JEFFREY AND HIS WIFE are sitting in this new 1912 Model T touring near the Albuna Town Line and 5th Concession a few miles north of Leamington, Ontario. Its the last year for the fully vertical two-piece windshield and the first year a Model T was available with front doors. American-built Ts had a false door on the driver’s side to reduce the cost of the car. Canadian-built Model Ts had two fully opening front doors because many Ts built here were sold in other provinces and parts of the British Empire where they drove on the other side of the road. British Columbia did not switch from driving on the left until 1923. The Ts sold in these areas had the steering wheel on the right.
Henry Ford pioneered the idea of the steering wheel on the left with the first Model T built in October 1908, at a time when most cars had the wheel on the right. Henry apparently had decided the driver needed to watch the oncoming traffic more closely than the ditch — and this viewpoint was consistent with his goal of building a car that nearly everyone could afford. During its nineteen-year production run, over fifteen million Ts were built. A Ford historian has estimated that 2 percent of these have survived. And 2 percent of 15,000,000 is a staggering 300,000!
1912 Model T Touring, Leamington, 1939
TWENTY-SEVEN YEARS (AND SEVEN miles) separate this photo from the previous one. Note the white-on-black 1939 Ontario plate mounted not in front of the rad but just ahead of the windshield, perhaps for better cooling.
Two names are hand-written on the back of the original photo: “Harry Hartford now dead, Ray Serviss now dead.” The author has been able to identify all five occupants, thanks to Jack Hartford and his younger brother Harry Hartford. Their dad, Harry Hartford, is behind the wheel. The front-seat passenger is Jack Robertson. Seated in the left rear of the car is Harry Page. In the centre is Gord Stockwell. Seated in the right rear and wearing a cap is Ray Serviss. It is believed that the car did not belong to Harry Hartford but was lent to him to drive in a parade through town for the Old Boys’ Reunion of 1939. Harry owned a Penny Farthing bicycle back then, and “Cider” Hillman may have ridden Harry’s bicycle in that same parade.
Harry Hartford operated a Red Indian Service Station on the northeast corner of Talbot and Victoria in Leamington in the 1930s and 1940s (on the original site of Leamington Auto Wreckers dating back to the 1920s). By the 1950s, Harry’s station was a Texaco and was operated by his son Jack Hartford.
Is this the same car as the T in the 1912 photo? It’s possible, given the same area, but unlikely in light of the high number of Model Ts built and sold. Dick Forster was the first Ford dealer in Leamington, followed by Stodgell and Symes, then Campbell Motors until 1942, then Eaton Motors (1942–54), then Jackson Motors. The current dealer (Land Ford-Lincoln) is preparing to vacate its Talbot Street East property (a former Studebaker dealership) for larger premises on the Highway 3 bypass north of town.
If we look closely at the Model T in the 1939 photo, we can see signs of its age. The headlight lens on the passenger side is cracked, some rad fins are bent, and the top is missing. And yet the car appears still in good shape after nearly three decades on the road (some Ts still driven by then were held together with baling wire). The stickers on both windshields are likely souvenirs of trips to other places.
The three fellows seated in the back appear to have sufficient leg room. When Henry Ford was designing the Model T, he reportedly said the distance between the back of the front seat and the front of the back seat had to be wide enough for a farmer’s two milk cans. To keep the cost down, most Model Ts had no fuel pump, no oil pump, and no water pump. When questioned about the lack of shock absorbers, Ford reportedly said, “The passengers are the shock absorbers.”
Russell Torpedo, Toronto, circa 1911
THIS IS THE FIRST CAR that the late Marjorie Morton of Toronto could remember riding in. Her future brother-in-law’s father, Roy Deitch, is standing in front of the car. He was a university student at the time and was hired as a chauffeur for the family that owned the car. The photo was taken “around 1911” on Roxborough Avenue at Chestnut Park in midtown Toronto. The houses in the background are still there, now with many beautiful shade trees. Marjorie (born in 1901) could not remember the name of the car when interviewed by the author in 1995.
The identity of the car was supplied by Glenn Baechler (coauthor of Cars of Canada):
The car in the picture is a 1912 Russell model ‘22’ Torpedo, built in West Toronto by the Russell Motor Car Co., Ltd., and with a price tag of $3100.00.
A close examination of the picture shows the passengers are wearing hats and overcoats and there are no buds or leaves on the trees, suggesting a late fall scene in 1911. A possible caption … “Local man takes delivery of the first of the new 1912 Russell models.”
Russell created a distinctive angular design for this model and the styling was considered very modern and racy, easily earning the title of Torpedo. The beauty of the stylist was further enhanced with wire wheels. This option was only shown on the model 22 in the 1912 catalogue.
Russell offered four basic chassis in 1912. The Russell 30 was a 4 cylinder regular valve engine while the sleeve valve Knight powered cars came in three sizes. The ‘38’ for its 38 horsepower, the 26 a mid-size model, and the model 22, our subject car with 22.4 horsepower.
The enclosed artists’ sketch of the model 22, four passenger touring is from the 1912 Russell catalogue and gives us a view of the other side of the car.2
The first Russell cars were known as the Model A. They were launched in 1905 and featured a flywheel with built-in fan blades and a gearshift lever on the steering column (which did not appear on most other cars till the late 1930s). The cars got bigger as time passed, and by 1912 the Russell was firmly established as Canada’s leading luxury car.
Unfortunately, production problems plagued two new models introduced in 1913. The following year, war broke out in Europe and the company began the switch to armaments. Then John North Willys of Toledo, Ohio, began building Willys-Overland cars in the Russell factory in West Toronto, and production of this fine Canadian car came to an end. How fortunate we are that someone took the time to snap a photo of the Russell Torpedo we see here.
Car and Trailer, Leamington, 1913
THIS POPE-TRIBUNE MODEL X runabout was photographed in 1913 in front of H.O. Daykin Insurance at 6 Erie Street South in Leamington, Ontario. William F. Sanford is at the wheel, with Jeff Foster beside him. The Deming Hotel in the background was replaced in 1922 by the Bank of Montreal, which still occupies that site today. The Pope-Tribune was manufactured by Colonel Pope in Toledo, Ohio, from 1904 to 1907, making the car in the photo at least six years old. It may have been shipped new by freighter across Lake Erie to the Leamington dock.
