Researching the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Race

[Eric Moskowitz]

Hi all,

This is my first post, but I'm an enthusiastic reader/archival-searcher of the forum, as a writer and former newspaper reporter working on a book about the 1909 Ocean to Ocean Race.

I'm wondering if any collectors or Model T historians here might have any photos, materials, or other ephemera related to either the race itself or the No. 2's "victory tour" in the summer and fall after the race.

I first came to the story in 2009 while working for The Boston Globe. At the time, I wrote about the race around the hook of the centennial tour (with 55 Model Ts retracing the route) while revisiting the largely forgotten history of the Boston-based Shawmut Motor Company in the process. Along the way, I interviewed Trent Boggess and visited Lang's Old Car Parts, where I had my first-ever ride in a T (!) and came home with a gas-tank gauge ruler and a 1959 copy of "The Story of the Race," each of which I still have.

The story of the race stayed with me afterward for all kinds of reasons, including that Ford and Shawmut each saw themselves as David taking on Goliath: Ford entering a car at a fraction of the price and weight of the other entries, determined to prove that total horsepower mattered much less than the power-to-weight ratio and that a lightweight, affordable car could durably tackle the continent, and was not just for puttering around town; and Shawmut vying for survival, as a small start-up (if one among many trying to turn out hand-tooled luxury cars) that was just beginning to get good press when the factory burned down, entering the race in a long-shot bid to attract the publicity and capital needed to save the company.

But mainly it's just a great yarn -- filled with intrigue, subterfuge, and compelling characters, and unfolding across a rapidly evolving American landscape at a vivid moment in time.

Wanting to turn the story into a book, I took a research trip to Dearborn in 2018 and spent a week at the BFRC, but I didn't have the bandwidth then to finish the proposal. I finally cleared the decks in early 2021, completed and sold the proposal (to St. Martin's Press), and have been plugging away ever since.

In the course of research, I've gathered up as many 1909 news clips as I could find (from hundreds of local and national newspapers, trade publications, and other sources) and tracked down more than 50 descendants of people involved in the race in one fashion or another, including relatives from all six crews (the two Fords, the Shawmut, the Acme, the Itala ... and the Stearns, which started late and only got as far as Tarrytown, NY) and several of Ford's corporate branch managers, who served as "fixers" in every sense of the word (arranging to have dealers and agents in their territory serve as expert local guides for the Model Ts, publicizing the Ford entries to the local press, and engaging in tactics that the Ford team deemed savvy "generalship," though the ACA officials who ruled in favor of Shawmut's appeal would later take a dimmer view).

I've also tried to track down as many photos as possible from the race, with a substantial set of images housed at The Henry Ford/BFRC, as well in the Detroit Public Library (NAHC) and the University of Washington Libraries. Still, photos from the start and finish of the race in New York and Seattle -- as well as from the pathfinding expedition that preceded the race (involving the same Thomas Flyer that won the 1908 New York to Paris Race) and the No. 2's victory tour afterward -- are much more common than images from the 4,100 miles in between. Scenes of the actual race are rare.

There are some exceptions -- the crisp photos of the two Fords barreling into Cleveland side-by-side, the two Fords on the ferry at the Missouri River, and the half-dozen pictures from mud-caked Goodland, KS, of both Fords as well as the Shawmut. The Goodland images are "real photo" postcards, which makes sense, as this was both the golden age of postcards and a time when Kodak pocket cameras were proliferating, yielding the first real wave of candid snapshots of Main Street America. Seeing those -- and a few other postcard views that pop up once every few years on eBay (from places like Twin Falls, ID, and Cle Elum, WA) makes me think many more were taken all along the route and may exist out there in private collections.

If anyone has any leads, feedback, or other thoughts, I'd welcome hearing from you! Thanks so much for reading this post!

-Eric

P.S. Here are two of those images I mentioned that do survive from the race itself (as opposed to the pathfinder expedition, the start, the finish, or the post-race tour...), from the collections of The Henry Ford.

[DanTreace]

Eric

Wonderful endeavor.

Am sure your visit to Benson Ford was beneficial, there have been other books written on the race, including the Ford company pamphlet at the time Story of the Race. . A very good coverage is in Curt McConnell's, 2000, 'Coast to Coast Auto Races of the Early 1900's ' pub. by SAE, isbn 0-7680-0604-x

Here are some photos I have collected on the web and other places, including my original pennant sold to spectators at the time.

Ocean to Ocean pennant 1909 50 per.jpg (69.88 KiB) Viewed 3161 times

The Thomas that was the pathfinder car run prior to the race.

IMG_9581.JPG (128.55 KiB) Viewed 3161 times

On display after the race was over. Note the Guggenheim trophy, 42" tall, with $2000 worth of Yukon gold nuggets with total cost to build of $3500 (1909) that is over $100,000 today! And the whereabouts of it are unknown.

1e58c418-d60f-4f50-a9b7-8f4fe114f966.png (365.44 KiB) Viewed 3161 times

[Dollisdad]

In 1984 I was part of the 75th anniversary run. In St. Louis, the son of Bert Scott showed up at our hotel with photos his dad had of the race. I got copies of some posted here. You may try to find him if you haven’t already.

[Been Here Before]

See the back issues of the AACA magazine (circa 1950-1960).

See back issues of early automobile/horseless carriage journals and magazines. Easily found on line.

[Been Here Before]

See AACA mag 1959.

