiator when the car was not to
be used in cold weather for a period of time. At such times, the operator
could turn the crank a few times to see if the car would start before
applying a modified assisted starting procedure, which involved putting a
bucket under the radiator and draining some of the coolant allowing room for
adding hot water to warm the engine and then starting the engine. After the
engine was running the radiator was refilled with the coolant caught in the
drain bucket. Unless previous drained coolant was used in the acquiring the
hot water, there would have been a surplus of the drained coolant and some
alcohol added to maintain the required anti-freeze level.
After a decade of automobile experience, the Petersons were using their
automobiles to a high degree, finding many advantages over animal powered
transportation. The later model automobiles improved and many wanted the new
features along with individual transport. On January 9, 1920, Ed and Lee
Peterson bought a new Dodge automobile, perhaps signaling the end of their
family car arrangement with their decade old Cadillac. Five days later the
brothers took the Cadillac touring car from its normal storage place and
moved it into their shop to make “a truck out of the chassis, by adding a
Graham truck attachment to it thereby making a first class 1 ½ ton truck.”
So the Cadillac-Graham truck, as it was sometimes called, became the farm’s
truck with Ed and Lee’s Dodge kept where the first car had been sheltered.
Miles had returned from the armed service in April of 1919 and used his
Buick Roadster until May of 1920 when he traded it in for a new Nash
Roadster with six cylinders. Oliver and Neveva retained their Model T and
spruced it up a bit a couple of times. Then in early 1924 they bought a new
Buick which had an electric starter and Oliver noted in his diary it was a
“real car.” However, they retained their old Model T Ford, the flivver or
jitney that Oliver had sometimes wrote harsh words about in his diary, for
service at the farm. Henry Ford’s wonderful Model T would continue its long
factory production for another three years, and individuals continued using
their Model T's seemingly forever.
Source: Oliver Larsen Peterson diaries – 1901-1909 as background and 1910
through 1924 for the information on their automobiles. The holograph diaries
of Oliver Larsen Peterson are in the Manuscript Collection in the Special
Collections & Archives at Utah State University at Logan, Utah, contained in
37 volumes plus some loose papers covering the years from 1895 through 1951.
Digital copies are in the Bear River Watershed Historical Collection by the
Utah State University under the title of "Oliver Larsen Peterson Diaries.”
For details on the Liberty Bell at Cache Junction see Brooks & Leona Roundy
& Esther R. Heaps, Cache Junction; Cache Valley's Only Railroad Town (2004),
109-110.
THE AUTOMOBILE AT NEWTON
Six miles north of the Peterson farm and cattle operation and on the west
side of Cache Valley another automobile came on the scene a little over six
weeks after the Peterson’s Cadillac. The public announcement of the event
came in the local news of the Logan newspaper on May 31, 1910, as follows:
“The first automobile to go into Newton is a Studebaker E.M.F. 30 sold to E.
L. Larson.”5 The name was spelled with the wrong ending as it should have
been “Larsen,” and he might have been better known by as many people in
Logan as in Newton where he was residing on his farm east of town. It might
be well to give a brief background on the family. Erastus’s parents were
born in Denmark, joined the Church and emigrated to Utah. His father was
Rasmus Hansen Christensen using the Danish patronymics instead of surnames
and after Rasmus arrived in America he changed his last name to Larsen. He
married Maren Kirstine Peterson (known as Mary) in December of 1865 at Logan
where the family continued to reside. The father was a cooper (maker of
wooden cask and barrels), and the new family was found on the 1870 census at
Logan with a three-year-old son Erastus and a year old daughter Amanda.
Apparently Rasmus never owned farm land, just city lots. A decade later for
the 1880 census the family remained at Logan, with father Ramus at age 40,
wife Mary at age 38 with son Erastus at age thirteen attending school along
with two younger sisters, Amanda (age 11) and Emma (age 9) also at school
and youngest sister Ida at five at home. Two children had died young before
the census was taken. Rasmus was active in his Mormon Church and in October
of 1887, he left Logan and his family to serve a mission to Scandinavia for
his faith. He traveled by train to New York City, by ship to Liverpool,
England, and by streamer finally to Copenhagen, Denmark; by November,
shortly before his forty-eighth birthday, he was assigned to work in the
Randers branch. While on this mission he became acquainted with several
leaders from Logan that he mentioned in a small book he kept. Whatever else
happened on his mission remains unknown, but by the time he returned to Utah
he was determined to enter into “the principal” (plural marriage) at the
height of the federal government prosecution of polygamists and within
months before plural marriages formally ended. In 1890 the Mormons issued
the “Manifesto” finally conceding to the government’s demand to abandon
polygamy, but what appeared in print and on the surface had some strange and
puzzling side events. While some highly secretive plural marriages continued
even in Cache the most common practice was to continue “the principal”
outside the United State with Mexico perhaps the choice place. Therefore,
Rasmus left for the Mormon colonies in Mexico where he married a second wife
on August 13, 1892, and he probably had limited contact with his first
family in Logan. The Mormon colonies in Mexico were targets in the long
Mexican revolution which caused their exodus in 1912. Rasmus brought his
second family to Logan in August of 1912 where his first wife lived, and
both wives died in 1918 with Rasmus living another ten years.
6
At the time his father left on his mission, Erastus L. Larsen, born at Logan
in 1866 and at age twenty-one, was responsible for the care of his mother
and her younger children. On January 12, 1889, perhaps near the time his
father returned from his mission, son Erastus filed to purchase the eastern
half of the northwest quarter section of section 21 of Township 13 North,
Range 1 West of the Salt Lake Base and Meridian survey. These eighty acres
were located just east of Newton and outside the town limits just over a
mile according to the survey map. Erastus received the patent for this land
on October 2, 1891. Just over a year later Erastus married Valeria Andrews
at Logan on October 25, 1892. While a shack or cabin possibly was erected
early on the farm, the Erastus L. Larsen family’s orientation was primarily
on Logan, where both had lived and had family. Until a more substantial
house (yellow brick house) was built at the farm, Erastus and his family
probably resided in Logan much of the time with perhaps summer stays at the
farm location. But with time the ranch became their home place and nearby
Newton their community. They were in the Newton precinct outside the town’s
limits and for church, groceries, mail and social functions it was where
they came, and therefore their automobile was also Newton’s first.
7
Just over half a century later as Newton was soon to celebrate the
centennial of its founding for a planned history marking that anniversary, a
series of interviews were made of the older Newton residents regarding the
old days. Among those interviewed was Mrs. Eva Petersen Benson and to the
queries as to who had the first automobile in Newton, she responded that it
was either Erastus L. Larsen or Fred Fredricksen. Furthermore, she related
that when the early automobile came the people wanted to see them,
especially the kids, and they could hear the vehicles coming from some
distance and they would run to the nearest road or street to catch a close
glimpse of the passing car. Eva had her first ride in the Erastus Larsen car
when she was around ten, as she and her family rode home from church a few
times in it. She described her first experience riding in the car as “like
gliding on air.”8
Erastus Larsen was a farmer at the age of forty-four when he brought the
first automobile to his Newton precinct residence in late May of 1910. The
best proof and confirmation of this claim to being the first automobile in
the Newton area comes from a law the state passed and put into effected in
May of 1909, which required every owner of an automobile to register his
ownership and the vehicle with the state’s secretary of state for a small
fee that allowed the vehicle’s use within the state. Two months after
acquiring his automobile, E. L. Larsen so registered as the owner of a
Studebaker E.M.F. on August 2, 1910, giving his address as Logan. It was not
surprising for Erastus to give Logan instead of his farm address due to his
presence and connection with the larger community. The 1910 census clearly
shows he resided in the Newton precinct outside the town’s limits, and the
next state automobile registration took place in 1915 and Mr. E. L. Larsen
registered the same E.M.F. automobile with his address cited as Newton,
Utah. Under the state law Erastus was assigned the number 1220 which he was
required to display at the rear of his vehicle in block letters four inches
high and one-half inch in width whether painted directly on the car body or
on something such a piece of metal or leather and fastened to the rear of
the vehicle. Larsen was a bit tardy in registering as an owner with his
vehicle as the law allowed a grace period of ten days, but given the
distance from the registration site at Salt Lake City the two month delay
was not unusual. 9
The curious thing about this first car was the fact that it came two years
and four vehicles before what became a common folklore claim of Newton’s
first automobile. In the series of interviews with elderly residents of
Newton during the 1960s to the question of who had the first automobile in
town some fifty plus years earlier, most responded that Pearl Jenkins was
the first. While there were some who couldn’t remember, among those most
positive of whom was first, three named examples will be mentioned. Archie
Jenkins, long time teacher and later principal at the Newton elementary
school, both in classroom discussions and a much later interview in 1968
maintained that Pearl had the first car and cited examples of things Pearl
did that attracted much attention with his car. Elizabeth Ecklund, who would
have been in her early to mid twenties when the first car came to town,
maintained that Pearl Jenkins had the first automobile in town. She related
that he bought a second hand car from one of the Thatcher brothers in Logan.
