Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley: A Chronicle of Transportation in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina

Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley A Chronicle of Transportation in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina

By Roger F. Brown

2005 Parkway Publishers, Inc. Boone, North Carolina

Copyright © 2005 by Roger F. Brown All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brown, Roger F. Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley: A Chronicle of Transportation in the Yadkin Valley of North Carolina / by Roger F. Brown; edited by Allison Matlack p. cm. ISBM 1-887905-42-1 1. Transportation, Automotive -- North Carolina -- Yadkin River Valley. I. Matlack, Allison. II. Title. HE5633.N8.B76 2005 388.3’ 42’ 0975668--dc22 2004021129 Edited by: Allison Matlack Book Design by: Vikki Cooper Cover Design by: Baron Cooper and Vikki Cooper Available from Parkway Publishers, Inc. PO Box 3678 Boone, North Carolina 28607 Ph. & Fax: (828) 265-3993 http://www.parkwaypublishers.com

Foreword

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his book is a nostalgic look at the beginning of the free enterprise system in a young, growing town (North Wilkesboro, North Carolina) from around the turn of the twentieth century to the present. It features industrious young men who rode the new railroad to the end of the line and helped form a new town, North Wilkesboro, on the north side of the Yadkin River. They set themselves up in business, buying and trading whatever commodity was available. This book highlights development of commerce that was built around the poor roads of the day and the horse and wagon transportation system, and it gives chronological synopsis of the road improvements for Wilkes County. This book also delves into the arrival of the automobile to town and the springing up of new auto agencies founded by businessmen with the tough, pioneer entrepreneurial spirit shown by many businessmen at this time in history. This tough spirit allowed the young car dealers to build their struggling car agencies into sound businesses by the beginning of World War II and to survive the war, despite not having any new cars to sell. After the war, a booming economy allowed the sons to go off to college to get a good education and to return home to apply their knowledge to making the family car dealership into the proverbial “gold mine” that their fathers had dreamed of. And later, the grandchildren arrived on the scene with their college education to help put their finishing touches on the businesses. This is the most interesting part of the story; sometimes the third generation was able to accomplish what father and grandfather never could. Other times, forty or fifty years of blood, sweat, and tears are totally vaporized in the sale of the dealership to a more modern-day operator.

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Finally, this book tells the story of the oldest Ford dealership in North Carolina, founded in 1915 in North Wilkesboro. It is still in existence today under the leadership of second- and thirdgeneration family members and is very much a viable, modernday dealership. This book is the culmination of almost ten years of research. Many of the older citizens of the “Yadkin Valley” who have contributed to this story have “gone on” to their graves. Some slipped away before they could be interviewed, and some died shortly after contributing their story. This book was planned to be a retirement project for the author; however, the author realized it couldn’t wait any longer and that history does slip away if someone doesn’t capture and write about it.

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been possible without the major contributions of the following three people: Clifford C. Myers, A.L. (Bud) Kilby, and Dr. Fay Byrd. Clifford Myers and Bud Kilby shared their vast knowledge and remarkable memory of the early days in the Yadkin Valley and always had time and patience when I came asking for information. Dr. Fay Byrd guided and encouraged me in my research and writing efforts and wouldn’t let me give up. Carter Hubbard Publishing Co. Inc. graciously gave me permission to use excerpts and pictures from old Journal Patriot newspapers from which a great amount of my research was conducted, and many pictures were used. My thanks go to Wilkes Community College Learning Resources Center for allowing me access to its vast collection of Wilkes County history.

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And to the following persons who gave unselfishly of their time and knowledge. Absher, Alton Absher, Claude Absher, Spencer Blackburn, Bruce Blackburn, Clay Brooks, Leonard Sr. Brooks, Libby Brown, Raymond Brown, Wade Caudill, Larry D Caudill, Thomas L. Sr. Colvard, Reggie Crawford, R.C. Dancy, Sherry Edgerton, Wendell Edwards, Becky Elledge, Joe Faw, Haggie Faw, Johnnie Foster, Clint Gaddy, Agnes R. Gaddy, Betty Lou

Gwyn, Blair Hash, Hugh Hayes, J. Everette Hubbard, Jule Kilby, John Lockhart, Ruth Lowe, Authur McNeil, George F. McNeill, David McNeill, Gene Miller, Dwayne Millsaps, Vickie Phillips, Rachel Nichols Reeves, Clate Reeves, Hoyle Sheets, George Shew, Millard Shumate, Morris Woodruff, Lin Woodruff, Rick Wooten, Ralph Yale, Bob

Table of Contents

Introduction Chapter One

The Early Days of Transportation in the Yadkin Valley

Chapter Two

The Arrival of the Automobile in the Valley

Chapter Three

Yadkin Valley Motor Company

Chapter Four

The Dodges

Chapter Five Chapter Six

Motor Service Sales Co. Gaddy Motor Co.