[Been Here Before]

Of course the 1909 race was used to sell cars.

A July 1909, newspaper article stated that New York to Seattle race proved that the Model T was a tough car. and to show "you" that it is a though reliable car, here is a list of folks from Philadelphia who are buying the Ford.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Dan, Tom, George -- this is all terrific! Thanks so much for all of this. Where to begin ...


Dan -- what a pennant! Wow. And I agree, the account in Curt McConnell's Coast to Coast Auto Races of the Early 1900s is terrific; he really put in a lot of legwork, particularly studying newspaper microfilm and magazine bound volumes in a time right before the widespread digitization of many historical newspapers. The pictures are terrific, too. Of the ones he attributed to the Detroit Public Library/NAHC, I've been able to find most through their digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org search tool; however, a few don't turn up, despite trying to enter every creative search term I could think of for the terms in the metadata. Unfortunately, the NAHC (housed at the DPL's Skillman Branch) was closed for a burst pipe when I was out at the BFRC in 2018, and it's currently closed again long-term due to a major redevelopment project next door. The special collections staff have tried hard to find those missing photos but haven't been able to track them down yet, alas, either in print or online.

On this photo ...

scott and smith in ford with number crossed out.jpeg (100.25 KiB) Viewed 2967 times

I'm really intrigued by it, and have seen it before, but haven't been able to pin down the details. I'm curious if anyone knows anything specific about it. Scott and Smith (the No. 2 crew) are clearly in everyday clothes, so it's after the race -- well after I think, because during their July-August-September car they were exceedingly careful about maintaining the look of the No. 2, not just with the racing number on the hood but with the dust and mud caked all over, showing the signs of holding up to hard use. (There are some great clips about them stopping well-intentioned locals who tried to hose it off for them on the victory tour.) That the number "2" is obliterated and there are no "New York to Seattle" markings on it makes me think this must be quite a bit later, maybe even the following year or after.


Because the sister car -- the No. 1, which finished third -- still had its racing paint job almost two years after the race! See this image from Ford Times (Vol. 4, I believe; it's one of the volumes that's not digitized online, as I couldn't find it on Google Books or HathiTrust) that I saw at the BFRC. That's Frank Kulick with the No. 1 visiting the Roberts-Toledo Ford dealership in Fremont, Ohio. (Stanley Roberts had been the in-house sales manager at Ford, then left in the winter of '08-09 -- immediately recognizing the potential of the Model T -- to establish first one and then quickly a chain of dealerships in northern Ohio; he had a knack for marketing and made sure the Fords got good coverage in the Toledo press when the race came through.)

A real-photo postcard version of that same photo at the bottom right of the Ford Times page actually popped up on ebay earlier this fall! That's one thing that prompted me to post, wondering if whoever acquired it might have a collection of photos of the race and might be an MTFCA Forum member...

[Eric Moskowitz]

And apologies for all the repeated uses of the word "terrific" above, lol ... I'm a sleep-deprived dad of two young children (my boys are 6 and 3) working on a book often in the late hours when the house is quiet, so sometimes the synapses aren't firing when it comes to synonyms (or anything else) on first pass.

Dan, did you colorize the last image in your post with colorize-it? I'd seen it before as an online thumbnail in black and white but not in detail -- I hope to get out to Seattle for a research trip in the near future -- and had somehow missed the trophy! It really pops in that image. Thank you for that!

And, wow, there is ... certainly a lot to unpack in this photo as a document from history:

Antero inspecting the Shawmut.png (371.85 KiB) Viewed 2953 times

Behind the rope, the man in the loin cloth is Antero, who was the best known of the indigenous Igorot people (an ethnic Austronesian group from the mountains in the northern Philippines) who lived and performed on display in exploitative "human zoo" exhibits at a variety of World's Fairs and expositions in the early 1900s. He'd first become a media darling at the St. Louis World's Fair when he was about 12, in 1904.

The Igorot people have millennia-old expertise with the metal-forging process known as "lost-wax casting." Coincidentally, all of the cars in the race bore a series of wax seals showing the insignia of the Automobile Club of America, which had been applied right before the start to those major components (axles, engines, etc.) that were not allowed to be replaced during the race, only repaired.

Here's a cool shot from the DPL/NAHC collection of one of the stamps being applied to the Stearns (which started late) outside the ACA headquarters in Manhattan:

Anyway, when Shawmut first appealed Ford's victory at AYP Exposition, they lodged a variety of charges, including raising the possibility that Ford had swapped components that were not supposed to be replaced.

Someone got the idea to bring Antero over from his display to inspect the wax insignias on the cars to see if they were original, mainly as a media stunt. Here's one of the stories about it, from the Idaho Republican:

Antero didn't find anything untoward, because Ford never tinkered with the wax insignias themselves. Instead, they got caught (months later) via Oregon Short Line shipping receipts that a Shawmut guide -- who had experience as a railroad special agent -- tracked down. When the No. 2 ran into engine trouble late in the race, Ford ended up swapping out the engine with a replacement so that they could save time and send the car on its way -- and then repaired the original engine and shipped it ahead by freight train to be swapped back in at Weiser, Idaho. That way the original engine was once again in the car when it reached the finish in Seattle, for inspection.

