Are There Records of Ford Dealers in 1914?

[Hudson29]

I just joined the Historical Society here in Klamath Falls, OR and one of the first things I did was to contact the folks at the County Museum to see if there might be any information on who the Ford agent was in 1914, the year my Touring car was built. A very helpful lady turned this up from the local newspaper:

So far, we have not been able to find the physical address or phone number, but we do have an intersection, Klamath Avenue & 9th street.

Are Ford records available that might have this information? Would they also have sales records?

Paul

[DHort]

Did you look for city directories in the library? County clerk or Register of deeds could look it up if you meet a nice gov worker.

[Hudson29]

Those are certainly good suggestions. I know many of us on this list are interested in Ford history and someone may know of an online resource I could search. If so, it might contain other data of interest.

Paul

[Scott_Conger]

Paul

in 1914, there were "agents" that sold Fords. For example, my '13 came from Chicago, from Erwin Greer Automotive...they sold Maxwell, Ford, all sorts of cars, but they were not Ford Dealers.

Dealerships came out soon thereafter and those poor guys were run ragged by Ford, being forced to purchase minimum buys of spare parts (whether they needed them or not) and similar things...

A minor but perhaps pertinent point for your research...there may be many more people SELLING Fords than you find as dealers in the early days.

Good luck with your research

[DanTreace]

Paul

There would be no records at Benson Ford Research Lib. for identify any specific Ford sold by dealers or agents.

The best searching today is done on the web, Google works well.

Found these tidbits with just a bit of searching. Seemed Mr. Biehn's news is conflicting from Oct 1919 to constructing a 2 story dealership for his Ford agency, as it was acquired by others before in April 1919. Maybe the agency kept his name as figurehead? Or did his sell out in April let him to build a new agency? Ah...the misty cloudy remains of history...

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[Hudson29]

Thanks Dan, this confirms & amplifies what we have already gleaned from local newspapers. George Biehn appears to have opened his agency in 1912 and sold eleven cars that year. By 1918 he sold 125. He sold out in 1919. I did not know about the two story building.

My 1914 Ford is not a local car so I had no expectation that it might have been first sold by Biehn. I was hoping to find a physical address & phone number. If the building still exists and many do from that time in Klamath Falls, it would be nice to drive the car to it and pose it there for a picture.

Would an agent/dealer list with contact info exist someplace?

Paul

[Hudson29]

I was interesting in learning the phone number for a project I will detail in a separate post. We learned today that the telephone number was 252J. I'm guessing that this was before self-dialing phones. The caller would have had to call the operator and ask for the George Biehn agency, the Ford agent or for 252J. If that be the case, would advertising in 1914 have mentioned the phone number at all? The printed ad did NOT have an address or phone listed. My helpful partner at the historical society mentioned that in 1914 everyone knew everyone else. The population gained from interpolating census data would likely have been around 3200 for the area so this makes sense.

Paul

[Erik Johnson]

The internet is great but it is not the be-all, end-all and most documents and many newspaper archives are not online.

If you want get information on the dealership online, I have found that casual searching on Google books will typically yield some trade journal references. I suggest including date parameters when searching for dealerships and agencies in Google books.

If you are truly interested in doing research, that means actually leaving the house physically researching hard copies and/or microfilmed documents including but not limited to newspapers, city directories, motor vehicle registrations, obituaries, etc. at the respective town or county library, municipal, county and state historical societies, government agencies, etc. From my own experience, it doesn't take much effort but the results vary.

Here is my father, the homegrown historian, doing some physical research. Because we live in Minnesota, we save our research projects for wintertime.

[Pep C Strebeck]

October 24, 1919, no longer a Ford Agent but back in his old building (taken from The Evening Herald).

In 1923 Mr. Earl Balsiger moved to Klamath Falls from Grants Pass and in partnership with a Mr. Winetrout purchased the Ford agency, at that time.

"The local business was moved tice for enlarged quarters; first from Klamath Avenue and Eighth Street to Klamath and Ninth in the George Biehn Building. In 1919 the present site was purchased and the outstanding domicile the Ford Agency now possesses was built. The ground floor covers 350x130 feet; the second floor, 130x106 feet; the basement, 130x120 feet. The grand opening was held for this beautiful building on April 15, 1930, and a jolly party was enjoyed by Mr. Balsiger's hosts of friends." Quoted from the Memorial/Obituary of Earl Henry Balsiger, April 11th, 1957.

Not the building that you were looking for, but this was what replaced the original Biehn agency building, demolished in 2016:

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[TXGOAT2]

When I was very young, The telephone had no dial. To call grandma, I'd pick up the phone and the operator would say, "Number, please!". As I recall, I'd give Grandma's street address and after a moment I could hear her phone ring. I recall a flower shop sign that said, "Jones Floral, Phone 4"

[Hudson29]

Thanks guys, you have found some info that I had not found and the "Attention Ford Owners" ad has given me some food for thought. I have a project in mind that I will detail in a separate post.

Paul