Question for Trent Boggess

[DHort]

Looking at your printout of the Account Receivable ledger from July 1903 to March 1909, for 8/5/1903 there is a listing of a Model A Sold to Bergstrom and Wild. It states Wemack, WI. I can find no reference to a Wemack, WI. I am wondering if you can tell me if this might be the wrong spelling of the town the car was sold in? Thank you.

[Hap_Tucker]

David,

Ah, another mystery from the Ford Archives. I would suggest contacting the Bergstrom Automotive group located in Wisconsin. They sell a lot of different cars from Acura to Volvo in 30 facilities located throughout the state. They also sell Fords. They may or may not be related to that original Bergstrom & Wild listed in the database. But it should be easy to check. Their website is: https://www.bergstromauto.com/ And if you ask them if they are related to the Bergstrom & Wild that sold two Model A Fords on in 1903 and the other in 1904 they should know if it was possibly them or not.

I have nothing significant to add but you may find the following interesting:

From the database I copied: "Wernack" But if I put it into a word processing program and change all the letters to upper case it is: "WERNACK"

But a Google search of WERNACK does NOT show any town or city in Wisconsin either! And the one in Germany that did appear is clearly too far away.

Note also that 2 cars are recorded as shipped to Bergstrom & Wild in WERNACK, WI.

Aug 5, 1903 Model A # 32 Tonneau and
Feb 10, 1904 Model A #226 Tonneau

A search for other Bergstrom or Wild or WERNACK entires did not turn up any other matches in the data base.

It could have been a very small dealer -- even a Garage. Or perhaps a dealer that sold more than one make of car. Ford would usually give them the option of only selling Fords or not selling any Fords. Or the dealership could have changed names.

Note the ledgers were originally hand written and sometimes it is very difficult to tell what was written.

I look forward to what you discover. And we owe Trent a big thank you for taking the time to catalog a 100 some odd pages of serial numbers for the Model A through 235 of the Model Ts before the remaining Ts were documented in the shipping documents which start with T #1,119 shipped Mar 3, 1909).

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off

[DHort]

Thank you Hap

I called Bergstrom a couple weeks ago and the current owner is the first owner, so not related.

I would be willing to guess it is near Oshkosh and not Milwaukee. I am hoping Trent sees this post and responds.

I wish Benson Archives could answer the question, but they are not a library so I would have to go there to research it myself.
I should have stayed a few days after the Old Car Festival.

[DHort]

There were also some Model C's shipped 1/10/1905 to Pipou, WI and that site does not exist either.

[Adam]

Ripon, WI

[Bill Dizer]

If you can find one for Wisconsin, in the 1890's, most states had League of American Wheelmen map books of roads and railroads for cyclists of the day. They show most small towns and crossroads that had names. Since the cars were most likely sent by rail, looking along the railroad for towns might show old towns no longer existing today. Or old railroad maps and time tables could help.

[Jim, Sr.]

Dave,
I have "The Atlas Of Wisconsin". This was printed by The University Of Wisconsin Press in 1974 after 8 years of research and preparation. This is a large book that lists every lake, stream, village, city, neighborhood, crossroads, rural locality, etc., that ever existed in Wisconsin, and the maps that show their locations.
If you are coming to the Dairyland Tin Lizzies "Bells and Whistles Tour" on this coming Saturday, September 21st, you can borrow the ATLAS, and maybe you can find Wernack or Pipou.

[Jim, Sr.]

Correction!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Bells and Whistles Tour will be Saturday, September 28th.

[DHort]

Just a followup. I have not heard from Mr. Boggess.

There is an H.P.Cody in Ripon WI, but he was owner of Ripon Knitting Works. I put in a call to the local historical society and await their response.

I did contact Bergstrom Ford and they informed me they have not been around that long. No connection to the Bergstrom & Wild firm.

Hap, is there a way to reference the ID number on Mr Boggess;'s listings?

[George Mills]

FWIW, I don’t know about Wisconsin, but I am aware of what map makers did in Florida.

The mapmaker investigator would move along paths and stop when he’d come across 3-4 houses in a cluster and talk to folks. While working north from Tampa, the map man stopped at a place north of the settlement. Chatted up folks a bit, asked them what the place was called and they replied “no name yet, just a bunch of family”. He asked the family name before heading off.

Years later there came along a published map and on it just north of Tampa settlement was a dot labeled Mullis Corner ( today’s Carrolwood section of a bigger Tampa) Family story!

[Hap_Tucker]

David,

I'm not quite sure what your question means. You asked:

"...is there a way to reference the ID number on Mr Boggess' listings?"

Yes, but probably not as helpful as you would hope.

For both Model A's listed as sent to Bergstrom & Wild in WERNACK, WI.:

Aug 5, 1903 Model A # 32 Tonneau
Feb 10, 1904 Model A #226 Tonneau

They would be originally recorded in Ford Motor Company's first ledger book that covers Jul 1903 to Mar 1904. That actual book is located in Accession 85, Box 8, Benson Ford Archives. (Ref page 1 of the introduction to "Early Ford Database" dated Sept 10,1997 by Trent E. Boggess. I will include that at the end.)

To get a feel for the archives please see Trent's article "A Visit to the Stacks" at: http://oz.plymouth.edu/~trentb/HFMGVStacks/Stacks.html
Note when Trent wrote that article the complex was NOT called the Henry Ford as it is today and the archives were not called the Benson Ford Archives. Instead they used the name "Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village" which he abbreviates as HFMGV in the article.

Note you could submit a request for one of the Benson Ford archivist/staff to look in Accession 85, Box 8 for that first ledger. And then ask them to look through the ledger for the 2 cars and have them scan the pages those two cars are listed upon. That may or may not help you. As mentioned earlier some of the ledger entries are easy to read while other entries have become smudge etc. or were written poorly to begin with. For information on hiring an Archivist or administrative person at the Benson Ford to research that for you, please see:

https://www.thehenryford.org/collection ... ces/remote

Their fee for non-commercial work is $35 per hour. And it supports a very important part of our Early Ford history as well as other parts of history in general.

Good luck with your search. And if I guessed wrong and that wasn't the question you were asking -- please let me know and I'll try again.

I will try to post the pages in order -- but if they don't read correctly - the file name says cp pg 1... etc.

[Hap_Tucker]

I don't know why I / it posted two copies of page 1 to the intro. But the information is still there and I need to run help with supper.

George -- yes, locations were named for various reasons and as you note the names sometimes change over time. Ford City, where the main Ford Canada plant was constructed changed names even though the plant remained in the same general area. I would have to look it up, but from memory (not as reliable as it used to be) there were 3 different names. It is now part of Windsor.

Respectfully submitted,

Hap l9l5 cut off