[Craig Leach]

Hi Eric,
Just a thought because the # 2 Ford was eventually disqualified some attention to the # 1 Ford may be of interest also. As it was the real
best performing Ford in the race.
Craig.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Tom, that's amazing that you went on the 75th anniversary run in 1984! Oh, how I wish I could have met Bert/Burt Scott's Jack, let alone Bert/Burt himself! Speaking of ... that nickname spelling is something I'm going to have to reconcile eventually. Scott's given name was Bernard William Scott. Aside from the stories that referred to him as B.W., virtually every newspaper account I've come across, even his 1940 obituaries, as well as the Ford Times coverage in 1909, referred to him as Bert with an e. But when Jack pieced wrote a book about his father -- The Big Race -- shortly after the 1984 run, he referred to him as "Burt."

Jack had been just 20 years old when his dad died, and he did yeoman's work later to try to piece together his father's story and the story of the race, from scrapbooks and photos at home and materials at The Henry Ford. (He also has a son today who goes by Burt with a u.) So I'm not sure if it's the case that the original B.W. used the two nickname spellings interchangeably or if he simply never corrected the printed record or if Jack later adopted in his writing more than 40 years after his dad died. I'm sorry to report that Jack, who linked up with the tour in 1984, passed away in 2008 at the age of 89. I've been in touch with his daughters, who have been really helpful.

And I love the photos you shared are so great! The top one (showing the streetcar stop on the right) is taken on the approach to Cleveland, either just before or just after the one I included in the first post with the two cars side by side. I wonder if the person in the long white or khaki coat might possibly be the photographer (and if that protected him from photo chemicals?), or if that was just a practical motoring "duster" or some other style choice (more likely, as I think about it now).

In any event, that same person in the white coat can also be seen in this picture taken right after the Ford then arrived in downtown Cleveland, in front of the Hollenden Hotel:

The other three photos are part of a larger set that Burt/Bert himself took on the return tour, which they have at the BFRC. That Burt/Bert Scott was behind the camera is why he's often absent from the pictures showing the harsh environment out West on the return trip, as they usually show either C.J. Smith alone with the car or the car empty. Many of the pictures Scott took ran in the Ford Times in the months that followed.

[Eric Moskowitz]

See AACA mag 1959.
Scan1909race1.jpg
Scan1909race2.jpg

George -- Thanks so much for sharing this! I had not come across it before, and it's great to see. I really appreciate it.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Hi Eric,
Just a thought because the # 2 Ford was eventually disqualified some attention to the # 1 Ford may be of interest also. As it was the real
best performing Ford in the race.
Craig.

Craig, that's a great thought. Ford very much wanted the two cars to finish 1-2, with the specific expectation -- I think -- that the No. 1 would come in first, between conferring it the first of the two assigned numbers, giving the wheel to Frank Kulick (the one who had by far the best racing pedigree of any in-house employee), and putting H.B. Harper (the advertising manager and editor of Ford Times) in that car with Kulick as "mechanic" so that he could document the journey every step of the way!

After the Shawmut suffered its first real break down near Bancroft, Idaho, the Ford No. 1 was able to build a pretty substantial lead -- 9 to 12 hours, depending on the account -- by the time it reached American Falls, ID, and it very well might have stayed in first place the rest of the way had Kulick and Harper not been so far ahead that they arrived there in advance of the Ford-selected guide who was supposed to pilot them for the next stretch. They got antsy and decided to leave early with a supposed expert that they met there in town, but he turned out to be such a hack that they got severely lost -- and then ran out of gas in the process, several miles from civilization -- and were never a threat to overtake the No. 2 or the Shawmut and regain their lead after that.

And the No. 1's accident in Snoqualmie Pass is an intriguing wrinkle. Snoqualmie seems to have been an almost unimaginable minefield -- a seasonal logging trail with deep pockets of snow in June, hidden boulders, mud, rotting corduroy timbers, and in many places impenetrable walls of towering pines on either side of the "road," making going around any obstacles there impossible. When the No. 1 struck a boulder near the summit, damaging the axle and the transmission case, Kulick spent seven hours working on the car. He ended up replacing the axle in the end, even as they knew it would be disqualifying, though by then they had already lost out on the coveted first and second but were way ahead still of the fourth-place Acme. (Earlier in the race, before the finish was a given, multiple cars had visited local blacksmiths for axle repairs -- instead of replacement -- including the No. 2 in Rawlins, Wyoming.)

It wasn't planned to have the No. 1 get disqualified, but being transparent about it -- owning it when they arrived in Seattle -- ended up giving Ford some cover for the allegations that would soon come against the winning No. 2. In interviews (and even in later ad copy), Henry Ford as well as Charles Hendy claimed that Shawmut's appeal was just sour grapes -- that Ford had complied with every rule, and that the only disqualifying act they had committed was changing the axle on the third-place No. 1, which they'd been open about the whole time.

Interesting stuff. I'm trying to picture a mountaintop axle replacement. I imagine they must have sent up the replacement part via "The Milwaukee Road," which had just finished a temporary surface rail link over the pass as part of a rapid effort to bring the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad all the way to Seattle in time for the World's Fair. (A more permanent tunnel under the pass would follow a few years later.) All the construction actually affected the race, as normally there was a road around Lake Keechelus, the body of water at the base of Snoqualmie on the eastern approach. Because it was blocked off, the only route was the as-needed ferry ... which the Shawmut crew complained was nowhere to be found when they reached the lake a few hours behind the No. 1.