She recalled the vehicle had a top with canvas side curtains, and it made
quite an impression as the citizens watched the machine in wonderment, but
the horses were sacred by it, especially the large cars like Pearl Jenkins’.
Miss Ecklund, when interviewed was in her eighties, and she added that
Erastus Larsen had an early car and her brother Emil Ecklund bought a used
Rio with a starting crank on the side and the small car had a tiny gas tank
so small that her brother carried a gallon can of gasoline on every trip in
the car. Emil took about 45 minutes to drive from Newton to Logan. Much
later in a letter Maud Barker Jorgensen (born in 1899) wrote: “I remember
Pearl Jenkins (my cousin) as having the first automobile in Newton but do
not remember who had cars after that.” She reflected that a former resident
of Newton, Nephi Nessen, used to return to Newton almost every Decoration
Day from Blue Creek in Box Elder County with his family in their car.
10
Those cited above cannot be dismissed with the lift of the eyebrow or the
shrug of the shoulder as some family histories claims for they were
knowledgeable and solid on Newton early times. To help understand or explain
the differences between those claiming Pearl Jenkins was the first with an
auto and the documented records, the following scenario might be helpful.
First, possibly they made the distinction between Newton proper and the
Newton precinct as Erastus Larsen lived on this farm one mile east of the
town limits. Moreover, Pearl Jenkins probably made many more trips into and
around the town than did Erastus since for two years after he bought his car
(1912 when his father returned from Mexico), his orientation was linked
strongly with Logan with limited trips into Newton for church, the mail and
stores. Lastly, Pearl made his trips whether short excursions within town or
into or out of town with enough flamboyance and flair to make some of them
unforgettable. His new house was built just north of the public square and
within half a block of the two stores and post office, giving him a good
central location to be seen by others. According to the interviews, whenever
he started his car and went somewhere or returned he attracted attention. In
his mannerism while behind the wheel, possibly circling the block instead of
driving directly to his intended destination or whatever, he drew attention
especially among the younger set and he didn’t disappoint whatever audience
he attracted. Recalling from the mid-1960s back to 1910 (for Erastus Larsen
or Will Jones in June 1912) or October of 1912 to Pearl Jenkins back over
half a century, which memory would be the most vivid? Pearl’s trips were
memorable jewels not easily forgotten while Erastus’ were few, short and
mundane unless you had your first ride in his automobile.
Sometimes small tidbits can be found in the Logan newspapers, mostly as
letters to the editor or article written by a resident giving the news of
Newton. One such came from June 4, 1912, stating: “Newton is boasting
another automobile, this time the owner being our genial well to do citizen,
Will Jones. His car is a beauty, of the E.M.F. 30 horsepower latest model.
It is needless to say that Will has now joined the ‘good road’
enthusiastists (sic), for an improvement in our streets would cut down
expense contingent with running his auto. Those who are fortunate enough to
be in Will’s circle of friends have enjoyed an auto ride the past few days.”
The same issue told about Newton’s Dr. Alton meeting with an auto accident
as he was going to visit an out-of-town patient the previous week. The
Doctor’s car tipped over and pinned him underneath and when rescued, he had
a broken shoulder. 11 Dr. Jacob F. Alton, from the Midwest, came to Newton
sometime in 1909 and lodged at the small Benson Hotel in town. He was a
large man in his forties and single. He came to Newton after serving as a
physician in Malad, Idaho, for a time. Apparently he was quickly liked and
found some business for his services in the small town, and in December of
1909 the Newton Town Board asked him to serve as health officer in the
community and accepted his proposition to charge $2.00 per call in that
capacity. When the 1910 census was taken, Dr. Alton was enrolled as single
at age 43 residing at the Benson Hotel. In December of 1910 the Town Board
accepted and paid his bill for $6 for his efforts at health officer. Then
perhaps belatedly the Utah Medical Examiners granted a license to practice
medicine in Utah to “J. F. Alton of Newton” in early April of 1911. As best
as can be ascertained, the doctor resided in Newton from when he arrived in
late 1909 through June of 1911 without any noticeable absence except he went
to Nevada in the spring of 1911. It appears that any and all transportation
to this point by Dr. Alton came by way of animal power. By mid-June of 1911
there were repeated mentioning that he was considering leaving for someplace
else. The source for this information was a local correspondent to one of
the Logan newspapers writing the news from Newton. The first episode came on
June 11, 1911, as follows: "Dr. J. F. Alton, who has resided in Newton for
some time has been thinking of leaving for the west. Since Dr. Alton came to
Newton he has done considerable work here and also in the neighboring towns.
He has proven himself to be a man of experience along his line, Mr. Alton
has the best wishes of the Newton citizens and they hope he will remain and
continue his work the same as before."
A week later the news was that the Dr. Alton had left Newton to return to
Malad to resume his practice. The Newton correspondent expressed the sadness
of the community in losing one who was needed so badly in the town, and
wished they could have kept him. However, by mid-October of the same year
the doctor returned to Newton with the praise that “Dr. Alton had done
considerable work here and also in neighboring towns.” Possibly the doctor
was a restless man and very likely there was insufficient business,
especially cash paying patient, in the small town, and during his absence he
was replaced as Newton’s health officer. The last news of him comes with the
June accident in 1912 when he tipped his car over while going to visit a
patient. There was no information hinting he had an automobile prior to this
tipping over of his car, perhaps he just procured his car hoping to improve
his business by using it. 12 Dr. Alton never registered as an automobile
owner in Utah through 1915, suggesting he possessed his automobile a very
short time before the accident. There has been nothing found on the doctor
after his accident.
The most reliable listing of automobile owners in Newton comes from the
State of Utah register which became in May of 1909 and carried through into
May of 1915. The Newton owners on this listing with their assigned number,
name of owner, location, make of car (including factory number, style car
with horsepower) and date of registration are as follows, noting the first
with a Logan residence as explained earlier:
No. Owners Name – Residence – Make of car, factory#, style, H.P. – Date
registered
1220 – Larson, E. L. – Logan – Studebaker E.M.F. – Aug. 2, 1910
2139 – Jones, W. R. – Newton – E.M.F. f# 40715 Touring car 30 h.p. – June 4,
1912
2355 – Haws, D. E. – Newton – E.M.F. f#300593 Touring car 30 h.p. – Aug. 3,
1912
2403 – Rigby, Wm. F. – Newton – E.M.F. f# a31603 Touring car 30 h.p. – Aug.
23, 1912
2508 – Jenkins, Pearl E. – Newton – E. M. F. f#45307 Touring car 30 h.p. –
Oct. 5, 1912
2935 – Frederickson, Fred – Newton – Studebaker f#12478 Touring car 25 h.p.
– April 29, 1913
3896 – Beck, Dr. W. W. – Newton – Ford f#230863 Touring car 22 h.p. – Oct.
3, 1913
3964 – Beck, M. T. – Newton – Ford f#270056 Touring car 20 h.p. – Oct. 30,
1913
4192 – Christensen, Chris – Newton – Buick f#7429 Touring car 28 h.p. – Mar.