Chapter Seven

The Oldsmobiles

Chapter Eight

The McNeils

Chapter Nine

The Studebakers

Chapter Ten

Local Boy Goes to Detroit

Chapter One

The Early Years of Transportation in the Yadkin Valley

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or over one hundred years after the founding of Wilkes County in 1778, transportation was by animal power or walking. Families out in the country, out of necessity, had to have a wagon and team (horses, mules, oxen) in order to get their farm products to the market. In the early days, before the founding of the town of North Wilkesboro and the arrival of the railroad, wagons loaded with farm products would be driven to Salisbury to be shipped up north by railroad. This round trip would take most of a week. Most all “country folks” of that era had large families, which were necessary for maintaining the farms. They raised most of what was needed to feed the family and the livestock. Some few essentials might be coffee, tea, sugar, shoes, clothing, and hardware. The cash needed to purchase those items for the average family came from selling surplus farm products. From the earliest days, it seems clear that poultry was a good cash producer for Wilkes County farmers. Soon after North Wilkesboro sprang up in 1890, many merchants found chickens and eggs good items on which to capitalize. Merchants such as S.V. Tomlinson and E.E. Eller had a rather large market up north for live chickens, which were shipped out of North Wilkesboro by train. Every farmer did not have to travel all the way to town to sell his products. Every community had a store that the farmer could trade live chickens, eggs, grain, or whatever was marketable to the neighborhood merchant for needed goods or for cash. The

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merchant would then make frequent trips to town to sell or trade these items and return with goods for his store. Many of these town merchants were also wholesale grocers. Some itinerant merchants found a living traveling from store to store, buying chickens and eggs and selling them at the markets. C.O. Lovette of Millers Creek, the father of Fred Lovette, the founder of Holly Farms Poultry Industries, was a well-known poultry buyer. By whatever means these farm products found their way to town, they had to be transported over very poor routes that in most cases were not deserving of the name roads. Most likely, these early routes were created by nothing more than wagons searching out the easiest route around hills, mountains, creeks, and rivers. A road still exists today in Mulberry Community called the “Cart Path Road.” Although I haven’t researched the history of that road, it should be pretty easy to figure out where that name came from. Eventually, horse-drawn equipment was manufactured to help carve roads out of the rapidly developing countryside to bridge the gap between town and country. Additionally, the townspeople cannot be left out of the needed transportation category. While walking or riding a bicycle was probably a good means of getting around downtown, many still had a need for means of transportation to get out of town on occasion. Many people had relatives out in the county that needed an occasional visit, such as grandma at Christmas, Thanksgiving, and so on. And a trip to a nearby town wasn’t unheard of, although it was difficult. Lots of townsfolk would own a horse and either a buggy or carriage. I know of one of the earlier houses in town that still has an existing carriage garage under the house today. The horse was kept along with a cow for milk and butter, and we can’t forget chickens for eggs and Sunday dinner right there in the backyard. I think there is probably an ordinance today against such a practice, although realize that this was commonplace and even a necessity until the automobile changed it all. Livery stables did exist in downtown where one could rent a horse, buggy, or carriage. They also did a good business in horsetrading. Be reminded that doctors of this era made house calls by horseback or by horse and buggy, and they would have kept their transportation either at home or at the local livery.

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Typical transportation in Wilkes County in the early part of the twentieth century. A everyday occurrence was the fording of many creeks and rivers such as shown in this picture with a lady fording the Reddies River in her sulky. The picture was taken just below the covered Reddies River bridge West of N. Wilkesboro on what was then called the Boone Trail.

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Joe P. Elledge is said to have been the first rural mail carrier in Wilkes County. The Railroad The current generation of Wilkes County people would find it difficult to understand the importance of the railroad on this area and on what we have today in Wilkes County. The true fact is that without the railroad, the towns of Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro would not be what they are today. Wilkes County was founded in 1778, and the town of Wilkesboro, founded in 1847, really did not flourish, despite bountiful resources such as water, timber, minerals, and beautiful, rich bottomland. Getting products to out-of-town markets and needed goods back into Wilkes was slow and difficult considering the lack of roads and the modes of transportation. Travel by a team and wagon to an adjoining town and back could take days. The only way that the area could ever flourish was to have a railroad. This was the most important topic for discussion for many years, and the founding fathers of the county did not realize just how much a railroad really would change the county. The plan was for the railroad to run to Wilkesboro, the county seat and the only town in the county at that time. Of course, the tracks would run up the Yadkin River Valley from WinstonSalem and would somehow cross the river via an envisioned new bridge to Wilkesboro. In spite of the best-laid plans of the county

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fathers, this was just not to be. The railroad company, for economic reasons, took the easy way out and terminated the tracks on the north bank of the Yadkin River about a mile from the center of Wilkesboro. This move would change the history of the Yadkin Valley forever. The coming of the railroad did bring prosperity to the county as expected, but it was to the lands immediately adjoining the tracks. As a result, a “boom town” jumped up immediately around the tracks. Young entrepreneurs arrived by train to start businesses and establish new lives in this rich, newly discovered frontier land. North Wilkesboro was immediately founded (1890), and very quickly surpassed Wilkesboro, doubling its population every four years. The Smoot Tannery came in 1897 and provided jobs for townspeople and income for the farmers out in the county by buying wagon-loads of chestnut wood and chestnut oak bark used in the tanning process of shoe leather, until the 1940 flood washed it all away. In addition, young merchants began to open shops that sold the products the people needed such as shoes, clothing, and groceries. Many wholesale grocers appeared and made their fortunes buying, trading, and shipping farm products such as chickens, eggs, hides, roots, and herbs, which they had bought or traded from local farmers and community store merchants. In addition, the timber industry flourished by then being able to ship out of town all the timber they could harvest. A big business in supplying crossties to the railroad was founded. Merchants could then receive their goods in a timely and cost-efficient manner. The furniture manufacturing industry was born. Had it not been for the railroad, we would probably have just one town today, Wilkesboro, divided by the Yadkin River, and of course the entrepreneurship this county has enjoyed for many years might not have arisen. We’ll never know how it could have been if things had turned out differently in the valley on the north side of the Yadkin over a hundred years ago. A thriving enterprise for many Wilkes County folks was the selling of chestnut wood and chestnut oak bark to the C.C. Smoot Tannery later operated by the International Shoe Co. This sprawling business was located on the site where the Smoot Park, the

