18 -Broward Legacy

THE FIRST REGISTEREDMOTOR VEHICLES IN

BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA

OCTOBER 1915 TO JULy 1916by Kenneth J. Hughes

Established in 1915, the same year the Dixie Highway opened downthe Florida east coast, Broward County grew up with the automobile. Thecounty's first motor vehicle registration record, covering the period fromOctober 1915 to July 1916, provides an abundance of details on the typesof vehicles operating, their owners and uses. By analyzing this data, aswell as contemporary newspaper articles, advertisements and physicalartifacts, Kenneth J. Hughes reconstructs the automotive history ofBroward County's first year.

Mr. Hughes, a former Broward County Historical Commissionerand contributor to several past issues of Broward Legacy, has doneextensive research, both historical and archaeological, into the county'spast. This article is an abridgement of his booklet by the same name,which is available from the Fort Lauderdale Historical Society gift shop.

EARLY MOTORTRANSPORTATION IN

BROWARD COUNTY

In 1893, when the horseless car­riage was going through trials of ac­ceptance, Frank Stranahanestablished a ferry and a trading postalong the banks of New River. Here,a small community emerged from thepine woods. And in 1896, when com­petitive automobile manufacturerswere making sound investments inDetroit, Henry Flagler's railroad wascompleted to Miami, bringing newsettlers and shipping produce tonorthern markets. Since that time,the development of the automobileand its positive effects on southFlorida have been a storybook affair.

Fort Lauderdale became a boom­ing agricultural town with the ini­tiation ofEverglades drainage in theearly years of the twentieth century.New and fertile farmlands dotted theriverbanks, but roads were non-ex­istent. In effect, the Studebakerwagon was king. Yet, times--theywere changing. Roads were im­proved, and the automobile soon be­came the preferred mode of travel.

The first automobile in Fort Lau­derdale was a Glide, purchased byReed A. Bryan in 1906. It must havebeen a grand new convenience forthe owner and a unique attractionon the unpaved avenues of down­town Fort Lauderdale. Local recordsindicate Reed's Glide was still on the

road when Broward County cameinto existence in 1915. Notably, theBryan family had arrived on NewRiver during 1895 and were some­what responsible for the com­munity's success with their hotel andother business ventures. Growthwas inevitable, and Fort Lauderdalewas incorporated in 1911. The newtown was small, and the first auto­mobiles were sold through agentsfrom Miami.

In 1911, H. Gilbert Wheeleropened a garage on Brickell Avenuein downtown Fort Lauderdale, ap­parently in conjunction with his newmercantile establishment. Reed A.Bryan purchased his first REO fromthis establishment. Later in the de­cade, the Broward County Garageand Automobile Company operatedat or near the location of Wheeler'sGarage. It is uncertain if H.G.Wheeler had an affiliation with theBroward County Garage and Auto­mobile Company. Neither can wefind proof that Wheeler sold automo­biles after 1912. Nevertheless, in­formation in the Fort LauderdaleHistorical Society archives regardingR.A. Bryan's REO purchase indicatesthat H. Gilbert Wheeler was the firstautomobile dealer in present-dayBroward County.

Fort Lauderdale's first automobile, Reed A. Bryan's Glide, with NewRiver Inn in the background. ca. 1910. The baby is Reed's nephew,Perry Bryan.

Summer / Fall 1998 - 19

A NEW COUNTY ANDMOTOR VEHICLEREGISTRATION

In 1914, the communities ofDeerfield and Pompano were in PalmBeach County, while Dania, Davie,Fort Lauderdale, Hallandale, andProgresso were situated in DadeCounty. The border between thesetwo jurisdictions followed an east­west trail later known as FloranadaRoad.

By 1915, with the opening ofdrained Everglades lands, these com­munities had increased in populationsufficiently enough to gain votingstrength. This happened during acrucial era in south Florida historywhen much local political interestcentered on expenditures and prohi­bition. One particularly divisive is­sue concerned the taxation of FortLauderdale area citizens to providefor a deep-water port at Miami.When Miami area leaders blockedinitial efforts to create a new countyfrom the northern portion of Dade,Fort Lauderdale interests promotedcounty-wide prohibition. Since theMiami hotels and tourist resortswanted unrestricted alcohol sales,this tactic paved the way for the cre­ation of a new county.

Thus, Broward County was es­tablished on October 1, 1915 fromparts ofDade and Palm Beach Coun­ties. Fort Lauderdale became the

county seat. During this transition,new civil records were establishedand maintained. These responsibili­ties included the licensing of motorvehicles. In 1918 the licensing pro­cess became a state responsibility,but before that date, all auto licenseswere maintained and issued byFlorida's counties.