17, 1914
5089 – Griffin, W. H. – Newton – Ford f#419283 Touring car 22 h.p. – June 3,
1914
5430 – Peterson, Andrew – Newton – Studebaker f#4B8740 Touring car 25 h.p. –
July 6, 1914
5808 – Christensen, Nephi – Newton – Studebaker f#16869 Touring car 30 h.p.
– Aug. 31, 1914
5588 – Williams, T. E. – Newton – Studebaker f#17117 Touring car 25 h.p. –
July 17, 1914
6004 – Johnson, A. A. – Newton – Maxwell f#6034 Touring car 25 h.p. – Sept.
24, 1914
6218 – Jenkins, P. E. – Newton – Jeffery f#45219 Touring car 38-42 h.p. –
Dec. 2, 1914
6445 – Hansen, James P. – Newton – Buick f#147273 Touring car 37 h.p. – Feb.
24, 1915 13
A quick survey of the above names reveals the follow: D. E. Haws lived in
Newton precinct on the east side of Little Mountain; auto owner Wm. F. Rigby
remains a mystery unless the widow or family of Wm. F. Rigby, Jr. used the
deceased man’s name in registering; Dr. W. W. Beck was a Newton fellow who
had just finished his medical training and never lived in Newton while a
doctor; T. E. Williams is not known, possibly a new person trying to find a
way of living in Newton or employed by the company installing the culinary
water system; and A. A. Johnson from the east side of the county was the new
principal of the Newton school who quite possibly bought his automobile
because of his new position and location. For four of the above persons the
time between purchasing their new vehicle and getting it licensed by the
state can be determined. For Will Jones and Fred Frederickson it was the
same day or within a day or two, W. H. Griffin about thirty-three days and
for Chris Christensen half a month. The state was making a concerted effort
to force owners to comply with the law. The registration records show that
by the end of 1912 there were only five automobiles in the Newton area with
one (#2403 the Rigby auto questionable) and by the end of 1913 the total on
paper was eight with two probably not present (#2403 Rigby and #3896 Dr.
Beck were elsewhere). By February of 1915 the total Newton vehicles on the
register came to sixteen but no more than a dozen were traversing the
streets and roads in and around Newton. The automobiles were still somewhat
a novelty and news worthy for the newspapers. In May of 1913 under Newton
news was coverage of Fred Fredricksen purchasing a “late model car” and Mr.
and Mrs. Fredricksen and family were driven to Logan “in their new car by
the Studebaker demonstrator.” It made the newspaper that George L. Jones
“autoed” to Richmond one day in May of 1913, and Fred Fredricksen “motored”
to Logan in his Studebaker 25 in January of 1914. When information reached
the newspaper or local correspondent that someone had purchased a new
automobile, it was relayed to the printed medium, such as Chris Christensen
buying a new Buick in February of 1914 and W. H. Griffin had a new
automobile in late April of 1914. 14
However, such newspaper reports and checking of the old records can possibly
reveal a mystery. One of the Logan newspapers for May 7, 1914, gave some
automotive news for the Cache area. The Blair Motor Company had just
unloaded a railroad car of Buick automobiles. A man from Preston had
recently purchased a 55 horsepower six cylinder Buick and two local men had
purchased Fords. Then the newspaper continued with “M. C. Rigby of Newton
has purchased a 35-4” Buick, possessing 35 horse- power and four cylinders.
15 Quite routine in 1914 but when compared with the official registration
list of automobile owners kept by the secretary of state’s office for the
period between May of 1909 and May of 1915, no entry could be found for M.
C. Rigby and the Buick purchased in May of 1914. Double checking of the
microfilmed copy of the old records revealed in the alphabetical records two
Rigbys, one from Lewiston and #2403 for Newton with the name and date not
even close. At the time M. C. Rigby was the Bishop of Newton and a prominent
businessman, grain buyer, farmer, etc., and his first counselor had recently
purchased a new auto and registered it two weeks later. Unless the newspaper
report cited above was for a pending sale that never materialize, there are
basically two options, either Bishop Rigby did not comply with the law, or
somehow his name and vehicle fell through the cracks in the recording of his
registration. The latter choice seems highly unlikely since the initial
registration number was assigned on a consecutive number basis and followed
by an alphabetical listing of surname. If the former, then Bishop Rigby
broke the law and continued in non-compliance for well over a year and a
half as he finally registered his vehicle receiving license #6047 quite late
in 1915 (license #1 was issued in May of 1915 and six thousand and forty-six
were issued before his number was assigned).
The Pearl E. Jenkins (#2508) who registered his E.M.F. on October 5, 1912
was the same person as the P. E. Jenkins (#6212) who registered a Jeffery on
December 2, 1914. One of the folklore errors of Pearl’s vehicles has to do
with all stories and pictures telling of his Jeffery. The dates show he had
the E.M.F. first and possessed it for over two years before obtaining the
larger Jeffery. It would appear that he sold his first car and bought the
Jeffery which could have been a 1914 model the first year of production or
the newest 1915 model due to the time of year. Under the first automobile
registration law, he could have retained his assigned number and sold just
the vehicle or he could transfer both the number and the car to someone
else. Perhaps the E.M.F. was the first car Pearl sold as he soon became a
dealer or agent selling the Jeffery. The Thomas B. Jeffery Company of
Kenosha, Wisconsin, started making bicycles which were named “Rambler.” In
1902 the company started manufacturing automobiles which sold under the
brand name of Rambler, and when the founder died in 1910 his son Charles T.
Jeffery took over the business. For the 1914 model the son of the founder
changed the brand name to Jeffery to honor his father the creator of the
company. The production of the Jeffery continued into 1917 when the company
sold out completely to Charles W. Nash, former president of General Motors,
who formed the Nash Motor Company, producing the Nash automobile. Thus the
Jeffery brand existed only from 1914 to 1917.
Because the Jeffery will be featured again in the Newton story a little
extra information about his particular vehicle will be given as taken from a
1915 Jeffery sales brochure published by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company:
Specifications for 1915 Jeffery -
Motor--Four-cylinder en bloc, high-speed, high-efficiency, L-head type; 3
¾-inch bore' 5 ¼ -inch stroke; unit power plant; forty horsepower.
Starting and Lighting--Two-unit, six-volt electric system.
Control--Steering, left side, levers in Center. Jeffery silent "cane" type
gear shift. Horn button on top of steering post.
Wheels, Rims, and Tires--Front and rear wheels artillery type, twelve 1 ½
inch spokes; demountable rims; Goodyear fortified tires, 34 x 4 inches;
front plain; rear, All-weather tread.
Wheel Base--116 inches.
Shipping Weight--2800 pounds.
Body--Chesterfield type; divided front seats; auxiliary seats fold neatly
against front seats and can be instantly removed from body when so desired.
Rear seat 48 inches wide.
Equipment--Rain vision windshield, foot rest in tonneau, extra rim and
carrier, tool roll, electric horn; electric lighted instrument board on
which are mounted speedometer, battery indicator, oil sight feed, ignition
and lighting switch, and carburetor air adjustment; headlights equipped with
small bulbs for dimming lights; specially designed one-man top, anchored to
windshield.
TYPES AND PRICES
Standard Seven Passenger . . . $1,035
Without Auxiliary Seats . . . $1,000
Three-Passenger Roadster . . . $1,000
SEDAN (Top Removable)
Five-Passenger . . . . . . . $1,165
Seven-Passenger . . . . . . $1,200
Prices F.O.B. Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The basic car was an open touring vehicle with an option to add an enclosed
“sedan” enclosure that could be secured to the car, thus making the “Jeffery
Sedan,” one of the first enclosed cars with the entrance through a rear side
door. The sedan body could be easily removed, giving the option of returning
the vehicle to an open touring car with a summer top for “pleasant weather
touring.” 16
In early 1915 the State of Utah passed a new registration law superseding
the first registration law which had registered almost 8,000 owners and
vehicles over the period from May of 1909 through May of 1915. The new
registration would be for only one year and would have to be renewed annual
with a registration fee higher and based on different factors. For the first
time the registration would include state issued uniform license plates for
each car, one for the front and another for the rear. The metal plates were
white with green numbers pressed into them. The numbers began with number 1
and went almost to 8,000, and on the far right side of the plates there
would be a small “U” for Utah and underneath a “15” denoting the year 1915.