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Metromont Block Plant, the NW Sewage Plant, and the Jenkins Properties are now located. This business bought hundreds of wagonloads of chestnut wood and bark per day. Chestnut trees once thrived in Wilkes County, and sometimes they would reach three feet in diameter. However, a chestnut blight wiped out all the chestnut trees. Old timers say that the present day chestnut is not the same as the old chestnut and never grows as large as it once did. The chestnut logs were cut into five-foot lengths and split into small sections. This was a requirement of the tannery in order for the wood to fit into their grinding machines. The wood was ground into small pieces and boiled to extract the juice used for tanning of leather. The bark of the chestnut oak was also used for this process, even after the chestnuts had all died out. This provided an income for many families up until the tannery was destroyed in the 1940 flood. The heavy wagons were hard on the roads of the time. When rain would come, the narrow wheels of the wagons would cause deep ruts and make the roads nearly impassable. Another source of income for the local families was the stripping of pine bark, which was used for medicinal purposes. The bark was stripped from white pine logs and hauled by wagon to the rail for shipment up north. Lots of roots and herbs, also used for medicinal purposes, were harvested and sold to local merchants. S.V. Tomlinson, a successful merchant, had a large market up north for blackberries, which he bought locally, dried and canned himself, and shipped out by train. All these products and more helped support the country people and were brought to town by wagon.

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Chestnut extract wood being transported to a tannery.

Wagons unloading pine bark for shipment to medical companies up north.

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The trip to North Wilkesboro from the outer reaches of the county would take from one to two days, depending on the distance from town, the type of team, the condition of the roads, and the weather. More often than not, the trips to town resulted in an overnight stay at one of the “camp grounds.” One well-known campground was on C Street at the location of the old post office behind Yadkin Valley Motor Co. Another was off West B Street between A and B Streets. The large number of people camping would make this a great social event for most folks that didn’t get to town very often. The nights would be passed with music, drinking, storytelling, catching up on the latest news, or some other less mentionable pastime. The smell of country ham or bacon, eggs, and coffee could be smelled all over town in the morning air since these were items available at home that could be brought along on the wagon without fear of spoilage. When a citizen from the outer regions of the county finally made his way into town over those wagon trails and cart paths, he really didn’t find the streets of North Wilkesboro much better in those early days of the town.

Main Street during bad weather.

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The picture of Main Street in the early part of the century illustrates how deplorable the streets of North Wilkesboro were, especially in bad weather. Many old timers remember that after hard rains, the streets were so muddy that you could literally “mar-up” to your ankles trying to cross the street. What we would today call crosswalks were installed by imbedding crossties on their ends. Although this sounded like a good idea, the horses and the wagon wheels would knock them loose, and when the rains came, the crossties became slick, and it could be a real trick to walk across them without slipping off into the mud. This began to slowly change in 1905 when the town approved the purchase of a horsedrawn road grading machine and a three-ton roller. The roller cost $275, and the road machine cost $225. They were shipped in on the train from Chicago along with a man to set them up and to see that they were in proper working order. The road machine may have looked like the one below, which would be pulled by a team of two.

Horse drawn road grading machine Larger machines were available but took more horses to pull them. Prior to this, the streets were not graded but merely followed the lay of the land. The road machine could “fine grade” the street down to an acceptable flat and level surface suitable for paving. The paving of that day was either done with cobblestone

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or a process called “macadamizing.” This was a very popular process of putting down small stones of various sizes and then packing the stones into the ground with a heavy roller. Sometimes tar or heavy oil binders were used. This was the predecessor of the modern-day asphalt paving. Cement sidewalks were added very early on, sometimes before any paving was done. The very steep hills out of town going north gave the teams pulling wagons a tough obstacle to climb, especially when muddy. Probably between 1905 and 1917, cobblestone paving was used on the 6th and 9th Street hills. Although cobblestone was a great improvement over the mud, sometimes the stones would get knocked out of place and the horses would get their hoofs in between the stones, and also, they could be slick when wet. The hills were just too steep for teams pulling loaded wagons going north out of town. Old timers remember observing the drivers walking beside the wagon, probably to lighten the load a bit, but mainly to pull up the brake and throw a block behind the wheel every so often to give the team a rest. This happened many times before reaching the top of the steep town hill. Going down a steep hill with a team and wagon was equally difficult. A new, flatter road out of town going north was desperately needed. The answer was to be an extension of dead-ended 8th Street on up to Trogdon Street, better known as the toll road. Apparently afraid that the town was losing business because of merchants and farmers tired of fighting the steep hills, W.F. Trogdon, a founding father of the town, built the road at his expense to help promote town commerce. To recoup some of his expense in building the road, he decided that he could charge tolls. He thought that most people would be glad to pay 5 cents for a wagon to travel a reasonably flat road and not to have to fight the steep hills. A horse and buggy was charged two cents, and pedestrians were free, since they would not want to pay anyway and would cause no wear and tear on the roadbed. The toll road was likely built in the mid-teens, and the tollgate was taken down sometime in the ‘20s because of lack of use after the arrival the automobiles and trucks and because of the paving of the hills. The