[Craig Leach]

Eric,
My fondness for the # 1 Ford comes from having the opportunity to get a very nice and pretty correct replica of the # 1 Ford running,
driving & taking it across the auction block of the Barrett-Jackson in 2015 in Scottsdale Az. I was impressed with the performance
of the replica. Those short exhaust pipes where real loud.
Craig.

[Rob]

Eric,
I've been interested in the O2O race for some time, in addition to being a great story in Ford history, but also because of my interest in Ford Model K and Frank Kulick.

Below are several photos and articles from a group of file I've collected.

A Ford 6-40, Model K Roadster was selected to Pilot the racers from the start in New York to St. Louis. When I first learned of this, I was immediately curious as to why the Model K, by the spring of 1909 a year of year model, was chosen to lead the cars. As with the famous Thomas car selected as the pathfinder, it would appear many spectacular cars might have been chosen for the honor. When looking into the matter further, it turns out the driver of the Model K, F. W. Teves, was a Ford agent who had been involved with the sale of Fords, and in particular Model K, since the model was introduced in 1906. Below, Teves is mentioned regarding Ford, and the newly introduced Model K, in May, 1906:

I know your research may not necessarily be interested in this one small part of the story. However, that's not stopped me in the past.........


Ford 6-40 at the start:

[Rob]

We knew that the Model K led the procession as far as Chicago, reaching Chicago on June 5th, 1909:

However, until a year or so ago, I didn't know if the Model K (or another) continued on to St. Louis as the pilot. As it turns out, a K did lead the racers on to St. Louis. Confirmation of that fact came from this news clip reporting the racers passing through Mexico, Mo. Mexico is along the way between St. Louis and Kansas City MO:

Turns out a Model K (I don't know if this is the same roadster that began the trip in New York, or another picked up at the Ford Chicago branch) did pilot the racers on to St. Louis, and was continuing with the Ford racers (controls were off after St. Louis), until laying up in Mexico MO for repairs. A couple do days later, the Model K begins the journey back to St. Louis. As for the Ford racers, the rest is history.....

Eric,
I'm looking forward to hearing more about your project, and ultimately reading your book.
All my best,
Rob

[DHort]

Rob,
,
That brings up another point. How far was the Model K suppose to pilot the cars? Was it going to go on to Kansas City or Denver, if it went as far as Mexico? Was the repair in Mexico just enough to get the car able to limp back to St Louis?

I have always wondered why they took a southern route when they could have gone through Nebraska or all the way up to Minneapolis. Was the population density, and availability of gasoline an issue in 1909?

[Rob]

Dave,
The announced plan was for the pilot car and race master (Gerrrie, A.A.A representative) to act as control to St. Louis. The reason the other sanctioning body (name escapes, maybe Eric or others will fill in the info) lifted their sanction was because it was a “road race.” The plan was to observe speed limits and time limits until St. Louis, and from then on a “free for all.”

I have another article that reports Sorensen and Henry Ford were at St Louis (I believe HF was at Chicago too), and also went on west. It appears HF shadowed the race throughout. It would be interesting to follow his travels and schedule during this event.

Bottom line, Ford was “all in.” Ford had left track racing at the end of 1907, in large part due to Kulick’s wreck with the six cylinder racer, and except for one race in 1908, had abstained from racing. The O2O race came at the perfect time for Ford to demonstrate the capabilities of the new Model T, as well as utilize what by this time was the largest nationwide dealer/service network in the country.

I still find it remarkable that Ford chose the Model K to lead the racers. It’s almost a “passing the baton” from the big fast six, to the nimble, economical and yet durable Model T.

I wonder too why the south route was chosen. Maybe the troubles the NY to Paris racers experienced the year before influenced the decision not to go through Nebraska and Wyoming?

All my opinions. Again, looking forward to reading more about this project.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Eric,
My fondness for the # 1 Ford comes from having the opportunity to get a very nice and pretty correct replica of the # 1 Ford running,
driving & taking it across the auction block of the Barrett-Jackson in 2015 in Scottsdale Az. I was impressed with the performance
of the replica. Those short exhaust pipes where real loud.
Craig.

Craig, thanks for sharing that! May I ask, how would you describe the sound, the smell, the feel, the overall sensory experience of operating or riding in the replica No. 1 (with its lack of muffler and exhaust coming straight out of the hood) to a stock Model T?

In reading narrative nonfiction that conjures the past, one of the things that always strikes me as distinguishing the work of the masters of the from -- like Erik Larson -- is how immersive and observed it feels, hitting all the senses, and with scenes that read like either a novel or like something that the writer witnessed firsthand, even as they're constructed from hard-earned details buried deep in time.

And speaking of what it's like to ride in a Model T -- the No. 1, the No. 2, or a stock model -- do any of you have favorite descriptive passages? I really like this from E.B. White in The New Yorker in 1936 ("Farewell, My Lovely!"):

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1936 ... -my-lovely

[DHort]

Eric,

You need to have a ride in a Model T just to see what they are like. I know you received a ride, but was it long enough to be called a ride, or just a tease. This will be easy for you to do come spring. Most Model T's have been put away for the winter out by you. Then you need a ride in a Speedster. Nothing like riding in a Model T, although the car is a Model T. I do not think there is any other way to describe it. They are the same car, but they are not the same.

Then you might need to get a ride in a Model K touring, and a Model K 6-40. Similar, but not the same.