The actual licensing of vehiclesin Broward County was acknowl­edged at an organizational CountyCommission meeting on September19, 1915. Besides the agenda of re­modeling the courthouse and order­ing jail cells, William Q. Bryan, thetax collector, filed a list of requiredsupplies: one Register for Automo­biles and Motorcycles, auto applica­tion blanks for licenses, fifty "ToHire" automobile license plates, 250"Owner's Use" automobile licenseplates and fifty motorcycle licenseplates. Subsequently, it was deter­mined that the new county of Brow­ard had less than 300 automobiles,trucks and buses, and not more thanfifty motorcycles. This informationwas most likely obtained from theprevious Dade County AutomobileLicense Registration records. Sev­eral recent inquiries by historiansand license plate collectors havefailed to locate the whereabouts ofDade County's registrations. Ifthese records were located, this sup­position, as well as the identity ofthefew surviving 1915 Dade County li-

Fort Lauderdale merchantH. G. Wheeler.

cense plates recovered in present-dayBroward County, could be verified.We are very fortunate to have Brow­ard County's Automobile Registra­tions still intact.

From these records, the readercan determine the county's mostpopular sources of transportation.Although the source of this informa­tion, now in the Broward CountyHistorical Commission archives, doesnot indicate the year each vehiclewas manufactured, it does list themby manufacturer, or sometimes, by

William Q. "Quince" Bryan, firstBroward County Tax Collector.

20 -Broward Legacy

model name. For example, any Fordautomobiles on the road between1915 and 1918 were most likelyModel Rs, Model Ns or Model Ts.Other manufacturers provided simi­lar designs to compete against HenryFord. A few examples wereChevrolet's Baby Grand and FourNinety, Mr. Willy's Overland, andDodge Brothers' Touring Car. Mostwere powered by four or six-cylinderengines.

In contrast, some motor vehicleswere rather uncommon and usuallymanufactured in small, unsuccessfulquantities. Some, known as cycle­cars, had only one or two cylinderengines and rode on motorcycle tires.One example of a cyclecar registeredin young Broward County is theGrant. This and similar vehicles hada short production span ranging from1910 to 1916, and were eventuallyphased out by improved developmentand price reduction of standard au­tomobiles.

Notably, this survey indicatesthat Overland, Buick, Chalmers andStudebaker automobiles lagged be­hind Fords in popularity--all wererunning a close race for second place.The Chevrolet, rather new on themarket in 1915 and 1916, was notwell known or well rec~ivedin Brow­ard County; only two were registeredduring the first licensing sequence.

While other manufacturers wereconcerned about establishing a com­petitive edge with Ford, Henry Fordwas attempting to increase the mar­gin. He was experimenting with al­cohol in developing a new fuel fromwhich he had hoped to attain in­creased performance. Imagine theirony if these experiments were suc­cessful. Young Broward County--acounty created in part on a "dry" no­alcohol platform--might have had37.8% of its motor vehicles, thesebeing Fords, powered by alcohol fuel.Even the less popular manufacturedvehicles, which were quickly follow­ing the path of the dinosaur to ex­tinction, might have beenrejuvenated with a better grade offuel.

Regardless of the popularity orthe notoriety of a motor vehicle,south Florida counties were inter­ested in establishing licensing fees

satisfactory to the welfare of theirtaxpayers. They recognized that itwould be unfair to charge a "PrivateUse" automobile owner the same li­cellsing fee as the owner who usedthe vehicle for taxi service or trans­porting produce. Subsequently,county vehicle licenses were alsoclassified on the basis of "For Hire"and "Motorcycles."

Broward County also charged li­censing fees based on vehicle qual­ity, measured in tonnage. A Fordowner who used the vehicle for "Pri­vate Use" in 1916 was charged $5.00per year, while a Cadillac owner paid$10.00. Motorcycle owners were usu­ally the most fortunate, having tofork over only $2.00 per year. By1917, commercial vehicles were pay­ing $20.00 per year.

The standard wage for commonlabor in 1915-17 averaged about fif­teen dollars per week. Thus, mosteveryone's great-granddad had topay one-third of his weekly wages,minimum, to keep the old lizzie onthe road for one year. By today'sstandards, the licensing fees forkeeping motor vehicles on the roadduring 1916 were expensive. In ad­dition, south Florida's economic con­ditions must have made such apayment doubly painful to great­granddad's wallet. Although theUnited States had launched fullsteam into the industrial age, southFlorida lagged behind. The region'sagricultural base was susceptible tothe whims of nature, and tourismwas only beginning to play a majorrole in Broward County's economy.In the coming decade, south Floridawould experience a crash and depres­sion years before the rest of the na­tion.

One may also be surprised aboutthe low number of registered motorvehicles on Broward County roadsbetween 1915 and 1918. However,these numbers paralleled the smallpopulation. We must assume thatperhaps not all vehicles were regis­tered--especially those tucked awayon remote country farms. In a re­gion best known for agricultural re­sources, it is quite possible that themules and horses still outnumberedthe horseless carriages. For what­ever reason, our early motorists had

no need to worry about traffic jams,traffic lights or fuel shortages. Nev­ertheless, road conditions presenteda major concern.