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toll road was a dirt road for many years, probably until taken over by the state. (The following was taken from North Wilkesboro town minutes from 1905-1930.) In 1915, the town still owned the old horse-drawn road machine. It was ten years old and was probably well used. The town board wanted something more modern and therefore approved the purchase of a motor-powered grading machine on September 11th, 1915. The cost of the new machine was not to exceed $1100. They sold the old machine to R. Don Laws of Moravian Falls for $125. The new machine was furnished to W.E. Colvard to work on the Wilkesboro and Jonesville roads for $10 per day, not to exceed one week. On August 15th, 1915, the town citizens and merchants petitioned the town to make street improvements with asphalt or other standard pavement on B Street from 10th to 8th Street, C Street from 9th to 10th, D Street from 8th to 11th, 9th Street from the railway tracks to D, A Street from 9th to 10th, 8th Street from D to E, and 10th Street from A to D. Note that this left very little above D Street to be paved. On August 24th, 1915, 10th Street property owners asked the town to concrete 10th Street with them paying half the cost and the town paying the other half. The town board then approved a bituminous macadam pavement. On August 25th, a petition was presented asking the town to concrete 10th Street. The petition was granted, but not until July 11th, 1916. In July of 1917, the town board borrowed money from three banks and issued a bond for $60,000 for streets, curbs, and gutters. Sheet asphalt and bitulithic or bituminous concrete was specified. B Street was to be paved from 10th to 3rd Street. 10th and 9th Streets were to be paved to D Street, and 6th Street was to be paved to E Street. A Street was to be paved from 9th to 10th. This left all the residential streets above D Street unpaved at this time. R.M. Hudson Co. from Atlanta did most of the work. D.J. Brookshire started grading in September and did a lot of the grading work for the town. In November, the town property owners

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were assessed a street tax to help pay the cost of paving; the board thought this was justified because of increased property values. In January of 1918, the town ordered 2nd Street and sidewalks to be improved as soon as R.M. Hudson Co. could proceed. In June 1918, the mayor of North Wilkesboro was instructed to have some signs made and installed on the roads leading into town stating the speed limit and instructing drivers to close their exhaust cutout. The town also ran an ad instructing parents to keep their children off the streets and not to use them for a playground. In the October 11th, 1918 board meeting, the motion was made to grade Hinshaw Street from 6th and I Street to the intersection at Jennings Store, where it intersected with Trogdon, and to topsoil the Wilkesboro Road, Reddies River Road, and Trogdon Road to the forks of the roads. In December 1918, cinders from Lineberry Foundry were put on D Street from the end of the paving towards the Reddies River Bridge. In September 1920, bids were received for a concrete road from D and 11th Streets to the Reddies River Bridge. In January 1920, a petition was received for a street from Second Baptist Church to Mulberry Road to above the cemetery. Most of the streets downtown were resurfaced with asphalt around 1929. In 1922, a road was built from B Street east to the lower bridge across the Yadkin River. Also, a six-mile concrete road (the Boone Trail) was built between the Reddies River Bridge and Millers Creek. The road proved to have too many accidents, so a 25-mile per hour speed limit was imposed and speed limit signs were installed every mile along the route. This is said to be the oldest paved road out of town. The Fairplains Road was built shortly thereafter and only went about two miles to the intersection of the Mountain View Road. About the same time, the Moravian Falls Road was cemented to Moravian Falls. Hwy 60 was the road from Winston-Salem to Boone. The “Call Road,” as it was called, was what we now call Old Hwy 421/Hwy 115 out through Broadway, and it was cemented out to where it intersected with Hwy 60 (what we now call Old 60). Hwy 60 resumed in Millers Creek and continued on to Boone. Hwy 60 was a long stretch of road extending through the countryside for many miles and was a mere dirt road.

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Main Street, probably in the late teens, shortly after new cement pavement was completed. Bud Kilby recalls his father, Andrew Kilby, returning from a business meeting in Winston late one night in a Model-T. Many creeks had no bridges and had to be forded. It had rained that night, and the creeks were swollen. Mr. Kilby came upon a North Wilkesboro family stuck in a creek in some sort of large car, type unknown. Mr. Kilby realized that he could not pull the larger car out of the creek with the smaller Ford, so he persuaded the family that the only thing to do was leave their car in the creek and let him take them home in the Model-T. The little Ford easily maneuvered around the stuck car, pulled up the creek bank, and chugged on into North Wilkesboro. Maybe this is a good example of why the Model-T was so successful and popular with the average person. Many of the roads of that time just a few miles out of town were very poor and in times of bad weather were unsuitable for car travel. Speaking of the ability of the Model-T to go anywhere, it was said that the Model-T would go like a goat. Mr. Andrew Kilby, an outstanding Ford salesman, said that he could get a Model-T to the top of Stone Mountain, and so he did. However, the ModelT with its gravity-feed gas tank was known for its inability to go

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forward up steep grades, so Mr. Kilby simply backed the little Ford up all the way to the top of Stone Mountain. I’m sure this was no easy task, but it probably sold a lot of Model-T’s.