The cars listed as in Newton on this registry were as follows:
license plate number, owner, residence, make, style and horsepower, and
general use)
NEWTON CARS – Book 3 – Utah Motor Vehicle Register - 1915
1140 – Jones W. R. – Newton – Studebaker – Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
4089 – Petersen, A. – Newton – Studebaker – Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
4453 – Johnson, Andrew A. – Newton – Maxwell – Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
4460 – Griffin, W. H. – Newton – Ford – Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
5270 – Christensen, Chris – Newton – Buick – Touring 28 h.p. – Pleasure
5318 – Larson, E. L. – Newton – E.M.F. – Touring 30 h.p. – Pleasure
5504 – Christensen, Nephi – Newton – Studebaker – Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
5917 – Fredrickson, Fred – Newton – Studebaker – Touring 35 h.p. – Pleasure
6047 – Rigby, M.C. – Newton – Buick – Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
7503 – Jones, W. R. – Newton – Jeffery – Touring 40 h.p. – Pleasure
7797 – Jenkins, P. E. – Newton – Jeffery – Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
17
The new registration reduced the list of Newton cars to eleven,
acknowledging that the D. E. Haws family still had their automobile but
listed as at Trenton since precinct lines had been changed (later they would
change again putting them back in Newton precinct). It changed the
Frederickson name on the first list to Fredrickson (with some question
remaining as to whether ending should be “sen” or “son”), and this list
confirmed that the E. L. Larson (Larsen) on the first list was the same
person with the same car as this list. W. R. Jones started early with a
Studebaker and ended the year with a larger Jeffery with much more
horsepower. Bishop M. C. Rigby was registered and P. E. Jenkins still had a
Jeffery but with much less horsepower. Principal Andrew A. Johnson and his
wife were living in Newton while he remained over the school. These were
Newton corps of “autoists” and more would thereafter join their ranks.
If there was an unofficial leader of this corps, it would have been Pearl E.
Jenkins, the son of Moroni and Martha Ann Erickson Benson Jenkins. Pearl was
born in Newton on May 5, 1881. The 1910 census for Newton had him living
with his widowed mother, and he was recently married with the census listing
his occupation of a sheep shearer. He went into Idaho frequently attending
to family farming and sheep raising operations, and he built a new home in
Newton in 1911 and started a family. He repeatedly took his mother to
Bancroft. In the fall of 1912 he bought his first automobile, perhaps a used
car from the Thatchers. His E.M.F. stirred his interests into what the
vehicle could do to how it worked, and it broadened his horizons. The
old-timers interviewed gave enough information about him to give a brief
idea of the man and his personality. He enjoyed life and liked to have fun
and wasn’t above doing whatever was needed to bring it about. He was
somewhat a jokester and perhaps a natural promoter or salesman. To describe
him as flamboyant might be a little strong but he was colorful and left a
definite impression, perhaps doubly so with his new automobile as explained
earlier. 18
Two specific examples were related in the old-timer interviews about Newton
concerned Pearl. Probably on Christmas Day of 1912 or 1913, the Newton Ward
has holding its annual afternoon children’s dance. To enliven the
activities, Pearl Jenkins took his automobile out of the normal wintertime
storage, put water in the radiator and removed the blocks that held the
weight off the tires. Then he started the vehicle, almost assuredly the
E.M.F., and drove to the town square and in some manner caught the attention
of anyone close by and the party givers and children, and then he drove his
vehicle around the square three times as a crowd gathered to watch the
performance. He returned home and put his car back into winter storage, but
remained the talk of the town for quite awhile, and memories of this
circling the square were recalled by several in the 1960s’ interviews.
Possibly in 1916 or the summer of 1917, Pearl was hired by three young men
from Newton, who were at least fifteen to eighteen years his junior, to use
his new Jeffery and be their chauffeur to take the boys to Clarkston to
pickup their dates and bring them all to Newton for a dance, and finally
return the dates to Clarkston and the boys back to Newton. Pearl agreed to
the arrangement and on the night of the dance he picked up the young
men—Alphonso Christensen, Alvin Christiansen and Parley Peterson—and drove
to Clarkston to pick up their dates. Alphonso and Alvin picked up their
dates and they proceeded to the third girl’s place and Parley went to get
his date. Parley returned with his date and she got into the Jeffery, but
before Parley could get in Pearl deliberately let the car engine die. Pearl
quickly asked Parley to step around and crank the engine, and Parley
obliging went to the front of the car and bent down searching for the crank
handle in the darkness. At this point with shock and surprise that sacred
the daylights out of Parley, the car was started from the driver’s seat by
Pearl with his Jeffery’s electric starter. The frightened Parley had reeled
backwards in surprised shock. With the car now running, Pearl quipped in
Parley’s direction, “You don’t crank this one!” Six persons in the Jeffery
enjoyed the fun and hilarity of the moment, but Parley was not pleased with
the trick played on him, especially as the incident was talked about during
the rest of the evening and recalled for a long time afterwards.
19
Sometime in 1915 Pearl E. Jenkins became a dealer or agent for the Jeffery
automobile. The distributor for this brand in the Utah, Idaho and Wyoming
area placed large ads in one of the Salt Lake newspapers, with the following
typescript of the advertisement in October of 1915:
"The Jeffery Four --Standard Seven-Passenger . . .$1035
Without Auxiliary Seats. . . . $1000
[Picture of a family in the automobile not included here]
New seven-passenger body--divided front seats--extra length springs--
two hundred pounds lighter--the first automobile of its quality, size
and efficiency to sell at a $1000 price.
Distributed in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming by
TRACY-CHADWICK-KIMBALL, Inc.
69-71 West Fourth South Phone Was. 1401.
DEALERS--ALBERT TRACY, Almo, Idaho; MOTOR INN (T.J. Winter & sons),
Rexburg, Idaho; C. W. BAGWELL, McGill, Nevada; P. E. JENKINS, Newton, Utah.
20
There exists a family picture of Pearl in one of his automobiles from a
large family album. Pearl’s daughter, Leatha Taylor, permitted Cleo Griffin
and the Newton Library to view the family album and copy some of the
pictures. Among those copied was the one with Pearl in his car, and Leatha
Taylor gave the Newton Library permission to use the picture as they saw
fit. Some time later and after the family album was returned, the home
(built by Pearl Jenkins) where Leatha and her mother Nettie lived for a
number of years caught fire with the loss of the structure, the large family
album and much more. Thus the number of photographs of Pearl with his
automobiles was greatly reduced, perhaps increasing the importance of those
still known. Therefore, a close look will be made of this known photograph
of Pearl Jenkins driving one of his automobiles which will be shown below.
The photograph was supplied by the Newton Library and permission given the
author to use it in this article. The caption on the picture was made by the
family of Pearl Jenkins.
Pearl Jenkins in one of his cars.
Along with this picture and for comparison purposes, there are two pictures,
a photograph of a 1914 Jeffery touring car like Pearl bought and a picture
of a 1912 E.M.F. touring car (the latest model he could have purchased in
case he bought a new car instead of a used one).
1914 Jeffery Touring Car
Front view of 1912 E.M.F.
The author of this article fully believes the information on Pearl’s car
picture is incorrect on both the vehicle being the first in Newton and the
make of the automobile. He believes Pearl was driving his first car which
was an E.M.F. Confirmation of this can be obtained by comparing pictures of
the Jeffery and the E.M.F. The E.M.F. had the steering wheel on the right
side while all Jeffery models had left hand drive. In addition the steering
wheel in this picture is much smaller than the large one on the Jeffery, and
the shape of the radiator, the two side lamps and the rectangular shaped
plate (to which the windshield would be attached when used) just in front of
the steering wheel is definitely E.M.F. rather than the more advanced
styling of the much larger and powerful Jeffery. Pearl’s E.M.F. was probably
an older model than the 1912, but close observation of the 1912 E.M.F.
picture above reveal two small metal brackets which held the windshield to
the rectangular shaped plate below it. The windshield on the Jeffery could
not be removed as shown in the Pearl Jenkins photo.