If you have the time, you can be taught how to drive one in less than 30 minutes. I am sure there is someone out East who would be willing to do that.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Eric,
I've been interested in the O2O race for some time, in addition to being a great story in Ford history, but also because of my interest in Ford Model K and Frank Kulick.

Rob, I'm so glad to hear from you! I had actually gone back through the search and read all of your Kulick posts a few months back, and then read the two-part article, which was excellent. I'm so impressed with the depth of your research on Kulick, and I agree that his story is a compelling one. I'm also interested in your research on the Model K.

Thanks so much for the words of encouragement on the project, and for saying you're looking forward to the book -- that means a lot.

I'm really intrigued by the picture you have of the Model K pace car with Gerrie and Teves. I've seen versions of it before but never with the hand-written caption ("Pilot Car to Seattle ...") at the bottom. May I ask, where did you come across it?

And Dave -- you asked an excellent question about how far the Model K was supposed to go (and how far it actually went, for that matter). I've had the same question, and the answer that emerges from the newspaper coverage is not a tidy one, if I remember -- though I don't want to guess on this, as I'm not entirely through the processing part of the work, having gathered a ton of material but still trying to wrap my arms around it.

But I believe that Teves and Gerrie drove together through New York State, and then Teves turned back and Gerrie rode the remaining stages to St. Louis as a passenger in one of the larger competing cars in the contest. St. Louis is where the speed controls and the night restrictions fell away and it became a true race to Seattle.

The 11/1/1909 Ford Times indicates as much about Teves in this caption, accompanying a photo of Scott and Smith and the No. 2 after they'd returned to New York on the cross-country tour in time for the Hudson-Fulton Celebration in late September 1909 (a full three months and an additional 6,000 miles after they'd reached the finish line in Seattle):

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch coverage from the evening of 6/7/1909 had Gerrie riding part of the way on the Chicago-St. Louis leg with the Acme (No. 4), then hopping off and jumping on a train so he could be the first one -- and remain the pacesetter, enforcing the rules and carrying the flag for the race's sanctioning body, the ACA -- to reach St. Louis that morning, when it was clear the Fords were going to arrive hours ahead of the rest.

I've connected with a couple of Gerrie's great-grandchildren as well as with Teves's granddaughter. Both were interesting characters -- which I'm finding is true of so many who were drawn to the automobile industry in its infancy.

Gerrie was originally a sports writer/editor in Toronto who came to the US in 1897 as the lead bicycle man for the New York Herald, at a time when the country was in the grips of the bicycle craze as both a spectator sport and a cultural phenomenon, for exercise, recreation, and transportation. But he was ahead of the curve and recognized the coming automobile age, and by the dawn of the century had become the first regular automobile columnist and first full-time auto editor in the daily-newspaper world. He was nearly killed in the fall of 1901 in a car driven by famed racer Henri Fournier when it was struck at high speed at a grade crossing by an LIRR locomotive and hurled into the air. (Fournier had taken a group of five journalists and "automobile men" out to explore a stretch of Long Island road being considered for a speed trial; they were coming back from meeting with Willie K. Vanderbilt, who had warned them about the treacherous crossing near Westbury.)

Anyway, in those days, a couple of decades before most newspapers would adopt a code of ethics separating the news staff from the advertising side, and striving for dispassionate distance between the journalists and the subjects they cover, automotive journalists routinely and openly held official positions with automobile shows or salons and automobile clubs and were involved in races and tours. That's how he ended up as the pacemaker, representing the race-sanctioning Automobile Club of America.

Teves, the driver, was an accomplished sculler and sailor -- in 1930, he would win the fabled Bacardi Cup -- who started selling in autos in Brooklyn with his brother-in-law in his early 20s, around 1903, as Teves & Hendricks. Like many Ford dealers (as opposed to corporate branches) then, they appeared to carry multiple makes (I found one classified ad from 1905 advertising a Centaur electric car), at least in the early going. They certainly had the Ford agency for Brooklyn by 1906, with some later indications that they had it even earlier. In any event, they certainly were established Ford salesmen by the 1909 OTO. I believe that means as an agency they would have answered to the Manhattan factory branch, managed by Gaston Plantiff. Ford had 10 corporate-owned branch stores in the US at the time, and the race route was divvied up among the branch managers in each region the race passed through (NYC, Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago, St. Louis, KC, Seattle -- leaving Philly, Detroit, and Boston off the hook), with those managers in turn responsible for lining up the relay network of "pilots" who would guide the No. 1 and No. 2 across unfamiliar terrain (anywhere from 25 to 100 miles at a time, give or take; they were often Ford agents, dealers, or sub-dealers who lived and worked on or near the route) and generating publicity for the Ford entries in the local press. I suspect then that Plantiff would have been the one who drafted Teves to serve as the initial pacemaker driver in the glorified parade through Manhattan and the early part of the race through New York State, and probably was the one who seized the opportunity to put up a Model K as the initial pace car, too.

More to come!

[Rob]

Eric,
I've found it a bit confusing as to when, and who, was in the pacemaker/pilot car at times. That's why a few key articles have been helpful as far as "tracking" when the K roadster (or a K model, as in the Chicago to St. Louis portion, still not sure if the roadster was still the K pilot, but we do know a K was running with the Fords, that were in the lead and battling wet muddy conditions on the way to St. Louis (if memory serves, which it often does not). The driver mentioned in the K to St. Louis, H. C. Apgar, was a Ford Detroit rep at this point, and would later become the Dallas branch manager, eventually opening a Ford dealership in California).

