Buzz wagons created quite a buzz rolling in Quincy

In the early 1900s, buzz wagons were controversial in Quincy but not taken too seriously.

One explanation defined it as “… a large iron and rubber contrivance for transforming gasoline into speed, excitement, and obituaries. It consists of a handsome upholstered carriage body, mounted on fat rubber tires and containing a gizzard full of machinery, suffering from various ailments … It can transport seven people from the front porch to the police station, bankruptcy court or the golden gate in less time than any other method.”

Technology was changing. In 1904, The Quincy Daily Whig proudly reported that due to the loan of J. Cassidy’s buzz wagon and chauffeur Bert Plank, it could send a reporter to Palmyra, Mo., to cover a “mysterious tragedy at New London” and the journey of 21 miles only took an hour and twenty minutes.

The purchase of an automobile was itself news. Almost daily articles appeared in the local papers listing who had purchased a vehicle, including the make and often the price paid for it. In May 1904, The Quincy Daily Herald reported that the Quincy Automobile Co. had sold three White Co. steam cars for $2,300 each and listed their new owners as J. Will Gardner, Walter Williamson and Ben Bartlett.

That same year, Quincyan J.W. Cassidy purchased a lot to construct a “Buzz Wagon Headquarters.” The Daily Herald boasted that it would be “the only real thing of the kind in the state.” The paper went onto explain, “A garage is not a wild animal, or a new kind of drink, but is a complete automobile station where everything connected in any way with buzz wagons can be found…. Also courteous attendants are on tap at all hours of the day or night to make repairs or go forth to sweep up the remains.”

Architect Harvey Chatten designed the modern building at 410-412 Vermont, which had a plate-glass front, concrete floors and housed a repair shop, a warehouse, a sales room and a club room for owners. It was noted that the word “garage” comes from the French building created when automobiles became popular. There would also be a “court” where driving instruction could take place and chauffeurs for hire. The newest arrivals were J.W. Cassidy’s new “White Streak,” a steam car, as well as a new model of Cadillac.

By the next year, the Quincy Automobile Co. set a local record when it sold three cars in one day. Harry Hofer purchased a Mitchell runabout for $900; John A. Thornton of Lima paid $1,200 for a Ford tonneau car, and an advertising expert from Chicago, John A Mahan, ordered a Pope-Toledo for $3,750.

In 1909, 60 cars were sold in the area in four months, nearly doubling the total number of automobiles that had been standing at 65. It took a full column to list each new owner along with the automaker. The story noted with some surprise that several farmers also had purchased vehicles.

It was in 1905 that Dick Carle, actor-playwright, ordered what might be the first RV. He asked the White Touring Car Co. in Chicago to build a $32,000 vehicle in which he could tour. It would be 38 feet long, have a 100-horsepower steam engine, weigh 3 tons, sleep six plus the chauffeur and steward, and be as lavish as a Pullman rail car.

Mishaps and crashes did occur. In 1909 a motorist crashed into a car in front of the Occidental Hotel on Hampshire. Unfortunately, the car was owned by Police Chief Koch, who had stopped in the street to talk to a reporter. Koch had gotten out of the car and was cranking the motor to get out of the way of the oncoming vehicle when it slammed into the rear of his auto. The collision was hard enough to smash the “left fender, break up the tail light, and to batter up some of the woodwork in the rear of the machine.” To add insult to injury the motorist did not recognize the chief and was abashed at the answer when he inquired.

In 1911 the city took a test drive in a motorized fire engine made by the Seagrave Co. at Columbus, Ohio. It had a 52.8-horsepower engine and two 50-gallon tanks for firefighting chemicals, 1,000 feet of hose and two hand-held fire extinguishers plus 12-foot and 200-foot ladders. It claimed to be fast, efficient and that “… any horse-drawn apparatus can have six blocks start and still be passed before it can make four more blocks.” It would hold five or six men, “… in case it is deemed advisable to send that many out on a call.”

In an early preview of tax-season complaints, an opinion piece in The Quincy Daily Herald was concerned that a buzz wagon was subject to triple taxation. After paying the purchase price, and the cost of gasoline, the assessor assigned a state property tax of about $15-$20; the city of Quincy added a $10-15 tax for using the streets; and on top of that, a yearly license fee. This comprises three taxes for one piece of property, which was deemed by the paper, “… a burden of excessive taxation that is unjust and depressing.”

In spite of this, the buzz wagon market increased. In 1912, 14 auto dealers in Quincy met at the Hotel Quincy and formed an association for mutual benefit. They adopted a constitution and bylaws and elected officers: President T.C. Nichols; Fist Vice President I.J. Welsenhorn; Second Vice President Ernest Dick; Secretary Tom Beatty and Treasurer Frank A. Fischer.

The term “buzz wagon” was used less and less frequently over the years, and seems to have gone out of our vocabulary by the mid-1920s.

Beth Lane is the author of “Lies Told Under Oath,” the story of the 1912 Pfanschmidt murders near Payson, and the former executive director of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County.

Sources:

“A Buzz Wagon Headquarters,” Quincy Daily Herald, May 4, 1904.

“Auto Men in New Club,” Quincy Daily Herald, Jan. 16, 1912.

“Busy Day in Buzz Wagons,” Quincy Daily Herald, May 21, 1904.

“Buzz Wagon is Popular,” Quincy Daily Herald, April 17, 1909.

Buzz Wagons Going Swift,” Quincy Daily Herald, July 19, 1905.

“Dick Carle’s Automobile,” Quincy Daily Herald, Aug. 14, 1905.

“He Ran into Chief’s Auto,” Quincy Daily Journal, Aug. 26, 1910.

“The Buzz Wagon,” Quincy Daily Herald, July 12, 1909.

“To Palmyra via Cassidy Route,” Quincy Daily Whig, July 31, 1904.

“Trying Out New Auto Machine,” Quincy Daily Journal, Feb. 22, 1911.