The old covered Reddies River Bridge was destroyed in the 1940 flood. The cement pavement was laid down from D Street to the bridge in 1920. In 1922, a six-mile concrete road was built from the bridge to Millers Creek. There were few bridges across rivers and streams in those days. Most rivers and streams had to be “forded,” if the water was not too high.

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By the mid-twenties, most of the busiest streets in town were cemented along with the main roads out of town, although some were only cemented to just outside town limits. The exception was the Boone Trail, which was cemented all the way to Millers Creek (six miles). This was the road that proved to have too many accidents and had a 25-mile per hour speed limit imposed with speed limit signs posted every mile. Across the river, Wilkesboro seemed to be neglected. Although Wilkesboro was the county seat, not much trade or commerce was going on there. All streets in town were dirt up until around 1917 or 1918 when a very narrow one-lane street was cemented through the middle of town. All of the other streets remained unpaved for several years. The Moravian Falls Road would be cemented a short distance out of town shortly after. From the mid- to late-twenties, Fairplains Road, Moravian Falls Road, and Call Road were cemented approximately two miles out of town. At the same time, Roaring River Road and Hwy 60 from Winston to Boone were red dirt. An interesting observation is that when recent rebuilding and widening of the Fairplains Road was occurring, required cuts made across the road for utilities revealed that the old concrete appeared to be ten- to twelve-inches thick. The Federal Aid Road Act of 1916 was a grant-in-aid act to help states build roads. This act started the American good roads movement. The states would match federal money, would be required to have a highway agency, and would supervise the roadwork. Progress was slow in coming, but eventually North Carolina would establish such an agency. Locally, Wilkes County had a “Good Roads Commission” with W.H. Foster and C.C. Hayes serving on the board. Adult males were assessed a good roads tax. Men were allowed to work it off by working on the roads for one week a year. This went on until about 1921, when the state took over the roads. Up until about 1921, roads were the responsibility of the towns and county. About that time, the “N.C. State Highway Commission” was formed to take over the responsibility of certain roads designated as “State Roads.” Roads slowly began to improve

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with the state assuming responsibility. The county was responsible for all side roads. In 1930, the state took over the responsibility for all roads and began a straightening and widening program of predominately one-lane roads, which were simply constructed to follow the lay of the land. Wilkes County is one of the larger counties in North Carolina, and it has been noted for years as having the most unpaved roads of any county in the state. The Doughton brothers, Robert and Rufus, of neighboring Laurel Springs in Allegheny County did much for the roads in N.C. Rufus Doughton was the first chairman of the N.C. Highway Commission. His brother, Robert, was a U.S. Congressman and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Robert Doughton was a powerful and influential congressman who had a vested interest in the Wilkes/Allegheny County area and in the advancement and growth of the area, and he no doubt was an instrumental part of brother Rufus’s success in building roads in N.C. The straightening, widening, and paving of N.C. Hwy 18 north from North Wilkesboro to Sparta was completed in 1933. Other major roads projects leading out of town were also completed in the 1930s. Road building in the ‘30s, with the states resources, although crude by today’s standards, was a great improvement over previous road building. Initially, a steam-powered shovel was stationed in Wilkes and was later replaced by a gasoline-powered shovel. One motor grader, one bulldozer, and a rock crusher were also stationed in the county. All rock initially put down on the newly graded roadbed was crushed from rock blasted out of the many hills and banks, and much was taken from creeks in the area. Heavy dump trucks were used to haul rock, gravel, and dirt. It was common even several years later to see large (non-motorized) road grading machines pulled by heavy tractors or by trucks. These new roads would be driven on and allowed to settle in for several months before paving. When the time was right for paving, the small stones needed for paving would be hauled into North Wilkesboro by train and dumped beside the tracks. Trucks would

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haul the gravel out to the site, and a gravel and asphalt pavement would be laid. For many years, Wilkes County would lead the state in the most miles of unpaved roads. It would be another 60 years before most of the dirt roads in Wilkes would be paved. No discussion of early road building in North Carolina would be complete without discussing a great engineering marvel in our own backyard. For several years, politicians in Washington had been suggesting a “scenic highway” connecting the Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountain National Parks. Many disagreed with the notion and thought that road building through such rough mountain terrain was too expensive. The one thing all agreed on was that it would be a great boost for local economies; since this was during the height of the Great Depression, it would provide jobs for thousands that could find no work elsewhere. The greatest disagreement was the route that it should run. There was no question about the route through Virginia, but Tennessee politicians wanted it through their state, and North Carolina politicians likewise. Had it not been for Robert Doughton, North Carolina would probably have been the loser. In 1933, Bob Doughton, who had already been a U.S. Congressman for 21 years, became chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee. Doughton, then 70 years old, was known as a hard working and determined politician. And determined he was that the new highway would come through his home state and home county of Allegheny. Bob Doughton fought many battles before securing the Blue Ridge Parkway for northwestern North Carolina. Through the House Ways and Means Committee, Doughton made sure that the funding was there for the Parkway through completion. On Sept 11th, 1935, work began on the parkway. This was supposed to have been a two-year project, but took 52 years for total completion.

