year this photo was taken (1913) was also the first year Canadian motorists were able to join a national organization promoting the interests of the motoring public. The birth of the CAA is superbly chronicled in Cars of Canada:
At the second meeting of the old Toronto Automobile Club, Secretary T.A. Russell had read a letter from the Automobile Association of America inviting the Torontonians to become a division of the AAA. A lengthy debate followed, but finally on the urging of Dr. Doolittle, the idea was rejected. The Americans would be told that while co-operation was a constant goal, Canadian motorists wanted their own national organization.
This dream came true in 1913, with formation of the Canadian Automobile Association, to which almost all present-day clubs are affiliated. A preliminary meeting on September 3 that year met with such enthusiasm that when a permanent organization was set up on December 30 there were 22 clubs from Halifax to Vancouver involved … Permanent headquarters were set up in Ottawa in 1914.3
The town of Leamington began paving its streets that same year.
Cadillac with Horses and Chickens
ONE OF THE OLDEST CARS in Ron Metcalfe’s family album is this 1911 Cadillac Model Thirty Torpedo Touring photographed sometime before 1921 at the family farm in Weston (now part of Toronto).
The car was owned by Ron’s mother’s uncle, Bill Ashbee, and Ron’s mother (Dora Banner) is the young girl sitting next to Marion Ashbee, who is behind the wheel. Uncle Bill (standing with the horse) nicknamed his car the “Shadowlet” (rhymes with Chevrolet), perhaps because his Cadillac was big enough to overshadow any Chevy. Bill’s leather rear seat can be seen in the left of the photo, suggesting that the Ashbee Cadillac served as a part-time truck.
Before Traffic Lights, circa 1914
FOR MANY YEARS, TORONTO POLICE officers regulated the flow of traffic at major intersections by using a hand-turned “STOP-GO” semaphore like the one shown here at King and Yonge around 1914. They were rolled out (the base was circular) into the intersections at rush hour. These officers were in constant danger of being run over, and they no doubt welcomed the arrival of Toronto’s first electric traffic lights at Bloor and Yonge on Saturday, August 8, 1925.
McLaughlin Touring, Charlottetown, circa 1914
IAN MARR OF BAYFIELD, ONTARIO, wrote:
Photo is of my mother, Grace Marr (nee Messervy) taken about 1914 at Charlottetown, P.E.I. at the wheel of my grandfather’s 1912 McLaughlin-Buick Touring car. Note the size of the spare tire, coal oil cowl lamps, windshield braces and right hand drive. Buick went to left hand drive in 1914. As an interesting aside, Walter Lorenzo Marr, David Buick’s first chief engineer and a co-inventor of the overhead-valve engine, is a distant relative of mine. Also in the car are my grandmother, Carrie Messervy, cousin Edna Gordon (both in back seat) and Uncle Robert Messervy (with cap in front seat). The others are family friends. Mother survived to age 91 and passed away in 1987 at Kitchener, Ontario. She always thought P.E.I. to be the most beautiful place in Canada with its red soil, green trees, and blue-green ocean and she always referred to it as “The Island!” Her father, J.A. Messervy, the owner of the car, was an M.P. for Charlottetown and her great uncle, George Coles, was a Premier of P.E.I. in the 1850’s and a Father of Confederation.4
The first gasoline-powered automobile appeared on the Island in 1904 (although Father G.A. Belcourt had driven his steam vehicle there thirty-eight years earlier). But farmers and other rural folk disliked these new contraptions, and Prince Edward Island banned automobiles beginning in 1909, even though there were only nine automobiles on the Island at that time. Finally, in 1913, the ban was lifted.
The McLaughlin Touring owned by Ian Marr’s grandfather would have been built at the McLaughlin factory in Oshawa. Sam McLaughlin began building cars bearing his name in 1908 with components purchased from Buick in the United States. In 1918, General Motors of Canada was formed with Sam McLaughlin as president. He led an active life and passed away at age one hundred in 1972.
Grandfather’s Centre-door T, 1926
IAN MARR WROTE: “THIS PHOTO, taken in 1926 shows me at the age of 1 1/2 years with my grandfather’s Model T centre door Ford. Note the chains on the rear wheels. This was the start of my love affair with antique cars.”
The centre-door Model T first appeared in 1915 and remained in production until the end of the 1921 model year. It was designed to equalize the ease of entry into the front and rear seats, but was an awkward compromise at best. The conventional two-door T sedan gave easy access to the front seat, and the four-door T easy access to front and rear. Both these body styles were introduced in 1923, the same year that nearly two million Model T Fords of all body styles were built.
Ian Marr’s Rockne Convertible, 1944
MARR RECALLED:
This photo taken in the fall of 1944, shows me sitting proudly behind the wheel of my first car, a 1932 Rockne convertible coupe. This car was built by Studebaker only during 1932 and 1933. It was named after Knute Rockne, the famous Notre Dame football coach. The Rockne had a rumble seat and the upholstery was green and yellow leather — pretty snazzy! Beside the Rockne is another rare car — my father’s 1942 Pontiac sedan.
Toronto Water Works Trucks, 1914
YOU HAD TO BE TOUGH to drive a truck some ninety years ago. Many trucks, like the ones here in St. Andrew’s yard on Tuesday, November 17, 1914, had no doors, even if they were driven year-round. And the ones with solid rubber tires could shake your teeth out. They were usually geared low for hauling capacity and didn’t have much of a top speed. Ron Fawcett recalled a Model T tanker truck he drove years ago: “It had two forward speeds — slow and slower.”
HARRY MITCHELL OF WALLACEBURG, ONTARIO, no doubt enjoyed seeing his name on the radiator badge of his Mitchell