THE FffiST ROADS INBROWARD COUNTY

The first road through what wasto become Broward County was amere trail cut through the pinewoods in 1838 by Major WilliamLauderdale's Tennessee Volunteersand Lieutenant Robert Anderson'sThird Artillery Pioneers. It wasmapped by Lieutenant FrederickSearle of the U.S. TopographicalCorps. This mule trail was improvedfor the passage of military supplywagons in 1857, during the ThirdSeminole War. At the same time, thefirst stationary bridge in what wenow call Broward County was con­structed across the upper reaches ofthe Hillsboro River by Captain AbnerDoubleday--the legendary inventorof baseball.

Most travelers who visited southFlorida in the later part of the nine­teenth century followed the sea routeor the Florida East Coast Railway totheir destinations. Yet, after theturn of the century, some wealthynortherners did travel by automo­biles to their winter homes inFlorida, creating a demand for im­proved roads. The first automobileroad through today's BrowardCounty was certainly not extraordi­nary. Constructed in 1906, it ex­tended more than sixty miles fromPalm Beach to Miami. Very often,the road was narrow with woodenbridges crossing picturesquestreams. The road was rough, butpassable. However, it required con­stant maintenance.

The term "Rock and Roll" is notas new as some may believe. As aroad building term, it has beenaround for quite some time. Earlyroads were packed with rock or simi­lar material and rolled or compressedfor hardness. Many roads in north­ern Florida were packed with co­quina shell material. In what istoday northern Palm Beach County,oyster shell from ancient Indiankitchen middens served as suitablematerial for both railroad beds androads. Farther to the south, lime-

Summer / Fall 1998 - 21

Automobile advertisements fromthe Fort Lauderdale and Miaminewspapers in the 1910s.

The "ARGO"R.._,,_ .-. ...., S:J 7'.00 U.~ .1 feotu ......w..IvU,~ -"It u.lt" e-..al~', T.,.... w-.1t!.4oL II Ia .. -'..toltl. t. " ..... u a....... ...,. U~~ will .... ,... 50 _ '-. I'! .40 .iI aIM of ••oeII... N... I"" ...., I ...lila , _ ...,cI..... I.r~ .....t..tolok

ooo~ooooooooooooooooo

~ .<~'. ~~~.;~~~,:'<r.~~~~~~~~.,~~~~w~~~ers IF~~~;'~::ENGER "ELGIN SIX" FIVE PA:~~~~~ I$985 P, O. B. $985 F. O. B. A.CHIC.\QO BUILT lIKE·A WATCH O:JV:JIH:J Y

ISPECU'lC-\TIONS: Unit power plant, 6'cylinder f-.II., motor cut end block, over 0head v_Iv".; Strrr.ber. or Rafield carburetor, Stewart va~uum .y.tem,· full fioatin.rear A.le· wit!> [rown Lip~ .piral bevel gearo, 116 inch wheel bue, cantilever .pring.. ICampillrlt tloe.e .pecilication., call (or demon.tration and you will buy an ELGINYuo O~, it.to youroelf and your pocketbook.

BERNER & THREADGILLAllen", for D3'd~ IUlll Browar" Countiea 0

21:; "IhirlCl·lIt.h Strett 00000000000000000000

OAKLAND SIX 1 H L U N I v f. fl S to. l C /. It

WilL S. BULLOCK, Jr., Agent.I'rcscllt hJl:aticm With th··

F'r. L.\Cl,l.l:lJ.\J.I~ G,,':.\':I;'\: ~I.\' 111:;1. I ".

$.433.00483.00

RoadsterTourine Gar

(';,r ;..:,!I I,f Si:-:. t!,,, ~irst !'IflilJlnl'nt inl." I:rllwarrj

('t"mty. w"l arrivf~ In II f,··.... d::;,·".STURDY AS THE OAK

$975.00 f. O. B. fl LauderdaleThe Sensible Six

G",al Power and Ulhl Weilhl. EJlechol Unu.ual Performance.Econom¥ .nd Comlort

Forty-oneHo... Power at 2500 R. P. M. \,\Ieilhl 21~O pound~. .SlY..poun~. '4' wei..ht to every bone power. Wheclbaoe !12 ,nCh...Ove'r.•;.e Tire. J2z04 inChea. Non..kicJ. .ear. Tumlnl Clfele 38 f~.

Undenlubl' Semi-elliptic.rea. Sprin... ' J inChealonl Genuine Leathe:Uphol.lel, plealed type. Delen· Starlinl' Ulhlin~ and .",irion.pooirive Labricahon IndicalOl\. Pilol Ught on daah. Marvel Carbu­retot. Sttwart Vacuum Feed complete ~uipmeDt..

"TWENTY MILE5 TO EVERY GALLON OF GAS

Green & High Auto Company.--=-.Jlmm52SZSl5lSznnsm51SUZSZ51SlSlS25lSZSlSUlSmSZSUlnsz5>525uznsz2

Prisoners building a Florida road, ca. 1906.

NORTH BRICKELL AVE.