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Blue Ridge Parkway construction.

Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley

Typical scene in rural Wilkes County when rains came.

Sometimes roads were impassable.

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Chapter Two

The Arrival of the Automobile to Town

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hortly after the turn of the 20th century, many tinkerers and inventors were scurrying around in an effort to build a car to sell to the public. It has been reported that in the early part of the century, there were 1,500 inventors with their automobiles, which most always carried their names. Their numbers diminished to slightly over a dozen by the late ‘20s. Most of the manufacturing was in the north, particularly in Michigan, due to the abundance of natural resources and labor. Although Henry Ford is sometimes thought of as the father of the automobile, he was in no way the first inventor. He was merely one of many struggling to get his car to the public. Henry Ford, however, did more for the automotive industry than perhaps anyone else by way of his successful mass-production methods and his strong desire to produce a rugged, dependable, and inexpensive automobile for the masses. Henry’s first attempt at manufacturing cars failed in a disagreement over the car design and resulted in a takeover by his investors; this car company later was named “Cadillac.” Henry Ford was a very determined individual and started his “Ford Motor Co.” for the second time in 1903, and that time he was successful in his dreams and in changing the world. Nevertheless, the Ford Motor Co. would not reach its potential until 1908, when the “Model-T” would arrive and fulfill Henry’s dream of affordable transportation for the masses. The Fords would not really appear in North Wilkesboro until the founding of Yadkin Valley Motor Co. in 1915.

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These early automobiles were little more than buggies or carriages with motors hung underneath with ropes, belts, or chain drives and crude tiller-type steering. In fact, some of the early auto manufacturers, such as the well-known Studebaker Co., were originally in the wagon and buggy manufacturing business. The early automotive tinkerers were spending their time trying to invent a reliable internal combustion engine, and the body/chassis was given little consideration. In many cases, a carriage was converted to gasoline power with very little changes; hence the name “horseless carriage.” A few of this type of vehicle found their way south and into the town of North Wilkesboro. The first automobiles to arrive to North Wilkesboro were “International High Wheelers,” manufactured by the International Harvester Co. in Akron, Ohio. International Harvester was a manufacturer of farming equipment up to that point. Although International called their automobiles “auto buggies” and “auto wagons,” the local people named them “High Wheelers” because of their tall, buggy-type rubber tired wheels. These automobiles were produced from 1907 through 1912. The first ones came to North Wilkesboro in 1909. The International had a two-cylinder air-cooled motor producing 15 horsepower hung underneath the bottom of the body. Reportedly, these vehicles were capable of 15 to 20 miles per hour, if you could drive them at those frightful speeds on the roads of the day. In most of the country at this time, the roads were still narrow, rutted wagon roads. Manufacturers thought the high, narrow, rubber-tired wagon-type wheels were ideal for the roads of the day and that these automobiles would follow in the wagon ruts. This turned out not to be true because it was hard for those skinny wheels to get traction when having to push the weight of the vehicle plus passengers through the rutted muddy roads. The auto buggy and auto wagon gave way to a more modern and conventional type automobile with a four-cylinder motor. International Harvester later focused their automotive attention on trucks and continued manufacturing farm machinery. The light, rugged, and affordable Model-T was put into production in 1908 and was probably a key player in the demise of the “High Wheeler” automobiles.

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The following picture was taken in 1909 on Main Street, North Wilkesboro, looking east. The agency selling these International auto buggies and auto wagons was the Auto Transfer Co., most likely the first auto agency in town.

The Auto Transfer Company, the first car agency in North Wilkesboro, displays International Harvester High Wheelers. Although there is no information on car agencies prior to 1915, other than the Auto Transfer Co. selling International High Wheelers in 1909, early pictures of downtown North Wilkesboro show that automobiles and trucks were in existence. Possibly, cars were bought out of town in nearby Winston-Salem or Statesville. The Auto Transfer Co. reportedly also sold the International trucks. It is unknown how long that agency existed, but there are no records showing that company survived more than a couple of years, probably due to the short production of the “High Wheelers.” International Harvester existed for many years selling other products, and other International Harvester agencies came along in later years selling trucks and farm equipment.

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International Harvester was a likely candidate for entry in the fast-growing young car industry since they had many years experience in building farm equipment and had vast production facilities and support staff. In fact, the first International automobiles were little more than wagons with a two-cylinder air-cooled motors mounted underneath the chassis. A chain drive connected the power train to the rear drive axle. They built two versions, one called the “Auto Buggy,” produced from 1907 through 1911, and the other called the “Auto Wagon,” which was produced one additional year, 1912. The names implied what they actually resembled. The simple 15-horsepower engine could propel the wagon to the scary speeds of 20 miles per hour, if the driver had the nerve and could hold on. International even built a “Southern States” model which had wide track width that matched tobacco and cotton wagon ruts. I think that philosophy was a short-lived trend doomed to become unpopular for two reasons: in the southern red clay states, the red clay got very slick when rains came and the narrow wheels would not get traction, and in hilly country, the problem was even worse. A driver had to get a running go at most hills and hope he could make it. Clifford Myers, who has been my number-one advisor, friend, and inspiration throughout my work on this book, relates a humorous story about these “High Wheelers” and the early roads in North Wilkesboro. Clifford was born in North Wilkesboro in the early part of the century. He recalls that when he was a young boy, there was a prominent physician in town by the name of Dr. Turner, who owned what local folks called an International “High Wheeler.” At the time, most of the residential streets were unpaved, and most were red clay. Dr. Turner had gone down the street earlier to see a sick neighbor. Some of the neighbors wanted to find out how sick their neighbor down the street was, so they waited for Dr. Turner to come back up the street so they could ask him. In the meantime, there had been some rain, and the street was slippery. Eventually, they heard the old International coming up the street, revved up and making lots of noise and smoke, with Dr. Turner trying to spin his way up the hill. As he flew by, not daring to stop and get stuck, they tried to holler to him to inquire how the neigh-