No specific details are known about Pearl’s success at selling Jeffery
automobiles, but by a close look at the two registration lists of Newton
automobiles, one might suggest a sale or two to Newton owners with
speculation as to why Pearl’s high-power Jeffery of 1914 was replaced by a
smaller engine in the 1915 listing. However, it is known that Pearl
established a garage for repairs, sold gasoline and other auto supplies from
interviews and a newspaper article. The best newspaper account comes from
December 18, 1917, which boosted Newton with its 600 people with electric
lights both in the homes and street lights. Then the article mentioned the
various businesses in town. It stated: “Pearl Jenkins the auto doctor, is a
very busy man trying to keep his many customers supplied with gas and extras
as there are about fifty automobiles and some Fords to be taken care of at
his garage.” 21 Allowing for some exaggeration by the person writing about
Pearl’s garage and the number of cars, the number of fifty seems very high.
Even if every car in Newton was there plus a few from out of town getting
gas and/or seeking repairs, there needs to be some other explanation.
Possibly Pearl had a few vehicles there on consignment, hoping to sell some
for their owners. All too soon Pearl E. Jenkins was killed in an automobile
accident at Grace, Idaho, June 12, 1918. He had played a significant role in
bringing the revolution on wheels to Newton.
Only the first chapter in the adventures with the automobile in Newton has
been briefly sketched. It began in 1910 when the newspapers were expressing
caution, fearing an automobile epidemic and too much debt. One paper wrote:
“The poverty-stricken farmers of Cache Valley are acquiring the automobile
habit at a rate that can but be gratifying to the dealers.” With another
newspaper echoing that sentiment by suggesting that “Paying interest on the
mortgage is one of the best cures for automobiliousness.”22 The newly coined
word may not have been grammatically correct, but it dealt with the crucial
factors of cost and debt connected to automobiles which continued for years
and was only partially resolved by the seeming ever-lowering price for the
Model T. Some local perspective on costs came from Newton’s W. H. Griffin,
an automobile owner since June 3, 1914, when interviewed in Logan after
making a trip by railroad in mid-December of 1917. According to the
newspaper “Mr. Griffin says it is cheaper to ride on the railroad than by
automobile when you go alone.” 23 At this time there were several options
via rail to reach Logan, but some would exchange money for time and
convenience. For many there remained more years of animal powered mode of
transport as the primary source of local individual travel. The issue of
good roads continued to be a big problem illustrated as late as 1920 when a
Newton man purchased a new seven passenger Nash automobile and could not
drive it home “on account of the roads being so bad.”
24 Even worse the
automobile oriented troubles of flat tires, getting stuck on muddy roads and
breakdowns would be followed by accidents with injuries and deaths.
CLARKSTON
A good story of the early automobile in this small Mormon community has yet
to be written but a partial account will be attempted, hopefully, to spur a
more detailed account. In the first decade of the twentieth century,
residents of Clarkston became aware of the new mode of personal transport
and a fortunate few perhaps saw one of the new horseless carriages on a trip
to Salt Lake City, Ogden or Logan. The Salt Lake and Logan newspapers had
articles and sometimes pictures of the new vehicles. Possibly one of the
more direct involvements of the town in connection to the automobile came in
1908 with the “Good Roads” movement being heavily promoted by the boosters
of the new automobile. Finally, a convention at Salt Lake City was called in
mid-January to focus on this issue which was important to some but strongly
opposed by a large segment of the Utah population. Governor John C. Cutler,
who served from January 2, 1905 through January 5, 1909, sent a letter to
the officials in every Utah city and town in late 1908 asking them to select
delegates to meet in convention to discuss the issues involved with this
movement. The Governor’s letter authorized the local leaders to select these
delegates with no limit as to number. Apparently, within Cache County the
Governor’s letter received little to no attention. A specific example has
been found in the Newton town records where at a meeting of the Newton Town
Board on January 8, 1909, the minutes recorded: “A letter from Gov. Cuttler
(sic) asking for delegates for good road convention were read. No action
taken.” 25 From the reported turn out at the convention the rest of the
county, with two exceptions, did about the same.
The primary exception came from Clarkston, the small farming community on
the west side of Cache County. Here the local leader took prompt action and
notified the Utah Governor as reported in a Salt Lake newspaper on December
30, 1909 as follows:
“GEORGE GODFREY, chairman of the town board of Clarkston, has notified
Governor Cutler that he will make an effort to attend the Good Roads
convention
to be held in Salt Lake on Jan. 14, and that he is in entire sympathy with
the aims
and purposes of the convention. He had appointed as delegates from
Clarkston:
James B. Jardine, Andrew H. Heggie, Lars Rasmussen, John E. Godfrey and
Peter S. Barson.”26
On January 13, 1909, the delegates to the “Good Roads Convention” met at the
Armory Hall in Salt Lake. One of the Salt Lake newspapers listed the names
of the delegates and a brief survey reveals the following communities,
counties and other groups who sent delegates and the number sent: Forest
Dale, 5; Sanpete County, 13; Bingham Canyon, 6; Brigham City, 5; Lehi, 1;
Gunnison, 6; Fillmore, 2; American Fork Commercial club, 5; Salina, 6;
Scofield, 3; Parowan, 6; Tooele, 6; Springville, 2; Pleasant Grove, 7; Kane
Commercial club, 3; Payson, 6; Grantsville 5; Murray, 4; Beaver City, 5;
Davis County, 13; Elsinore, 5; Green River, 8; Weber County, 21; Salt Lake
City, 6 with Salt Lake Real Estate association, 5; Mt. Pleasant, 6, with
Mount Pleasant Commercial club, 5; Provo, 5 with the Provo Commercial club
having 5 more; Utah Society of Engineers, 4: State School of Mines 3; and
Cache County, 6. The latter came with “Herschel Butters, Jr.,”(sic Herschel
Bullen, Jr.) from Logan and the five from Clarkston as cited above by name.
In addition members of the Utah House of Representatives planned to attend
both the morning and afternoon sessions of the convention.
27
The results of what was called “one of the best attended state conventions
ever held,” and though a “war of words” with “catcalls and cries to ‘sit
down’” to various speakers, and inter mixing of politics, the convention
focused attention on the status and condition of the roads and manifest that
the state had to become more involved than ever before. Some of the more
significant progress was made in appointing committees to draft resolutions
and proposals to be presented to the legislature then in session. There were
two decided factions, and opposition was based on the belief that the
country folk and farmers would be taxed to make roads so the rich city
slickers could tour the countryside in comfort and their slogans were echoed
in their anti-tax ideas of one group being taxed to benefit another elite
group. The supporters of the good roads were gentler in their phrases and
slogans with some examples as follows: “Don't whip the horses; fix the
roads.” “Bad roads cultivate bad tempers.” “A road with growing weeds is one
cause of crop failures.” “An empty wagon can get stuck in the mud.” “Don't
irrigate the roads; use the water on your crops.” “Out of 8000 miles of
roads in this state comparatively none that are good.” “Good roads mean half
the time and twice the load.” “A good road increase the value of property.”
“What you save in taxes you more than spend for wagon repairs on bad roads.”
Both factions saw the farmers as the most important key in their movement
with one saying, “Farmers and automobilists go hand in hand for good roads.”
The other side saying “Tax, Taxes” repeatedly. 28 It would take time, but
wheels had been put under the Good Roads idea and there was movement.