This "Inter-Ocean" article brings Teves, Gerrie and the Model K into Chicago, just behind the two Fords. It's possible Gerrie may, or may not have been physically in the K at this time, but the report seems pretty concise. Regardless, I take it the K was still with the two lead Fords, with Teves at the wheel. My hope has been to find a photo of the three entering Chicago, but as yet I"ve not found one. I do have a newspaper photo of the K at another location, but still trying to put my hands on it, in my "well organized (not)" file system......

[Aussie16]

This is a fantastic post. A wonderful read of many knowledgeable contributors. I cant wait to read the book. I am particulalry impressed by the pictures shared by Tom Rootlieb which were pictures I had never seen. Very much looking forward to reading more of this posty.

[Rob]

Eric,
I intended to mention, I don't know where the two photos (same pic, different sources) are from, with one mentioning the "Pilot" on it. Possibly from the Detroit Public LIbrary, however I'm not sure.

A few more "tidbits." I wish I had a better copy of the photos in this French article:

This "Chicago Tribune" article reports Chicago Ford Branch Manager Tom Hay met the racers in his own six cylinder Ford, escorting them into the city:

Into Buffalo N.Y., and mention in the Ford Times regarding Gerrie comments about the Ford racers near Syracuse N.Y.:

[Been Here Before]

Too, I you haven't maybe try Library of Congress for photographs?
https://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q= ... omobile%20

[TRDxB2]

Google'd 1909 Ocean to Ocean race https://www.google.com/search?q=1909+Oc ... 0&dpr=1.33
List some images

--
--
But the real find is this account of the race pictures below are from the PDF

1909 ocean to ocean race diary.pdf

(8.03 MiB) Downloaded 25 times

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References from the book
University of Washington - When the World Came to Campus
http://content.lib.washington.edu/exhib ... /race.html

[Rob]

Frank and George, good links, thank you.

As with the crystal punch bowl trophy (requested by Alexander Winton) Henry Ford won with his first racer, the trophy is probably lost to history. Sure be a heckuva score on a garage sale…..

[TRDxB2]

I should have noted that the account of the 1909 Ocean to Ocean race in the PDF above reads like a diary written from the perspective of the race itself as if it were a person. It is an incredible account of the race with many pictures as well. I doubt if there is anything else that could have been added to account for the day to day activities Some pages below

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oorace6.png (111.12 KiB) Viewed 2431 times

[Eric Moskowitz]

Just digging out now after a full weekend. So many great posts here! I'm really grateful, and going to go through one by one.

First, Dave, this one came in late Friday (early Saturday morning EST) just as I was writing my last post. I couldn't agree more! I definitely hope to take a renewed ride with fresh eyes this spring and couldn't imagine finishing the book without doing so. Is there anyone on the forum who lives in driving distance of Boston and would be open to a demonstration? (I'd make sure to acknowledge it in the book and also give you a signed copy when the time comes, of course!)

I was already thinking about reaching out again to Lang's -- I haven't been in touch since I wrote that story for the Globe in 2009, but I still have the gas-gauge stick and the (1959 reprint/collector's edition) copy of "The Story of the Race" booklet that they gave me. They were so welcoming last time! They're about 75 minutes northwest of me, so that would be an easy day trip...

Eric,

You need to have a ride in a Model T just to see what they are like. I know you received a ride, but was it long enough to be called a ride, or just a tease. This will be easy for you to do come spring. Most Model T's have been put away for the winter out by you. Then you need a ride in a Speedster. Nothing like riding in a Model T, although the car is a Model T. I do not think there is any other way to describe it. They are the same car, but they are not the same.

Then you might need to get a ride in a Model K touring, and a Model K 6-40. Similar, but not the same.

If you have the time, you can be taught how to drive one in less than 30 minutes. I am sure there is someone out East who would be willing to do that.

[Eric Moskowitz]

This is a fantastic post. A wonderful read of many knowledgeable contributors. I cant wait to read the book. I am particulalry impressed by the pictures shared by Tom Rootlieb which were pictures I had never seen. Very much looking forward to reading more of this posty.

Thanks so much, Warwick! I can't tell you how much the enthusiastic responses here in this group mean to me -- a shot in the arm, as writing a book is such a long (and often solitary) journey.

Coming from Australia, you might enjoy this photo, which I found at the Benson Ford Research Center (Acc. 1854, Binder 15, a collection of a few dozen photos and Ford Times page reprints related to the OTO):

The handwritten notes on the verso left a question about the location (looks like someone wrote "In Detroit? docks. / Capitalizing on race publicity"), but if you look closely at the crate it says:

The Car in this case is a duplicate of the
FORD MOTOR CAR 20 H.P.
which won the GREAT 4100 Miles
OCEAN TO OCEAN RACE
NEW YORK TO SEATTLE
Ford Motor Garage 25?? Elizabeth

Trying to figure out the location by searching for "Ford Motor" and "Elizabeth" in that era, I then found this ad on newspapers.com from June 26, 1909 -- just two days after the #2 crossed the finish line, accounting for the international date line -- from The Sydney Morning Herald, advertising the victory, with a confirming Elizabeth Street address for the local Ford agency:

[Eric Moskowitz]

Rob, may I ask where you found this? It's so cool to see!