bor was. The only reply they got back from the slightly deafened Dr. Turner was “it runs like hell.” Apparently, Dr. Turner thought they were interested in his car. Anyway, he knew how he had to drive to get around the red clay roads of North Carolina. The more agile and cheaper Ford Model-T, which was put into production in 1908, soon became strong competition for the “High Wheeler” automobiles. The Model-T would go like a goat.

1913 International Auto Wagon

1913 International Auto Buggy

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Wilkes Whippet Company Although little is known about the Wilkes Whippet Co., records show that the company was selling the Whippet automobile out of the Meadows Building in 1917 and was operating on C Street in the late ‘20s. Production of the Whippet ceased in 1930. Wilkes Whippet was still in operation in January of 1929. The Whippet was a product of the Willys-Overland company of Toledo, Ohio. The Whippet, in comparison to a Ford, was more luxurious and faster. They featured both four- and six-cylinder motors. The following advertisement in 1929 boosts “finger tip control” of horn, lights, and starter.

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The Smoak Brothers Daniel Elliot Smoak Sr. and Norman O. Smoak were operating a buggy shop at the corner of Main and 10th Streets around the turn of the century. As time went on, they had many other business ventures. In 1916, they were selling furniture, buggies, wagons, harness, stoves, plows, cultivators, and roofing. In 1917, they entered the automobile business, selling Chevrolet, Oakland, and Oldsmobile. By 1920, they were selling Maxwells, Auburns, and the G&B lumber trucks. Advertisements run in the Carters Weekly indicated that these early auto dealers were devoting their sole attention to selling the Auburn and giving up all the other automobiles. It is believed that their auto agency did not exist much beyond 1920. Perhaps they learned quickly, like their successors would also learn, that selling automobiles was a very tough business. Very few who would follow D.E. and N.O. Smoak would be successful selling automobiles. Their hardware and furniture store would go on for many years. Norman Smoak would eventually serve as president of the Oak Furniture Co.

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C.A. Lowe Chevrolet C.A. Lowe, a renowned fur and herb merchant, sold Chevrolets for a couple of years out of one of the brick buildings across from the Wilkes County Courthouse on Main Street, Wilkesboro. C.A. Lowe’s son, Arthur Lowe, recalls going down to the business when he was a small boy in the early ‘20s. There was a shop in the rear of the building for working on the cars. In those days, General Motors would require their dealers to take certain numbers of cars whether they wanted them or not. And to make matters worse, the dealers had to pay for the cars and sometimes had to help their customers finance the purchase. For this reason, most early dealers did not stay in business for very long. W.W. Call Motor Co. W.W. Call Motor Co. operated from 1922 to 1926 selling Hudson and Essex automobiles and selling Chevrolets from 1923 to 1924. Walter W. Call was a successful businessman with varied business interests. He built and owned the block of buildings in which his car agency was located, known as the “Call Block,” on Main Street. Within that block was located the Rexall drug store with the City Hall upstairs over the drug store, Orpheum Theatre, Commercial Barber Shop, W. W. Call Motor Co., and several offices. The Liberty Theatre, a more recognizable name, has been located in the Orpheum location for many years. W.W. Call Motor Co. was adjacent on the east side with the garage being located on the upper level in the back. Walter Call was the son of Ashe County doctor T.J. Call, who was the first cousin to successful North Wilkesboro businessman Clarence Call and brother-in-law to the famous local entrepreneur Nike Smithey of the Smithey’s Department Store chain. Walter Call’s wife, Vecie Call, was Nike Smithey’s sister. It seems that capital for his varied business interests wasn’t a problem. In addition to his car agency and the Call buildings, he owned a jitney (bus) line to Statesville and the C.C. Clothing Company. He is remembered as being friendly and well liked with a love for the town and a desire to see it prosper. He made friends with everyone he came into contact with. Walter Call died on November 12th, 1926 at the age of 36.