Fort Lauderdale, FIft.

FISSEL & RANDAll I

I-------<Oo~

HORST? 4ND MULESlIOE/NC.

Buggy and Wagon Repaira.

Automobi1ea Stored and Re­

paired.

Machine Work of AU Kind.

Sheet Metal Work and Tanka

Built to Order.

<00 ~

Gate City Garage 0:: AND ::

Machine Comp'y

C :::;:::>0

Owing to the maintenance neces­sities of motor vehicles, a few repairgarages emerged in young BrowardCounty. Perhaps the first body re­pair shop in this county was attachedto the local paint company, the FortLauderdale Mercantile Company.These industrious entrepreneurshired a paint expert formerly em­ployed by Dodge Motor Works in Chi­cago. Repair garages in BrowardCounty between 1915 and 1918 in­cluded the following:

Broward County Automobile &Garage Co., Brickell Avenue,near North River Drive,Fort Lauderdale

Broward Sales Company,Andrews Avenue South,Fort Lauderdale.

Dania Garage, Dania.Fort Lauderdale Garage &

Machine Company,Andrews Avenue South,Fort Lauderdale.

E.E. Hardy, Pompano.C.M. Ingalls, Hallandale.Leaird & Pellett, Andrews

Avenue North,Fort Lauderdale.

preparing to oil Southwest ThirdStreet and Brickell Avenue and didnot want to contend with the traffic.He stretched a rope across the roadto cordon off the accessible perim­eters to his work. Unfortunately, thecyclist did not see the rope--but feltit across his neck. In this particularaccident, the results were obvious.The motorcycle continued a bit far­ther down the road while its rider,without a choice of his own, quicklychanged his direction of travel. Yet,he was much more fortunate thannewlyweds who flipped the car--be­ing able to retrieve his ride and pro­ceed onwards with only a fewscratches.

In Dade County, a Broward citi­zen lost his life in a bicycle accidentduring 1916. He was visiting thatcounty, preparing his properties forthe real estate market. He rode a bi­cycle to his son's farm to tend to thehorses, and on his return, fell intothe path of an oncoming vehicle. Al­though accidents were rather remotein the late 1910s, they did occur­and sometimes, they were fatal.

EARLY AUTOMOBILEREPAIRS

Once upon a time, Henry's Fordsand other automobiles were easy andinexpensive to repair. Many repairscould be accomplished at home. Di­agnostics were simple too, but rathereffective. Often, a vehicle in need ofrepair could be diagnosed simply bylistening to it. This writer's grand­father once had such a job in Miami.He took the vehicles on the road, de­termined their problems and relayedthis information to the mechanics.

22 -Broward Legacy

stone was plentiful and thereforesubstituted for this purpose. Roadbuilding offered convict labor ahealthy outdoor alternative to theirconfinement.

Notably, one of the first tasksundertaken by Broward County'scommissioners was to establishbonds to meet the many requests bythe citizens to build roads through­out the new county. Better roadsmeant improved traveling speed.Likewise, quicker travel resulted ina higher risk of accidents.

ON EARLY MOTOR VEmCLEACCIDENTS

Whether caused by horseplay orlack of horse sense, accidents oc­curred just as quickly in 1916 atthirty miles per hour, as they do to­day at fifty-five miles an hour. Forexample, a young newlywed couple,Ruby and Emet Rogers, only a fewhours into their new lives, were in­volved in an accident at the Daniarailroad crossing on Dixie Highwayin April. It seems the chauffeur de­cided to race against a motorcycle.He was unfamiliar with the danger­ous road transition across the tracks,and the vehicle flipped over, injur­ing the driver, the bride and threeothers.

In October 1915, an unidentifiedyouth received the surprise ofhis lifewhen he was clotheslined at An­drews Avenue and Southwest ThirdStreet while riding his motorcycle toschool. At that time, Fort Lauder­dale streets were unpaved, therefore,it was a practice to oil them down inan attempt to reduce the dust and tokeep them packed. A workman was

First page of the Broward CountyAutomobile License Register, 1915.

ing these lists are the countywide to­tals.

The original 1915-18 BrowardCounty motor vehicle registrationprocess did not separate the appli­cants from each community. It ap­pears that applications wererecorded on a first-come, first-servebasis. It is highly unlikely that ap­plicants from other Broward Countycommunities protested their comingto Fort Lauderdale to register theirmotor vehicles. After all, it wasmuch closer than the Dade CountyCourthouse. It is also quite possiblethat, in former years, Dade Countybrought the registration books to theNew River community and othertowns to insure that all motor vehicletaxes were collected. Or, a north

I:r'I-

j .. "

LIST OF MOTOR VEHICLESREGISTERED IN

BROWARD COUNTYOCTOBER 1915 • JULY 1916

The Broward County AutomobileRegister lists seven communities asthe locations for owners' motor ve­hicles. In addition, there are severallistings for "City," which refer to FortLauderdale applicants. All "City"registrations are combined under theFort Lauderdale registrations for thepurposes of this breakdown, as arethose for "Colohatchee," an unincor­porated townsite at present-day Wil­ton Manors and the surroundingfarming district, which included por­tions of today's Oakland Park andnorthern Fort Lauderdale. Follow-

,/

/ ," f

Summer/Fall 1998-23

Dade County register may have beenmaintained at Fort Lauderdale.Since no Dade County registers havebeen located, we have not been ableto verify the process.