There were no automobiles in Clarkston at this time except for the
possibility that a venturesome visitor or salesman made his way there for
some purpose. In 1909 the State of Utah passed a law requiring the
registration of all automobile owners and their vehicles with the secretary
of state’s office in Salt Lake City. The registration began in May of 1909,
and, as initially conceived, it would be a one time affair involving a small
fee of two dollars and an assigned number with a certificate or tag which
was to be attached inside the automobile with the owner responsible to
display the assigned number on the rear of his machine either painted
directly on the automobile or on some metal plate or other material and
attached to it. This registration followed this procedure for the next six
years with those with assigned numbers allowed to transfer both their number
and machine to another person or just the automobile. From this state
register the following was extracted for those listing their residence as
Clarkston with the assigned number, name of owner, residence, make of car
and date of filing for the register:
UTAH MOTER VEHICLE REGISTER - Books 1 and 2 -- May 1909 through May of 1915:
CLARKSTON: Column information includes assigned number, name of owner,
location, make of car and date of registration:
2296 – Jensen, N. P. – Clarkston – E.M.F. – Aug. 2, 1912
2349 – Christensen, Clif – Clarkston – E.M.F. – Aug. 2, 1912
2351 – Hurst, Jr., John – Clarkston – E.M.F. – Aug. 2, 1912
2352 – Jacobsen, Peter – Clarkston – E.M.F. – Aug. 2, 1912
2353 – Jenson, Moroni – Clarkston – Flanders – Aug. 2, 1912
2354 – Philips, Wm. – Clarkston – Flanders – Aug. 2, 1912
2326 – Dahle, David – Clarkston – Overland – June 23, 1914 *
5969 – Goodey, Alma – Clarkston – Ford – Sept. 18, 1914
7146 – Buttars, Ben – Clarkston – Buick – Apr. 29, 1915
7149 – Buttars, T. J. – Clarkston – Buick – Apr. 29, 1915
29
David Dahle’s assigned number of #2326 along with the filing date of June
23, 1914, indicates that he obtained both his number and vehicle by being
transferred from someone who had filed for it about two years earlier, and
there might be a connection with the first six named listed above. These
first six names are somewhat a mystery in their connection with Clarkston.
They can’t be found on the 1910 census at Clarkston and when the next state
registration law required a new registering, they were not in Clarkston.
This information along with the six men registering their vehicles on the
same date leads to the speculation that possibly they were involved in some
sort of work connected to one of Clarkston’s projects in the 1912 period
such as the installation of the culinary water system, construct on the new
church building or the new school; or they were part of some speculative
venture connected in some way with land and farming. The low number for
David Dahle (#2326) which he came by purchasing of a previously owned and
registered Overland car in June of 1914, could possibly be connected in some
fashion with the first six names perhaps an associate or boss of these six
sold his vehicle to David Dahle when his activities at Clarkston came to an
end in the summer of 1914.
After the first registration law had been in effect for about six years, the
State of Utah for various reasons decided its original concept of this law
were flawed as the accumulative listing of automobile owners didn’t
adequately keep tract of the owners after the initial listing and the one
time registration didn’t provide enough revenue. In 1915 a new law went into
effect requiring all motor vehicles to register for one year with an annual
registration thereafter. From that registration book all those for the year
1915 were extracted whose residence was cited as Clarkston and is shown
below:
Book 3 – Utah Motor Vehicle Register – 1915:
CLARKSTON — [Numeric order of license plates with no dates except year.]
Column information includes
license plate number, owner, residence, make, style and horsepower, and
general use:
1786 – Barson, Peter S. – Clarkston – Ford – Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
1873 – Whitney, Wells W. – Clarkston – Ford – Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
2322 – Buttars, Thomas – Clarkston – Buick – Touring 28 h.p. – Pleasure
4912 – Dahle, David – Clarkston – Overland – Touring 35 h.p. – Pleasure
5933 – Buttars, Daniel – Clarkston – Buick – Touring 37 h.p. – Pleasure
6040 – Stuart, Nina – Clarkston – Studebaker – Touring 40 h.p. – Pleasure
30
For 1915 the yearly registration fee was higher and was based in part on the
horse power of the automobile. After filing and paying the fee the owner
received from the state the first automobile license plates, one for the
front and one of the rear of the car. Now the registration number and the
number on the license plates were the same and issued in consecutive order
starting with number one. Thus, Peter S. Barson, the first from Clarkston
with the 1915 license plate, had two metal plates white in color with the
green numbers 1786 pressed into them and good only through 1915.
Other early automobile owners from Clarkston can sometimes be picked up in
bits of news in the Logan newspapers. One of those papers reported on June
19, 1917, that two salesman from Logan spent the previous Saturday in
Clarkston and sold a new five passenger Overland automobile to James
Thompson of Clarkston. Another Logan paper reported for July 29, 1916, that:
“Peter S. Barson of Clarkston was in Logan yesterday. He is still driving
the Ford for Mrs. Barson.” 31 In late June of the following year a newspaper
related how Clarkston planned to celebrate the Fourth of July with the
following description: “Clarkston, June 29.--There will be a Fourth of July
celebration at Clarkston. Saluting and rising (sic) of the flag at daybreak
by twelve of our young men; marshal of the day Mr. R. F. Shumway; Miss Pearl
Buttars, Goddess of Liberty; maids of honor, Jennie Thompson, Susie Clark,
Hattie Buttars, Sylvia Griffith, Jennie Dahle and Etta Godfrey. There will
be six cars arranged with the national colors to escort goddess and her
maids and brass band to the meeting house where the program will be rendered
at 3 p.m.” 32 In late July of 1917 the Logan Sales and Service Company of
Logan released some information to the press about the popularity of the
Paige automobile in the area, including the sales of it during the previous
week to men in Lewiston, Mendon, Preston, two men in Logan and to John A.
Thompson of Clarkston. They bragged they had sold thirty Paiges “this season
by this company and . . . do not have a dissatisfied customer.” Six weeks
later the same company gave an update on the Paige owners in the
locality—one in Smithfield, Avon and Millville, five in Lewiston, four in
Newton, Wellsville and Logan, and two in Clarkston—John Buttars and John A.
Thompson. 33
An oral story of the first automobiles brought into Clarkston comes from a
talk or interview that Calvin Buttars had with Flossie Atkinson (daughter of
Louis and Lottie Buttars) many decades after she had married and moved to
Trenton. According to this source three Clarkston men brought automobiles
into Clarkston about the same time and as recalled they were David Thompson,
one of the Barson brothers, and a name she was unable to remember. The main
focus of her account was on David Thompson, and well in advance of obtaining
an automobile, had some definite views on his anticipated new mode of
transportation, one of which was that it wouldn’t be left exposed to the
weather but would be housed in storage facility or garage. To this end he
built or modified an existing structure to store his soon-to-be possession.
He was now ready to purchase his automobile and went to the point of sale,
probably Logan but could have been Ogden or Salt Lake. After purchasing his
new vehicle, perhaps the seller insisted on both oral instruction and some
time in getting familiar with the vehicle before he was released on his own
with the new fangled vehicle to return to Clarkston. David drove back home
with no details known about the trip. Perhaps he was quite proud of arriving
safe and sound, and possibly thinking he had the hang of operating his
automobile. Upon reaching home the first order of business was to put his
new car in his garage. The oral account didn’t detail the positioning of the
automobile or the opening the doors to the garage, but went straight to
putting the vehicle inside. As David drove into the narrow confines of the
building something went wrong, most likely he hadn’t had enough time behind
the wheel. He became momentarily confused, and in a flash he was in trouble
which caused him to respond with several loud and emphatic “Whoas!” The
machine did not respond to his oral commands, appropriate for a team of
horses, and continued into and possibly through the back wall of the garage.
Perhaps, a semi-humorous example of where the best laid plans of men went
astray by way of habit when facing a new experience.
34
The oral account was not accurate in regard to the first cars into Clarkston
as David Thompson’s name was not found on the State of Utah Motor Vehicle
register up through 1915, and the few newspaper sources didn’t mention his
name. But two other Clarkston sources reveal their fathers talked about
David Thompson’s early car. David, on the 1910 census, was twenty-nine years
old, married with children. The writer believes Flossie Atkinson’s account
has more than a kernel of truth in it as an oral story or tradition which
has been passed down over the many years.