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Woodruff Motor Company W.D. Woodruff (1872-1934) of the Hays community became the third Chevrolet dealer in North Wilkesboro in 1924, after purchasing the agency from Walter Call. Chevrolet hadn’t caught on in popularity in Wilkes County, but W.D. thought that he would give it a try. W.D.’s oldest son, Vernon, would begin his career as a mechanic, becoming an outstanding Chevrolet mechanic and continuing until his retirement in the ‘60s at Gaddy Motor Company. W.D. was a farmer and sawmill operator and was sheriff of Wilkes County from 1914 to 1922. Most of the residents of Wilkes County referred to him as Sheriff Woodruff. W.D. first operated the Chevrolet agency out of a small garage in the heart of Hays at the intersection of Traphill and Rock Creek Roads. He soon took the agency to 10th Street in North Wilkesboro. County records show that W.D. sold part interest in Woodruff Motor Co. to T.C. Caudill of North Wilkesboro in June of 1927. The business was incorporated at that time and the address was

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shown as C Street, North Wilkesboro. The certificate of incorporation shows that W.D. Woodruff had 40 shares of stock, Mrs. Elizabeth Woodruff had 20 shares, T.C. Caudill had 20 shares, and Mrs. Cassie Caudill had 10 shares. For unknown reasons, W.D. sold his interest in Woodruff Motor Co. to brothers W.E. Colvard and Ben Colvard. The name of the business was changed at that time to C&C Chevrolet, but the address was still C Street. W.E. Colvard, T.C. Caudill, and B.H. Colvard all had equal shares of stock. W.E. Colvard was listed as the president of the Corporation. C&C Chevrolet C&C Chevrolet was incorporated on July 27th, 1927 with W.E. Colvard, B.H. Colvard, and T.C. Caudill as the owners. Apparently the Colvard brothers, who had banking experience, gave the company a badly needed infusion of capital and had big plans to make the company successful. T.C. Caudill was an enterprising businessman; he had been running a jitney line to neighboring towns but was being pushed out by more modern bus lines. W.E. Colvard was listed as the president, although all three partners had equal shares of stock. C&C started operations on C Street but had plans for a new, larger building designed specifically for a car agency. This modern building was soon started on D Street directly behind the agency’s present location. This building is gone now, but it faced D Street in the lot that is now a parking lot behind Wilkes Hardware. It is not known exactly when the new building was finished, but sales ads show that they were in the new D Street location in 1929. Although the cost of the new building is unknown, it had to be a large financial undertaking for the time. It was a sizeable twostory brick building with a large showroom framed by plate glass windows, which was just what was needed for a modern car agency. The upstairs was a body shop with a car elevator to take cars upstairs. The company was staffed with good, hard-working people; all the ingredients for success were present. It is unclear how active W.E. and Ben Colvard were in the business, but a following picture from 1931 shows mostly the Caudill family active in running the business. They put forth a

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strong effort in making C&C Chevrolet a successful Chevrolet agency and even added the Oldsmobile franchise. If anything caused C&C to fail, it might have been trying too hard. Perhaps they sold too many cars too cheaply, or maybe the cost of a new building was too high, or maybe giving too much out on credit led to the demise of C&C Chevrolet. Maybe the higher priced Chevrolet could not compete with the lower priced Fords designed for the common man, or maybe the Great Depression was the major cause. Whatever the problem was, C&C struggled throughout their short life, and finally along about 1932, they couldn’t pay their bills anymore. W.E. Colvard took over the business but didn’t see any hope for it, so he started looking for a buyer. That buyer would be U.L. (Les) Hafer of Taylorsville, N.C. Mr. Hafer already owned a Chevrolet agency in Taylorsville. Apparently, the sale happened late in the year of 1932. For unknown reasons, all employees of C&C Chevrolet are not pictured in the following picture. Through the five-year lifespan of C&C, a lot of well-known automotive people worked there at one time or another. In a recent interview with Thomas L. Caudill Sr., the son of Jim Caudill, he recollected what happened to the people pictured. Gwyn Caudill went into the auto parts business, Dewey Caudill went back to the farm, Mr. Grissom went back to Mt. Airy, Ed Pierce went back to farming, Tom Caudill went into other retail store interests until retirement, Rachel Nichols worked for other Chevrolet Dealers for several years, Jim Caudill went back to work for Jenkins Hardware and later opened the Standard Concrete block plant, Roy Bumgarner went into barbering and stayed until retirement, Turner Nichols continued to sell cars, Roby Church was involved in other car agencies until retirement, and W.D. Caudill went back to farming family land in the Mulberry Community.

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C&C Chevrolet personnel in 1931. Left to right: Gwyn Caudill (mechanic), Dewey Caudill (mechanic), Mr. Grissom (shop foreman), Ed Pierce (parts manager), Tom Caudill (partner), Rachel Nichols (office manager), Jim Caudill (sales manager-partner), Ray Bumgarner (salesman), Turner Nichols (salesman), Roby Church (collector), W.D. Caudill (father of Gwyn and Jim Caudill and brother to Tom Caudill, partner and collector). Hafer Chevrolet The following clipping from the Wilkes Journal on November 23rd, 1933 indicates that Hafer Chevrolet was in operation and was celebrating Chevrolet’s twenty-fifth anniversary. However, Les Hafer would be no more successful selling Chevrolets than his predecessors and would sell the agency to W. F. Gaddy on December 1st, 1934.

Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley

Chevrolet Folks Visit Charlotte Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Of General Motors is Being Observed A zone meeting of dealers in General Motors Products was held in the Chamber of Commerce building in Charlotte last night and was attended by all employees of the Hafer Chevrolet company, local Chevrolet dealers. The meeting was in celebration of the 25th Anniversary of the founding of General Motors, and sound pictures depicting the growth of the mammoth motor corporation were shown. