New Automobiles in 1908

In August 1908, Albert Dinkel, the florist and township assessor, along with County Surveyor, Frank Kattman, became the owners of two automobiles Saturday evening, and both came to grief yesterday.

Mr. Dinkel and family decided to initiate the machine yesterday by taking a trip to Terre Haute and eating dinner with relatives. Their intentions were good, but they failed to make provisions for a handicap. The machine chugged along lovely for several miles, and Mr. Dinkel was congratulating himself on what a fine trip they were having when suddenly the blamed critter bucked as they were making the Snake Hill. After sweating and cussing the machine for a couple of hours, Mr. Dinkel gave it up as a bad job, and boarding an interurban car, the family returned to Brazil leaving the automobile behind in the ditch. This morning Henry Richter and Mr. Dinkel went out in another auto and brought the cripple back to the city.

Frank Kattman had a similar experience with his new machine; fortunately, he was not far from home when his auto bucked. Mr. Kattman ran his machine all day yesterday, and it was working in fine shape. About 8 o’clock last evening just as he started to take his wife for a trip, the gasoline buggy went on a strike just as he was leaving home. After working on it for a while, he too called in Richter, and the machine was hauled to the garage for repairs.

The automobiles mentioned in the above article published on August 5, 1908, does not give a hint as to the make of these new automobiles. However, there was an article in the Brazil Weekly Democrat on August 26, 1908, on automobiles in Brazil:

The automobile business in this city has grown with such leaps and bounds that an up-to-date garage and repair shop was badly needed, and Mr. E. G. Bush has stepped into the breach and proposes to furnish the autoists of this city and surrounding country all they could wish in this line. About sixty automobiles are now owned in the city, and an automobile enthusiast has predicted that by the first of the year, there will be at least a hundred machines owned in this city. The autos owned here range from the cheapest runabouts to the most expensive touring cars, a variety which will be found in few cities the size of Brazil.

With this many automobiles and traction cars running through the city, the city council had to start thinking about speed limits. This appeared in the February 12, 1908, newspaper: “The city council discussed the speed ordinance. It was proposed to fix the speed of automobiles at 8 miles an hour in the city limits. A few months later the 8 miles an hour passed. Another problem the city council had to examine was enforcing headlights.” It seems that too many automobile owners were refusing to use their headlights at night and pedestrians were having narrow misses of being run over. So, another ordinance was passed stating that all automobiles had to use their headlights at night. I wonder if they knew how important automobiles would become in the future?

Submitted by Rhonda Tincher, Clay County Genealogy Society, Center Point, Indiana.

Sources: Brazil Weekly Democrat: January 15, 1908; February 12, 1908; August 5, 1908; August 26, 1908.