There is also some probabilitythat Broward County's first tax col­lector, W.Q. Bryan, may have trav­eled to each community with theregister. Whatever method he incor­porated to meet the registration pro­cess, we can be assured that it wasas thorough as conditions allowed.On the other hand, the register re­flects numerical inconsistencies. Itis obvious that a few applicants wereallowed to select their own number.

An example of this selectivenessamong the license applicants is re­corded in October 1915 when Will­iam B. Snyder registered his"Chalmers." On the register, motor­cycle license plates are listed inter­mittently among the automobileregistrations, but numbered sepa­rately. Among the listings on pagetwo for automobiles and trucks isSnyder's out-of-numerical-sequencelicense issue number 100, sand­wiched between Sol Bevill's licensenumber fifty-four and H. T. Hobbs'number fifty-five. Snyder served asa real estate broker. His brother,Samuel P., was a road contractor andvice-president of Bryan and SnyderCompany.

Many other community pioneernames embellish the registrationbook, for example, first Fort Lauder­dale Mayor William Marshall, Sher­iff Aden W. Turner and Ft.Lauderdale's prominent pioneer,Frank Stranahan. Ifit satisfies one'scuriosity, Stranahan owned a Buick.He was issued license number fifty­one.

The following data representsBroward County's first vehicle reg­istrations from October 5, 1915 toJuly 1916. No additional registra­tions were recorded for the rest ofthefiscal year, from July to the end ofSeptember. Registrations were sub­sequently recorded beginning at thestart of each fiscal year, October 1 of1916 and 1917. The last entries inthe registration book were logged inJanuary 1918. After that date, theState of Florida maintained state­wide vehicle registrations.

24 -Broward Leg:-a..-:cy~ _

~fit"U"IffIII IffIII '"fit fit '"Of'""n"'"Iff'"'" III'" fit", III'"'"III'"ill~"~ "E No.~1 '-_ FOR PRIVATE USE S-0~§

§ QtUlltltl! AlitUlltUhilC illiCClt5C .~~ -I C~UNTY or DADE 1912 STATEorrL~~I~~ I~ -~ In consideration of the sum of~~~---. - .Dollars ~E: #W~'1.It. r.. Colin'0'.:27:::"" 2,- Slttu 01 fJorld4. /, ~ {~E· -~ - . Addrl!~f-~~~_ CSt:: u It" btl Lk.".~,. II"'''', IA_. ?ZUf4l'tOb ~..~"tH ~Iow (., 1Il.".n.I co,..,.,_"t"'- ar,ob., "t. '''1. _I'HI ::::::: ."JI", S.",.,.,k, JOIA. "11. ~ , r "3:= Kindu{Cur ~- --L-",._~ /{or31? Puwer ~7 =:E Dol.d J/ /D(J _~ ..191 V _Lid 2Jlr;.. 4~,~~~~ .§t:: I ..._,.. ..~ / r ,.. r__ ::::~ lU111111mIIi11IlUIII III llUUIU£II III IUIII111 III11111III1IUIlllllgI'H1IU11111111UII~II ~

Frank Stranahan's 1912 Dade County license (courtesy of StranahanHouse).

THE LIST

Dania Motor VehiclesAutomobiles: Buick 1;

Chalmers 1; Chevrolet 2; Detroiter1; Ford 16; Hupmobile 1; King 1;Maxwell 1; Overland 5; Saxon 2;Studebaker 2.

Motorcycles: Excelsior 2;Harley Davidson 1; Indian 1; Pope1; Reading Standard 1.

Trucks and Buses: White (oneand a half ton) 1.

Total automobiles = 33Total motorcycles = 10Total trucks and buses = 1

Davie Motor VehiclesAutomobiles; Chalmers 1; EMF

(Studebaker) 1; Ford 3.Motorcycles: Indian 1.Trucks and Buses: REO 1.Total automobiles = 5Total motorcycles = 1Total trucks and buses = 1.

Deerfield Motor VehiclesAutomobiles: Buick 1; Ford 2;

Hudson 1; Maxwell 1; Overland.Motorcycles: Harley Davidson 1.Total automobiles = 6Total motorcycles = 1Total trucks and buses = 0

Fort Lauderdale Motor VehiclesAutomobiles: Allen 5; Argo 1;

Auburn 1; Buick 8; Cadillac 5;Chalmers 1; Detroiter 1; Dodge 3;EMF (Studebaker) 2; Flanders 3;Ford 42; Grant 1; Glide 1;Henderson; Hudson 3; Hupmobile 3;

Marathon 1; Maxwell 1; Metz 2;Oldsmobile 1; Overland 8; Packardl' Rainier l' Saxon 5; Schoks[Schacht] 1; S~lden (five passenger)1· Stoddard [Stoddard/Dayton] 1;,Studebaker 3; Velie 1.