MTFCA - French article on race.jpeg (100.08 KiB) Viewed 2331 times

I've searched for the race (articles and images) in as many online and brick-and-mortar places as I can think of or have access to, including newspapers.com, Genealogy Bank, ProQuest, NewspaperArchive, NewsBank/Readex, the Library of Congress (and Chronicling America), individual-state historical newspaper sites (some states with papers digitized through the National Digital Newspaper Program don't overlap with the LOC and maintain their own databases), local library sites (some counties and municipalities have digitized their own archival newspapers), Google Books, HathiTrust, as well as Google and Google Image searches. Between that and the photo collections of BFRC, DPL, and a couple of other institutions, I've been able to amass a few thousand clips and a few hundred photos.

Still, I hadn't thought to search foreign-language sources! This is one of the many reasons turning to expert crowd-sourcing and drawing on the collective MTFCA Forum expertise is such a boon!

Rob, I'd never seen that French clipping. What's especially fascinating to me is that the photo location of the two images in your clip above -- the one at lower right showing the Model K pace car, the one at lower left showing the #1 leading the pack -- appears to match this image of the Shawmut from the DPL:

This makes me immediately wonder two things:

-- Where was this taken?
-- Do any other images of the cars in the race taken from this same vantage exist?

The Shawmut photo at the DPL can be found online here: https://digitalcollections.detroitpubli ... a%3A199363. The caption and metadata don't mention the Shawmut but describe at as "three men posing in car during unidentified cross-country tour," with "Boston, New York, Seattle" painted on the side storage trunk in view and "Tours -- New York to Seattle" handwritten on the print's verso. (That's how I found it, searching the DPL Digital Collections for anything tagged "Seattle.")

The clean condition of the cars makes me think it's the first day of the race. (Before, seeing only the Shawmut, I wondered if it might either be a picture on their way to the starting line in NYC from Boston or on a test run over that Memorial Day Weekend between when they'd arrived and when the race actually started; but now it's clear from the clip you found, Rob, that it must be early in the race.)

The forested setting would argue against Manhattan, except that there are pockets of Upper Manhattan even today where you might see only trees by the road (along Riverside Drive, and near Fort Tryon Park and Inwood Hill Park) if you had a close-cropped photo, and that would have been even more rustic/arboreal-looking in 1909. But it also could have been taken anywhere between the starting line and Poughkeepsie (where several striking photos were taken -- the last good photos I've seen until the Midwest; more on this TK in the next post).

My understanding of the route is that they left City Hall and took Broadway the entire way for 7 1/2 miles until they reached 116th Street (Columbia University), then turned left toward Riverside Park/Riverside Drive, hugging the Hudson River for about a mile (passing Grant's Tomb) and then banking back to Broadway the rest of the way through Harlem, Washington Heights, and Inwood, before crossing over into the Bronx and then Westchester County. If you're also a baseball fan, you may be interested to know that at 165th and Broadway they would have passed hard by the 16,000-seat Hilltop Park -- home to the American League ball club known then as both the Highlanders and the Yankees -- though the team was on the road in DC that day. (The Yankees would stay there through 1912, then move to the Polo Grounds for a decade until Yankee Stadium opened.

But I digress. If anyone has any more intel on this photo location -- or has ever seen any other photos from the race taken here, I'd be elated to hear about it!

[Eric Moskowitz]

Now as to the Poughkeepsie photos I mentioned above ...

Some of my favorite photos of the race were taken at the end of the first day in Poughkeepsie -- where the front desk of the Nelson House Hotel served as the first of 30 checkpoints in the race, and which also served as the first of six overnight control stations (Poughkeepsie, Syracuse, Buffalo, Toledo, Chicago, St. Louis) where crews were required to rest for the night, before the night-driving bans and speed controls fell away in the West.

I first saw these two in person at the BFRC, in the Ocean to Ocean collections:

That's the No. 2 Ford and the No. 6 Itala. I especially love the Itala photo; some of the newspaper clips from the first day describe how Itala crew member F.B. Whittemore (Franceso Bianchi Whittemore Jr., a recent Yale grad and member of the Demarest coach-building family -- his mother was a Demarest -- that had imported this Itala and built the body) had garnered enthusiastic notice among the crowds lining the sidewalk in Manhattan as he was wearing a corduroy suit, side-lace-up boots, and a hat with a feather ... standing out in contrast to most of the others in the various crews who were wearing khaki ducksuits, driving caps, and goggles. At least on the print (if not here as an attachment) you can clearly see all that attire on Whittemore in the passenger seat at near right.


Anyway, I then found this photo below online at the DPL, clearly taken on the same street at the same point in time. Curiously, the DPL caption and metadata identifies it as "Men and boys posing with 1909 Shawmut automobile, 1909 New York to Seattle Race" -- it's definitely from the race, but that's not the Shawmut. With no racing number on the hood and no dusty crew inside, my guess is this car belongs to a local auto dealer or enthusiast who joined the approaching racers on the outskirts of Poughkeepsie and followed the caravan into town. (Unfortunately, this is the only picture tagged as the Shawmut in the DPL's online database.)

An incredibly helpful BFRC library/archives staff member then tracked this image down for me in Acc. 1660 (the automobile racing addendum, box 4), which shows the Ford No. 1 in the same place:

In this photo of the No. 1, you can make out the bottom half of the "6" painted on the radiator grille of the Itala behind it, partly visible (as a circle) under the crooked elbow of the young man in the suit and newsboy hat immediately behind the Ford.

