Opinion: When the first automobiles came to the country | Opinion

Effie Spruill Carpenter recalled the initial time she noticed a vehicle push through Dunwoody and instructed the story to her granddaughter Jane Anderson Autry.

The folks of Dunwoody waited in yards and along the street, waving and clapping as the car or truck drove by. Carpenter mentioned the driver was a Mr. Vaughn from Roswell, and his drive by way of Dunwoody took place in the early 1900s.

Cliff P. Vaughn and Claud Groover opened the Roswell Motor Company in 1921, so Vaughn may possibly have been promoting for the dealership. The business bought Fordson tractors, Lincoln and Ford cars and trucks. A Whippet dealership opened in Roswell in 1929 but was limited lived owing to the Wonderful Despair. (“Roswell, A Pictorial Background,” edited by Darlene Walsh)

In accordance to the Digital Library of Ga, White Star Automobile in Atlanta was the to start with Southern car company and started operations in 1909. The $1,500 motor vehicle was advertised as “complete with prime, magneto, and lamp equipment.” That very same 12 months, the corporation title was changed to Atlanta Auto Enterprise. The organization filed for personal bankruptcy in 1911.

Benjamin Burdett and his son Arthur of Sandy Springs invested in the Hanson Motor Corporation in 1917 right after the automobile was launched at the Southeastern Vehicle Clearly show. The Hanson Six automobile was designed by Don Ferguson, who experienced labored with Studebaker and Standard Motors. Arthur Burdett was vice president of Hanson Motor Business.

The Burdett loved ones created a two-story brick mansion in 1900 exactly where Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church is currently. Benjamin Burdett experienced currently started a realty firm before receiving into the auto organization. The Hanson Six offered perfectly originally, but by the mid-1920s, massive companies were as well substantially competitiveness. The organization closed in 1925. (“Atlanta and Environs, Vol. 2,” Franklin Garrett)

Tillie Hindman Womack recalled that Benjamin Burdette commuted from Sandy Springs to Atlanta in his Hanson 6. At the time, he was the only person driving a auto in Sandy Springs. People today still got about with horse-drawn carriages and wagons, so all people was fascinated with the car or truck. (Sandy Springs Gazette, 2017)

Elmer Womack, who lived exactly where Georgia Point out College Dunwoody campus is currently, was the very pleased operator of a 1925 Design T Ford that was sitting idle in the garage. When the Tucker Federal Savings and Loan interviewed him for their neighborhood publication in 1970, Womack explained to the tale of an $800 hard cash present he lately gained for the aged vehicle. He turned down the supply for the reason that he was nevertheless pondering of buying and selling the Design T for a more recent car or truck.   

Fred Donaldson of Dunwoody remembers a 1928 product Chevrolet the family members owned. A single working day the motor vehicle commenced rolling down the driveway. As Donaldson tells it, “We have been all sitting on the front porch 1 Sunday when the ’28 design Chevrolet arrived down the generate ideal by itself. My brother Fletcher ran and jumped in, stopped it proper prior to it attained the railroad minimize.”

Johnson W. (Dub) Brown grew up in Chamblee, graduating from Chamblee Substantial College in 1941, the 12 months the school burned. His spouse and children ran a dairy. Brown afterwards served as mayor of the metropolis. His first car or truck was a stripped-down Design T. Ford.

Gordon Wallace also experienced a stripped-down Product T, which he took with him to the College of Georgia. His father was postmaster of Chamblee for 18 years, ran a shop with Charlie Warnock, and owned Wallace Design Organization.  

In “Dunwoody Isn’t Bucolic Any longer,” Richard W. Titus recalls seeing Dunwoody university principal Elizabeth Davis driving a Henry J auto from the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation. For two yrs, a edition of the Henry J. was offered in the Sears-Roebuck catalog.