Motocycles: Excelsior 3; HarleyDavidson 5; Indian 7; Miami(Merkle) 2; Thor 8.

Trucks and Buses: Buick (1000pound) 1; Commerce (1000 pound) 1;Dart (three ton) 1; Ford (1000 pound)3; GMC (one and a half ton) 1; Inter­national (one ton); Packard Truck(three ton) 1; REO (1000 pound) 5;Sampson (one and a half ton) 1;Selden ( pound) 1; White 3.

Total automobiles = 115Total motorcycles = 25Total trucks and buses = 20

Hallandale Motor VehiclesAutomobiles: Flanders 2; Ford

4; Herschoff 1; Marion 1; Overland1; Studebaker 3.

Motorcycles: Excelsior 5; In­dian 1; Thor 1.

Trucks and Buses: Oldsmobile(1000 pound) 1; Republic (two ton) 1.

Total automobiles = 12Total motorcycles = 7Total trucks and buses =2

Pompano Motor VehiclesAutomobile: Buick 5; Chalmers

1; Dodge 1; EMF (Studebaker) 1;Ford 9; Hudson 1; Hupmobile 1;Mitchell 1; Overland 4; Rambler 1;Regal 1; Ress Hupp [Rex HupmobileJ1; Velie 1; unrecorded 1.

Motorcycles: Harley Davidson1; Indian 2.

Trucks and Buses: IndianaTruck (one ton) 1; Oldsmobile (1000pound) 1.

Total automobiles = 30Total motorcycles =3Total trucks and buses = 2

Countywide Motor Vehicle TotalsAutomobiles: Allen 5; Argo 1;

Auburn 1; Buick 15; Cadillac 5;Chalmers 10; Chevrolet 2; Cole 1;Detroiter 2; Dodge 4; EMF(Studebaker) 4; Flanders 5; Ford 76;Grant 1; Glide 1; Henderson 1;Herschoff 1; Hudson 5; Hupmobile5; King 1; Marathon 1; Marion 1;Maxwell 3; Metz 2; Mitchell 1; Oak­land 1; Oldsmobile 1; Overland 19;Packard 1; Rainier 1; Rambler 1;Regal 1; Ress Hupp [Rex HupmobileJ1; Saxon 7; Schoks [Schacht] 1;Selden (five passenger) 1; Stoddard[StoddardlDayton] 1; Studebaker 8;Velie 2; unrecorded 1.

Motorcycles: Excelsior 10;Harley Davidson 8; Indian 16; Mi­ami (Merkle) Motorbike 2; Pope 1;Reading Standard 1; Thor 9.

Trucks and Buses: Buick (1000pound) 2; Commerce (1000 pound) 1;Dart (three ton) 1; Ford (1000 pound)3; GMC (one and a half ton) 1; Indi­ana Truck (one ton) 1; International(1000 pound) 2; Oldsmobile (1000pound) 2; Packard Truck (three ton)1; REO (1000 pound) 6; Republic (twoton) 1; Sampson (one ton) 1; Selden(one and a half ton) 1; White (one anda half ton) 4.

Total autoInobiles =201Total motorcycles = 47Total trucks and buses = 26

DESCRIPTION OF MOTORVEHICLES REGISTERED IN

BROWARD COUNTY,OCTOBER 1915 · JULY 1916

The early development of the au­tomobile grew with leaps and boundsbetween the 1890s and 1916. Earlyvehicles were manufactured withone and two cylinder engines. Thesewere improved to four and six cylin­ders. Chain driven transmissionsevolved into shaft driven units.Wooden wheels developed into steelwheels, hard rubber tires into pneu­matic tires, and tiller steering into

Here's the Handsome Auto

That is going to a live Contestant

Summer / Fall 1998 - 25

right and left hand steering wheelsystems.

Additional breakthroughs in de­velopment included items whichwere once considered luxuries and,of course, were optional. Manualstarters yielded to electric starters,and electric lighting systems madegas lighting obsolete. Spare tires, aswell as jacks and tool kits, eventu­ally became standard equipment.

Automobile styling also took pre­cedence in early development, al­though there were many similaritiesamong the different manufacturers.For example, competitively pricedcars were usually available in twobody styles--the two to four personroadster or the five to seven persontouring car. Some companies pro­ducing higher priced automobiles,such as Cadillac and Packard, offeredunique features such as Landaulettestyle bodies, attractive grills andequally attractive lights and paintfinishes. Tonneau tops of mohairwere standard for the workingman'sautomobile. These could be substi­tuted with demountable hard wintertops or permanently closed automo­biles. Hence, many automobile com­panies offered both open and closedmodels. If these were out of finan­cial reach or simply did not satisfyour pioneer consumers, cyclecarswere available.