The back of the photos shows that these were taken by Spooner & Wells, one of the leading NYC photo outfits at the time specializing in automotive pictures. In 1925 they sold their studio and images (half a million negatives) to Nathan Lazarnick, who incidentally had also taken starting line photos in 1909. I found this brief in Motor West (which was published by F. Ed Spooner), noting the sale and explaining that Spooner and Charles S. Wells had been partners from 1905 until 1924, when, tragically, Wells was killed while trying to prevent Spooner's car from rolling down hill in Summit, NJ: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Mo ... frontcover


Back to 1909 and Poughkeepsie: I consulted a fire insurance map of the city from the era to get the lay of the street. The Collingwood Opera House (light-up "Opera House" sign seen in 3 of the 4 photos above) -- today known as the Bardavon, the oldest continuously operated theater in New York State -- had its marquee and lobby entrance on Market directly across from the Nelson House Hotel, but with the theater itself set back behind a five-story brick office/retail block. Of the four above, only the picture of the No. 2 doesn't show the Opera House sign; it's pictured in front of 37 Market Street, which was immediately to the west of the theater entrance.

If Spooner & Wells took photos of cars No. 1, 2, and 6 on this street -- plus a photo of a mystery car -- it stands to reason that they also captured the Acme (No. 4) and Shawmut (No. 5) here. (The Stearns never made it this far.)

Has anyone ever encountered those photos, to complete this set? (They're probably long gone, but it doesn't hurt to ask!)

Thanks!
Eric

[Rob]

Eric,
You've found quite a lot. When we speak at a point, I have a few ideas and suggestions regarding DPL.

It's good to find another researcher(s) looking at similar, yet dissimilar areas. What one person may not be looking for may be important for another researcher. My primary interest (although, what's not interesting about O2O?) was the fact a Ford Co. owned one year out of date Model K was selected for the high profile position of piloting the cars from New York to Chicago, St. Louis, or wherever the "official" duties of the "K" and Teves ended. My take has been that Henry Ford was "all in" for the race, and felt the combination of his dealer network and quality of his light, powerful (horsepower to weight ratio) car was perfectly suited to this contest. My unfounded suspicion is, when the many other manufacturers pulled out of the race, he was more than happy to offer up the Model K. Ford was still actively advertising, and selling the remaining Model K, primarily Roadsters, and this (in my opinion) created the perfect juxtaposition of the big, racy K roadster "passing the torch" to the quick, svelte, versatile and reasonably inexpensive ($850 was still nothing to sneeze at, the equivalent of about $26,000 today).

As seen by the selection of the famous New York to Paris winning Thomas Flyer for pathfinder, Guggenheim and the planners of this contest were going big, and it was expected this would create a big media "splash." Up until a short time before the start, as many as 13 cars were still on board for the run.

Below is the complete page from "La revue de l'automobile," as well as a front page with date. I believe I found the page through "Galicca-BnF digital library:"

https://www.bnf.fr/en/gallica-bnf-digital-library

Cheers,
Rob

[TRDxB2]

From Eric's Photo's & map I Google'd to find Today's location. Note the posts in front of the theater

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The Nelson House across the street from the Opera House was a 50 room Hotel. There is a small park there with a Historical Marker about the Nelson House but does not appear to mention the O2O

[Eric Moskowitz]

From Eric's Photo's & map I Google'd to find Today's location. Note the posts in front of the theater
O2O pny2.png
O2O pNY1.png
O2O pny4.png
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The Nelson House across the street from the Opera House was a 50 room Hotel. There is a small park there with a Historical Marker about the Nelson House but does not appear to mention the O2O
O2O pny5.png

Frank, this is great! I can't get enough of then/now photo comparisons. Thanks for putting these together. And in historical-marker news, though the Nelson House tablet might not mention the race, I just learned that the Historical Commission in Stoneham, Mass., (the town where the Shawmut was built) recently installed a marker at the park where the Shawmut factory burned to the ground in the early morning hours of November 13, 1908.

I'll be out that way again in a few weeks and will photograph the marker.

In the meantime, here's the fire coverage from that day's PM Globe (11/13/08):

Quite coincidentally, that would be the same day (a few hours later) that Charles E. Fay and the Boston Ford branch would receive its first batch of Model Ts and show them off to the local press (this, from the Sunday Globe, 11/15/08):

[KeithG]

Eric, I enjoy all this fact sourcing leading up to your book about the 02O race. However, with all due respect, I must mention that the date used in your post just above referring to 1909 appears to be in error and should be 1908.
Cheers,
Keith

[Eric Moskowitz]

Keith, you're absolutely right! Thanks for catching that! I've been defaulting to 1909 so often while thinking of the race that I accidentally typed it instead of '08 in the dates above. The fire and the debut of the Model T in Boston both occurred on Nov. 13, 19*08*, not 1909. I'm a bit foggy, getting over the latest daycare winter headcold that's cascaded through my household, but I still should have caught it. Glad you spotted it, since I can't go back and edit the post above.

[Eric Moskowitz]

Wouldn't you know I just discovered that you *can* edit posts after the fact, thanks to the pencil icon. Keith, I just went back and fixed the dates. Really appreciate the attentive read.

Gratefully,
Eric

[mbowen]

From the article reporting the first Model T’s at the Fay Agency:

The lower half of the crankcase is extended to the lower half of the housing for fly- wheel and transmission, thereby inclosing all working parts in one seamless pressed steel casing that is absolutely oil tight.