SMITHFIELD
The best evidence of the first Smithfield resident to own an automobile
comes from the State of Utah Motor Vehicle Register - Books 1 and 2-- May
1909 through May of 1915. This official record has Emanuel E. Colpin of
Smithfield registered as the owner of a 1909 model Reo on June 18, 1909. Mr.
Colpin, the druggist at Smithfield, was one of only six people from Cache
County to comply with the new state law and registered as an owner in 1909.
He was assigned the official number of 601 which was affixed as a small tag
inside his vehicle with the owner responsible to place a larger
representation of this number on the rear of his automobile to show he was
certified to operate on the roads and streets of the state. Colpin had
traveled to Salt Lake City and bought his new car from the Sharman Company
on April 28, 1909, but while providing these details of the purchase, the
Salt Lake newspaper incorrectly had the vehicle as a two cylinder Maxwell.
Another Salt Lake newspaper correctly had Mr. Sam Sharman leaving Salt Lake
the following morning headed for Smithfield to deliver a Reo car. The roads
were muddy and snow was “falling thick” and it took Sharman two hours to
reach Ogden where he called back to his business reporting he had driven
that far slowly but safely. He continued on to Cache Valley and delivered
the Reo. The paper does not name the new owner but in mid-May the new
automobile registration law went into effect and Colpin registered the first
Reo that came to Smithfield in mid-June of 1909. When the 1910 census was
taken in Smithfield, Colpin was a thirty-four-year-old druggist with a wife
and young son. Little more has been found about Colpin except that by April
of 1913 he was in southern Idaho at Oakley (half way between Burley and the
Utah border) where he was the druggist. While in Idaho he joined with other
druggists, cigar dealers and retail merchants in Utah and Idaho organizing
the first co-operative candy manufacturing institution in the United States
to create their own source of supply by working together. Colpin was
expected to serve in some leadership capacity with this business.
35
SMITHFIELD - - Utah Automobile Registration Books 1 & 2 - this listing gives
the assigned number, name of owner, location, make of car and date of
registration:
601 – Colpin, Emanuel E. – Smithfield – Reo 1909 Model – June 18, 1909
1624 – Miles, Jr., E. R. – Smithfield – Cadillac – June 14, 1911
1630 – Merrill, Dr. Ralph T. – Smithfield – E.M.F. – June 17, 1911
3099 – Smith, G. Y. – Smithfield – Case – May 14, 1913
3471 – Smith, W. H. – Smithfield – Buick – June 26, 1913
3732 – Rice, A. L. – Smithfield – Ford – Aug. 13, 1913
3785 – Wolford, Thomas – Smithfield – Ford – Aug. 27, 1913
3786 – Griffith, Robert – Smithfield – Paige – Aug. 27, 1913
4306 – Hillyard, Fred – Smithfield – Maxwell – Mar. 28, 1914
4675 – Fulkersom, L. A. – Smithfield – Case – May 1, 1914
4798 – Smith, W. H. – Smithfield – Buick – May 12, 1914
5079 – Read, Isaac – Smithfield – Overland – June 2, 1914
5849 – Griffith, Wm. – Smithfield – Studebaker – Aug. 28, 1914
5850 – Gamet, Andrew – Smithfield – Studebaker – Aug. 28, 1914
5861 – Smith, N. H. – Smithfield – Studebaker – Aug. 29, 1914
5916 – Mickle, James J. – Smithfield – Studebaker – Sept. 5, 1914
6001 – Griffith, Robert – Smithfield – Buick – Sept. 23, 1914
6090 – Hillyard, Fred – Smithfield – Overland – Oct. 23, 1914
6091 - Miles, Leonard S. – Smithfield – Overland – Oct. 23, 1914
6581 – Smithfield Implement Co. – Smithfield – Case – Mar. 15, 1915
6774 – Parsons, E. A. – Smithfield – Maxwell – May 1, 1914
6853 – Traveller, F. W. – Smithfield – Ford – Apr. 9, 1915
6996 – Winger, I. O. – Smithfield – Ford – Apr. 20, 1915
7063 – Allen, J. V. – Smithfield – Case – Apr. 24, 1915
7179 – Allsop, Thomas – Smithfield – Ford – May 1, 1915 *
566 – Kirkwood, I. H. – Smithfield – Rio – * 1914 by transfer of
registration number and car.
* * * Autos - - Book 1 & 2 –May 1909 to May 1915 –
Cache County – 371 automobiles registered with 191 in Logan (51%); 40 in
Richmond (10%); 26 in Smthfield (7%); 24 in Hyrum (6%); and 23 in Wellsville
(6%). These five locations totaled 304 cars or almost 82% of the automobiles
in Cache County.
SMITHFIELD --- Book 3 - 1915 – (May to end of year in 1915) - Column
information includes
license plate number, owner, residence, make, style and horsepower, and
general use (-- = nothing recorded):
1060 – Smith, Jonathan – Smithfield – Case Roadster -- – Pleasure
1646 – Woolford, T. H. – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
1652 – Miles, Mrs. E. E. – Smithfield – Cadillac Touring 32 h.p. – Pleasure
2125 – Smith, G. Y. – Smithfield – Case Touring -- – Pleasure
2142 – Harry, John W. – Smithfield – Metz Roadster 22 h.p. – Pleasure
2343 – Smith, R. H. – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
2426 – Winger, Walter – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
2572 – Read, Isaac – Smithfield – Overland Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
2910 – Griffith, Wm. H. – Smithfield – Studebaker Touring 35 h.p. – Pleasure
3299 – Allen, J. B. – Smithfield – Case Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
3345 – Farr, Thomas B. – Smithfield – Cadillac Touring 30 h.p. – Pleasure
3680 – Griffith, Robert – Smithfield – Buick Touring 37 h.p. – Pleasure
3980 – Merrill, C. W. – Smithfield – Studebaker Touring 22 h.p. – Pleasure
4072 – Homer, Wm. – Smithfield – Ford Roadster 22 h.p. – Private
4073 – Merrill, Jr., R. T. – Smithfield – Case Touring 35 h.p. – Pleasure
4074 – Merrill, Jr., R. T. – Smithfield – Ford Touring 22 h.p. – Private
4088 – Sparks, Wm. – Smithfield – Case Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
4507 – Cantwell, Stephen – Smithfield – E.M.F. Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
5052 – Meekle, J. J. – Smithfield – Studebaker Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
5055 – Allsop, Thomas – Smithfield – Ford Touring 22 h.p. – Private
5105 – Secrest, W. B. – Smithfield – Buick Phaeton 25 h.p. – “Bus”
5233 – Rice, A. L. – Smithfield – Studebaker Touring 25 h.p. – Pleasure
5234 – Nelson, Oliver – Smithfield – Ford Touring 22 h.p. – Pleasure
5251 – Traveller, F. W. – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
5496 – Smith, W. H. – Smithfield – Studebaker Touring 40 h.p. – Pleasure
5782 – Hillyard, Fred – Smithfield – Overland Touring 35 h.p. – Pleasure
5837 – Smith, W. H. – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Business
6152 – Gordon, S. A. – Smithfield – Franklin Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
6466 – Nelson, Samuel – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
6467 – Harry, John W. – Smithfield – Metz Roadster 22 h.p. – Pleasure
6627 – Harper, W. F. – Smithfield – Dodge Roadster 30 h.p. – Pleasure
6830 – Miles, Leonard S. – Smithfield – Oakland Touring 38 h.p. – Pleasure
6888 – Hatch, Minnie – Smithfield – Ford Touring 22 h.p. – Pleasure
6933 – Vanesse, Jos. A. – Smithfield – Case Touring 30 h.p. – Pleasure
7020 – Napper, W. P. – Smithfield – Ford Touring 20 h.p. – Pleasure
7100 – Farmers Union Mills – Smithfield – E.M.F. Delivery 30 h.p. – Business
7571 – Plowman, John J. – Smithfield – Saxon Touring 30 h.p. – Pleasure
7749 – Farrell, Lionel – Smithfield – Overland Touring 35 h.p. – Pleasure
Totals for 1915--Logan – 227 ; Richmond – 38; Smithfield – 38 ; Hyrum – 31;
Wellsville – 29.