Cyclecars were manufactured inthe United States between 1910 and1916, and were comparable to bi­cycles and motorcycles. They werelightweight with two-cylinder air­cooled engines or four-cylinder wa­ter-cooled engines. Most weretwo-passenger vehicles. They usedmotorcycle tires, and some used beltdrives, rather than the usual chainsor drive shafts. Most were capableof traveling forty to fifty miles on agallon of gas. These were the firsteconomy cars. Only one other formof motor vehicle, the motorcycle,could guarantee improved economy.

Early vintage automobiles arerare, but antique motorcycles aremore so. The earliest this writer hasseen in a private collection was a1911 Indian. Between 1912 and 1917motorbikes advanced rapidly in de­sign, size and performance. Eachrepresent beautiful gems, with their

Agents for

f W==.=C.=l=EA='R=O==============='===W=A=ll=AC=E=K=='N~

:I LEAIRD & KING iII

! Thor and Indian Motorcycles:l! Buy a Motorcycle on Payments---$50 downiI

II: In Berryhill BuildingI: Andrews Ave. Ft. Lauderdale I\~:- .~--. _, --=:=.c==== -., _=::c-=:::-:=-=-=-=:::...--=_-_:..:c=--_-_-:..=.~~.:.::J!j

26 -Broward Legacy

own specialized features, unlike thecompetitive models manufacturedtoday. In local motorcycle advertise­ments, each manufacturer claimedtheir product was the fastest, andone claimed their product was thecleanest. In reality, they could bemore economical and practical thanautomobiles, owing to the conditionof our early roads, unless, of course,one had to convey more than one per­son or a large amount of cargo.

American trucks, from 1910 to1917, were simple in style and strongin construction. Sizes ranged fromhalf and three-quarter ton deliverywagons, to the six-ton Packard Haul­ers. Somewhere in the middle werethe ever-resilient two-ton REO farmand cargo trucks. The early truckshad single and dual chain drive sys­tems. These soon made way for thedrive shaft designs. Some smalltrucks in early Broward County wereconverted automobiles. Severalmanufacturers offered these conver­sion options. The largest trucks inBroward County's first automobileregistration weighed three tons.

BROWARD COUNTYBUSINESSES THAT USED

MOTOR VEHICLESIN THEm TRADES

OCTOBER 1915· JULy 1916

The numerous truck and heavyvehicle listings comprise another in­teresting reference in the automobileregister. The records either indicatethe owner's name or a businessname. The latter is unique for it de­fines Broward County's citizen workforce, and reveals businesses of ne­cessity during the county's earliestyears. Businesses licensing trucksincluded:

Aden Waterman Turner, SheriffBlount Brothers, FarmersBroward Grocery CompanyC. Edwd. Dugall & Bros.,

FarmersCrown Bottling CompanyFairacres Stock FarmFort Lauderdale Laundry Co.Hector Supply Co., AgricultureLee J. Spear, FarmerMyers MichalloNew River Fruit CompanyOliver Brothers CompanyPalm Beach Mercantile Co.

Schull & Dillard, FarmersStandard Oil CompanyTubbs & Johnston,

Fruit Packer/ShipperW.C. Kyle, Broward County

BankWhite Star Auto LineWitheral & OkhurstW.J. Brandon & Son

COUNTY LICENSE PLATESAND SUCH

In recent years, evidence ofearlyBroward County automania hasbeen discovered during the redevel­opment ofthe downtown district andadjacent residential neighborhoods.The most recognizable artifacts arethe early porcelain-coated licenseplates. Other items include mechani­cal parts belonging to automobiles,trucks and motorcycles, among thesesuch identifiers as vehicle manufac­ture plates and labeled, wheel greasecaps.

Although such evidence is some­what scarce, Ford wheel caps aremore common than those belongingto early Chevrolets, owing to thepopularity of the former. A particu­larly rare identifier surfaced re­cently along Brickell Avenue indowntown Fort Lauderdale, when agrease cap was recovered from a"Brush." The Brush was a cyclecarmanufactured by Brush Motor CarCompany and the Brush RunaboutCompany of Detroit between 1907and 1913. It was a popular two-seat,coil spring, chain-driven vehicle withsolid tires and wooden frame axles.

The Brush was powered by a one­cylinder, twelve horsepower engineand could travel fifty miles on a gal­lon of gasoline.

This cyclecar, designed byAlanson R. Brush, sold for a priceranging from $350 to $780. Latermodels had pneumatic tires andlarger engines. Landaulette bodieswere available on the Brush andmanufactured as Titan taxicabs. TheBrush Company merged into theU.S. Motor Works, which failed in1913. This vehicle represents anearly form of motor transportationused in Fort Lauderdale at least twoyears before the formation of Brow­ard County.

In 1914, vehicle owners residingsouth of present-day Floranada Roadwere issued blue Dade County li­cense plates with white numbers andlettering. In 1915, the Dade Countyplates were a bright yellow withblack numbers and lettering. Thefirst Broward County license plates,with white numbers and letters on apale green background, were mostlikely ordered from the supply listsubmitted at the September 19, 1915county commission meeting by W.Q.Bryan.

How and when the first Brow­ard County license plates were is­sued remains uncertain. Becauseregistrations for Broward Countybegan on October 5, 1915, only twoweeks after the request for plateswas submitted to the County Com­mission, it is possible that temporary

1915 Dade County license plate,discovered by the author andnow in the collection of theBroward County HistoricalCommission.

Summer /Fall 1998 - 27

vehicle registrations were issued andvehicle operators continued usingthe 1915 Dade County plates untilthe new plates arrived.

The 1917 Broward County li­cense plate consisted of yellow let­tering on a black background whileneighboring Palm Beach County is­sued a license plate consisting of

white letters on a black background.It is unknown if a 1918 BrowardCounty-issued license plate ever ex­isted. Registration did occur fromOctober 1917 to January 1918, andthese numbers represented the fullcomplement ofvehicles in the countyincluding some new additions. It ispossible that this data was submit-

ted to the State of Florida to beginthe new registration procedure, butto date, no information has surfacedto verify the closing process. Subse­quently, we can only assume that1918 porcelain license plates neverwere issued.

BIBLIOGRAPHY"A Narrow Escape" [Motorcycle Accident], Fort

Lauderdale SentiTUlI, October 15, 1915.Anderson, Lieutenant Robert, Almanac, March 2,

1838, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C."Auto Accident near Dania," Fort Lauderdale Sen­

tiTUlI, April 28, 1916.Broward County Automobile Registrations, 1915-18,

Broward County Historical Commission Mu­seum, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

"Broward Celebration--Largest Event on the EastCoast of Florida," also "County CommissionersProceedings," Fort Lauderdale SentiTUlI, Sep­tember 24, 1915.

"Broward County Celebrations--A Great Day forFt. Lauderdale, the County Capital," Fort Lau­derdale SentiTUlI, October 8, 1915.

Bryan Family, Notes Regarding, 1896-1916. Biog­raphy Files, Broward County. Historical Com­mission, Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Clymer, Floyd, Those Wonrkrful Old Automobiles(New York: Bonanza Books, 1953).

Doubleday, Captain Abner, letters, January­March, 1857, Captain Justin Dimick letters,January-March 1857, M108417, Record Group393, [Microfilm], National Archives, Washing­ton,D.C.

Florida's Good Roads Building (magazine). TheAutomobile, February 22, 1906, copy in Brow­ard County Historical Commission Archives,

. Fort Lauderdale.Fort Laurkrdale City Directory, 1918. Fort Lau­

derdale Historical Society archives, Fort Lau­derdale, Florida.

"Ft. Lauderdale County Seat ofBroward," "Hurrayfor Broward County," Fort LauderdaleSentiTUll,October I, 1915.

Georgano, G.N., (Editor), The New Encyclopedia ofMotor Cars, 1885-Present (New York: E.P.Dutton, 1982).

Green, Chip, Notes Regarding Early County Li­cense Plates, [Interview with a renowned col­lector, Sept. 20, 1993]

Heede, J.L. (Sam), "Our Bryan Pioneers," Brow­ard Leg(JJ:y, vol. 7, nos. 3 & 4 (SummerlFall1984),39.

Hough, Richard & Setright, L.J.K ,A History oftheWorld's Motorcycles (New York, Harper & RowPublishers, 1966, 1973).

Jesup, Major General Thomas S., Papers, Febru­ary, March 838, [J-1838], M567/167, RecordGroup 94, National Archives, Washington, D.C.

Kines, Beverly Rae, (Editor), Packard--A History

of the Motor Car and the Company (Princeton,N.J.: Princeton Publishing Company Inc., 1978).

--------------, Standard Catalogue ofAmerican Cars,1895-1942 (2nd Edition, lola, Wisc.: KrausePublications, 1989).

Lester, Thomas J. & Steele, Irv, Handbook··Auto­mobile Specifications, 1915-1942 (Cashier, N.C.:Lester & Steele Publishing Co., 1984).

Marshall, Mayor William, Biography Files, Brow­ard County Historical Commission Archives,Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The Miami Herald, October 3, 1915, October 17,1915.

Notes Regarding the Formation of BrowardCounty, Fort Lauderdale SentiTUlI, October 19,1915, July 7, 1916.

On Two Wheels--The Encyclopedia ofMotorcycling,Volume 18 (New York and London:MarshallCavendish Limited, 1976),

Stout, WesleyW., "Came Here in 1906," The Beach­comber, Fort Laurkrdale Daily News, August 21,1953.

"The Creation of Broward County," BrowardLegacy, vol.l!, nos. 3 &4 (SummerlFall 1988), 16.

Wagner, James K., Ford Trucks Since 1905(Sarasota: Crestline Publishing, 1978).