A Horseless Carriage Comes to Town

The following story, which occurred in 1897, appears in a self-published book by former Raymond resident, David A. Sorrell, called “As I Remember.” The book features Mr. Sorrell’s recollections about the early days of Raymond. The stories appeared in a weekly column in The Raymond News from 1963-1972. 

I wanted to include a photo with this story and I found the one below in Raymond’s Centennial Book published in 1971, that was simply captioned “Early Demonstration Ride.” While it seemed logical that the photo was taken in Raymond, I learned it was actually taken on Main Street in Harvel several years after the "horseless carriage" exhibition in Raymond. It features a 1909 Model Ford purchased by William Hitchings of near Harvel, who paid C.M. Forrester $871.50 for the auto. Mr. Hitchings is seated in the vehicle. Also pictured are John Heien of Morrisonville, in front; Otto Lebeck behind him, and Ben Singer. Alec Matli is standing beside the car.   

The following was written by David A. Sorrell: Raymond’s first automobile was not driven into Raymond under its own power. It came in a baggage car on the Wabash railroad and this car was “set out” to use a railroad expression, there on the siding, right in front of our little depot. 

Evidently the car had been bought or leased from the railroad by the great mail order firm of Montgomery Ward & Co. for I think now that it was painted red and in huge gold lettering on each side of the baggage car were the words “Montgomery Ward & Co.” This name needed no explanation in our town for I think now that along with the family Bible there could be found in most Raymond homes one of the mail order catalogs of this company.

Now let’s see what was happening in our town due to the impact of the arrival of this wonderful car from our favorite mail order company. Handbills of announcement had been spread over the town so everybody knew that at 3:00 p.m. on that day that there would be an exhibition of a “horseless carriage” and that it would be driven up the driveway and down of Charley Houck’s elevator and would carry four passengers during this exhibition.

To say that all this created much interest in our town is putting it mildly. In my own home I begged Mother to let me go. Every day I went “uptown” as we term it on needed errands. Even as a six year old boy I did this and if this first car coming to Raymond was in 1897, my age would have been seven years old. To Mother, this extraordinary happening was outside the sphere of “needed errands” and was something to be considered before I could be given permission. Finally the permission was given and it came about in this way. I had a little playmate across the street with whom I played either at her house or mine most of every day. Her name was Olivia Welge and her Mother was Mrs. Nellie Welge. She was the wife of Lou Welge and also the daughter of Joe Lessman, Sr. Now, Olivia and I had talked about how much we would like to see this horseless carriage thing and I suspect that she said as much to her mamma, for her Mother came over and wanted to know of my Mother, if I could go with her and Olivia to see the “horseless carriage.” This solved my problem for Mother consented at once to my going.

When we arrived at the red and gold baggage car there on the siding in front of the Wabash depot there was quite a crowd in waiting to see the “horseless carriage.” After a bit of waiting, the door of the baggage car was slid back and young man stood in the door and made a little speech. He told us first about the horseless carriage and it seems not that he said it was made by a man in Peoria by the name of Duryea. He also said that three of Raymond’s distinguished citizens had been asked to take part and ride in the wonderful horseless carriage on its exhibition drive that would be up the driveway, through the elevator building itself and down the driveway going out of the elevator. Going up this steep elevator drive was proof that the horseless carriage would go up a hill and of course no one doubted its ability to roll down the driveway on the far side. The last part of his speech was given over to extolling the merits of the great Montgomery Ward mail order house and if the audience would kindly climb the steps that had been provided there at the end of the car and file through we would each be given one of the these latest mail order catalogs which was indeed full of wonderful bargains at all times.  

Immediately after the catalogs had been given out the exhibition would take place. Memory does not reveal just what the inside of the car looked like except that one of the big catalogs was handed to me by a young man as we went through the car. Again back on the ground outside the car we waited with our catalogs clasped in our arms for the real thing we had all come to see. Now, a long ramp was laid down from the wide baggage car door and out of the door and slowly down the ramp rolled the first car that ever came to our town. Once on the ground everyone crowded around to look at it. We could see that it would seat four people. One way to describe it would be to say that it looked like an overgrown “surrey” without a top. I realize that to the present young generation, the word “surrey” would not mean a thing. Here are two ways to find out - ask and old timer in Raymond or look in the dictionary.

The horseless carriage was on the ground now and stood gently put-putting awaiting for its passengers. Again, memory does not reveal just who these passengers were but I like to think that it was Charley and Mrs. Scherer and perhaps Will Seymour. All three of these good people were great friends of this little boy Davy who stood watching them as they proudly climbed into the little horseless carriage. Now, I think this must have been too early for chauffeurs to have uniforms as yet. There is no memory here of a cap turned backwards - the gauntlet gloves - the goggles, and the long linen duster coat without which no chauffeur or driver of one of the early cars would care to be seen. All this fashion came a few years later.

There was no need for the exhibitor to tell the folks to stand back. When the young man driving the horseless carriage began feeding the gas to his one lunged engine, the thing awoke with a mighty roar and blue smoke pouring from the back, the crowd backed up a bit. Straight up the steep elevator drive the thing went and down the other side and in a few minutes the whole exhibition was over. I don’t remember that any more trips of any kind were made. Perhaps the exhibition handlers realized just what a frail thing they had to show and breathed a sigh of relief every time one of their exhibitions was over.

The reactions to this event were plentiful. George Woods, one of our well-to-do farmers said, “I’m sure gonna have me one of them dern things.” Not all the reactions were favorable. The Raymond harness makers and blacksmiths and wagon makers had a premonition of just what these horseless carriages would and did do to business in the years to come. Other comments were like this, “bet that thing would skeer the livin’ daylights out of a horse if you met one on the road. It would be wrs’n meeting a thrashing engine.”

Who would have been able to predict or even believe that in sixty-five years, Raymond would be so crowded with cars at times that it would be hard to find a parking space?