The 1900’s brought many new inventions to the citizens of Geneseo. One of those was known as the horseless carriage.
In 1879 Carl Benz created the first gasoline engine, which was a one-cylinder two-stroke machine. With the development of this first gasoline engine inventors worked on placing it in an automobile. In the United States Charles Duryea, a bicycle mechanic, worked with his partner to design the first automobile powered by a gasoline engine. They completed the car in 1893. The two men went on to win the first American built car race in 1895. The following year they would record the first sale of an American built automobile with a gasoline engine in 1896.
While most people believe that Henry Ford created the first modern automobile it was really designed by Wilhelm Maybach and it was a 1901 Mercedes. Henry Ford was responsible for designing the first mass-production techniques, which are better known as the assembly line. By 1920, the “Big Three” had emerged in America as the largest producers of automobiles. The “Big Three” were Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.
The area surrounding Geneseo would become a hot spot for the building of automobiles during the time span of 1897 until the mid-1920s. Over 20 different automobile manufacturers built cars in factories near the Maple City. The largest of these builders was the Velie Carriage Company of Moline, which built their first automobile in 1908. By 1928 when the Velie Company was sold, they had already built 75,000 automobiles. Though that sounds like a large number of vehicles, Henry Ford had produced over 15 million Model T engine powered vehicles during its first 19 years of production.
While no automobile companies would call Geneseo home, the Maple City would have ties with the early development of the horseless carriage craze. In 1911, the half-mile dirt track in Geneseo was host to an automobile race. Racing in the early 1900’s was not like it is today with all the cars starting the race together. These early race had one car one the track at a time completing a set distance against the clock. The winner would be the driver who completed the distance in the least amount of time. The Geneseo race would consist of only two cars both were from the Midland Motor Car Company of Moline.
The 1911 race was not the first time Geneseo would host an automobile race. In 1905, the first transcontinental race was completed with the drivers spending the night in Geneseo at the Geneseo Hotel. The 1905 transcontinental race was more of a publicity event for the Oldsmobile Car Company than an actual race. The first car to go coast to coast across the United States would be award the first place prize of $1,000. The race began on May 8, 1905 in New York City and was scheduled to be completed 30 days later when the first car arrived in Portland, Oregon. The race was schedule so the finishing automobiles would be in Portland in time for the Lewis and Clark Exposition, which was the 1905 World’s Fair. Once the cars were out of the Midwest they traveled on the Oregon Trail just 60 years after the covered wagons were trekking across that section of the United States.
There would be only two automobiles competing in the first transcontinental race with both of them being 7-horsepower Curved Dash Oldsmobile Runabouts. The Oldsmobile Runabout was produced by the company from 1901-1907 and was built because a fire in the factory had destroyed the other vehicles that were designed by Oldsmobile. The Runabout had a curved dash that was designed with a curved front section that was similar to the curved front of a horse powered sleigh.
The race designers put together the race route so the cars would travel through some of the larger cities of the day. At that time there were less than 150 miles of paved roads in the entire United States, so no matter which route the cars took they would be traveling over mostly dirt roads. The concern for the race planners was where the racers could get supplies such as gasoline, tires, oil and batteries. With this concern in mind, the route was set with service area stocked with supplies being brought in ahead of the racers by train.
The race began under clear skies in New York City but the good weather would not last. Late spring rainstorms hit the upper Midwest causing the dirt roads to turn to mud. The two Runabout cars would struggle to get through the thick black mud that made up all the roads on the race route. Old Scout and Old Steady, the names given to the two Oldsmobiles in the race, would be slowed by the road conditions and arrived in Geneseo on May 17th. Old Scout, driven by Dwight Hess and Milford Wigle, was the first to arrive in the Maple City. Percy Megargel and Barton Stanchfield arrived driving Old Steady before sunset. The four drivers spent the night in Geneseo before heading west the next day.
Old Scout would be the first to reach Portland taking 44 days to complete the transcontinental journey. While Geneseo did not have any special events for the drivers, the Maple City was recorded as a stopping point along this famous long distance race.
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