After Mr. Coplin’s vehicle, the next documented automobile did not come to
Smithfield for another two years. An item under Smithfield news noted on
June 13, 1911: “Bishop Miles and Dr. R. T. Merrill have each purchased a
fine automobile and now live lives of leisure.” The Doctor’s car was am
E.M.F. while Bishop E. R. Miles, Jr. had a Cadillac, and both men registered
their vehicles in mid-June of 1911. Smithfield prepared to celebrate the
Fourth of July in 1911 with a program followed by wrestling, a baseball game
with Logan and races. There were foot races for the children, horse races
for saddle ponies (200 yards and one-half mile) with a small entrance fee
and prizes awarded, bike race for 200 yards and prizes. And for Smithfield
its first automobile race over one-half mile course with the prize a blue
ribbon. The local contestants were at most three, but more likely only Dr.
Merrill and Bishop Miles. No results have been found for the winner.
36 The
state register lists no more cars in Smithfield for almost two more years.
Then more automobiles came in and, in time, several in Smithfield were
associated with the new industry as traveling salesmen or servicing car. In
the fall of 1917 a fine garage was completed as the Smithfield Motor Company
with Thomas Woolford as manager. They sold Fords and repaired all makes.
37
A short survey of newspaper reports under heading of “Smithfield Riplets” or
“Smithfield News” from the The Logan Republican give an idea of the current
automobile news: Feb. 28, 1914: “Leonard S. Miles has accepted the position
of traveling salesman for the Maxwell Motor Car Company.” Sept. 26, 1914:
“Alma Carson purchased an overland car lately and Robert Griffith a Buick.”
Nov. 3, 1914: “Mr. and Mrs. Robert Griffith, Master Robert Griffith and Mr.
and Mrs. Shaffer motored to Idaho Falls last Saturday and visited Blackfoot
and Pocatello on their return home Monday.” Dec. 19, 1914: “Mr. William
Sparks has bought the large automobile of Mr. Fay Fulkerson of Preston the
last week.” July 10, 1917: “The gun club took first prize, $10, for the best
decorated automobile. They represented a forest with the elk, birds and
animals lying at rest in the shrubbery. Jonathan Smith took second prize,
and R. T. Thornley third prize in the decorated automobiles. Bishop Winn's
car, draped in white and decorated with red crosses, was filled with a beevy
(sic bevy) of Red Cross nurses, also was of worthy mention.”
NOTE: It will not be possible in this article to even briefly survey or
follow the advent of the automobile in each community as this writer doesn’t
know the particular incidents, how people reacted and its impact on the
citizens. Hopefully by furnishing the Cache County automobile registration
lists covering the years 1909 through 1915, it might encourage formal
written recounting of family stories and research resulting in filling in
the blanks of the early days of the automobile. While family accounts
sometimes claim more than can be verified, they may contain something of
value or “kernel” of historical information that should be looked into and
preserved.
Thus an open invitation is extended to anyone who will write up the story of
the early automobiles in their family and/or community in Cache County and
submit it to this site; it will be seriously considered for inclusion into
the above story and the author’s name should be attached to the account.
Endnotes:
1 Deseret Evening News, July 2, 1904, April 29, 1909, Oct. 23, 1909, June 4,
1910. Oliver L. Peterson Diaries, 1901, 1908-1910. J. Arbon Christensen,
Bridgerland, Your Land and Mine, (Providence, Utah : Keith W. Watkins &
Sons, Inc., 1976.) Salt Lake Herald, May 2, 1909, July 28, 1910.
2 Salt Lake Herald, Sept. 7 and 8, 1908. Deseret Evening News, Sept. 7,
1908.
3 Utah Motor Vehicle Register – 1909 – 1915 –Book 1 and 2 Series 375
(microfilm State of Utah Archives). Salt Lake Telegram, June 17, 1910.
Deseret Evening News, Aug. 10, 1910. Salt Lake Telegram, June 11, 1910.
4 Deseret Evening News, June 4, 1910.
5 The Journal, (Logan, Utah) May 31, 1910.
6 Genealogy of Erastus Laurty Larsen. Ancestors of Gareth L. Larsen, an
Internet site under that title. U.S. Federal Censuses 1870 and 1880 for
Logan, Utah.
7 Cache County Township Plats survey map and entry register for Township 13
North Range 1 West Salt Lake Base and Meridian.
8 Interview with Eva Benson, April 1, 1967.
9 U.S. Federal Census 1910 for Newton and Logan. Utah Motor Vehicle
Registration from May 1909 to May 1915, (on microfilm form State of Utah
Archives, Series 375, Reel #1).
10 Interview with Archie Jenkins, July 7, 1968 and memories as to his
stories to his fifth and sixth grade class recalled by the author. Interview
with Elizabeth Ecklund, Oct. 22, 1966. Letter from Maud Barker Jorgensen,
Feb. 15, 1992.
11 The Journal, June 4, 1912.
12 Ibid. Newton Town Board Minutes, Dec. 23, 1909, Dec. 8, 1910, Jan. 5,
1912. U.S. Federal Census - 1910 for Newton, Utah. Salt Lake Telegram, April
6, 1911. The Logan Republican,(Logan, Ut.) June 17, 22, Oct. 24,1911.
13 Utah Motor Vehicle Registration from May 1909 to May 1915.
14 The Journal, May 3, 24, 1913, Jan. 17, 1914. The Logan Republican, Feb.
28, 1914, April 30, 1914.
15 The Logan Republican, May 7, 1914.
16 Jeffery brochure digitally reproduced on the Wisconsin Historical Society
Web site as "Jeffery Four: The Newest Automobile from Kenosha's Thomas B.
Jeffery Company."
17 Utah Motor Vehicle Register – 1915 – Book 3 Series 375 (microfilm State
of Utah Archives).
18 U.S. Federal Census 1910 for Newton, Utah. The Logan Republican, Oct. 7,
Oct. 4, 1911. The Journal, Mar. 14, May 16, 1916.
19 Interviews with Alvin A. Christiansen, April 13 and 28, 1967.
20 Salt Lake Telegram, Oct. 17, 1915. (Other ads Oct. 31 and Nov. 14 ,
1915).
21 The Logan Republican, Dec. 18, 1917. Interviews with Alvin A.
Christiansen, April 13 and 28, 1967.
22 Deseret Evening News, June 4, 1910. Box Elder News, July 28, 1910.
23 The Logan Republican, Dec. 18, 1917.
24 The Journal, Feb. 3, 1920.
25 Newton Town Board Minutes, Jan. 8, 1909
26 Salt Lake Herald, Dec. 30, 1908.
27 The Evening Telegram [Salt Lake Telegram], Jan. 13, 1909.
28 Salt Lake Telegram, Jan. 14, 15, 1909.
29 Utah Motor Vehicle Registration from May 1909 to May 1915, (on microfilm
form State of Utah Archives, Series 375, Reel #1).
30 Utah Motor Vehicle Registration – Book 3 – 1915 (on microfilm form State
of Utah Archives, Series 375, Reel #1).
31 The Logan Republican, June 19, 1917. The Journal, July 29, 1916.
32 The Logan Republican, June 30, 1917.
33 The Logan Republican, July 21, Sept. 8, 1917.
34 From a January 2010 talk with Calvin Buttars of his interview with
Flossie Atkinson (daughter of Louis and Lottie Buttars) who had married Joe
Atkinson and lived in Trenton when interviewed in the early 2000.
35 Deseret Evening News, April 29, 1909. Salt Lake Herald, May 2, 1909,
April 9, 1913. U.S. Federal Census 1910 for Smithfield, Utah.
36 The Logan Republican, June 13, 1911, July 1, 1911.
37 Ibid., Dec. 18, 1917.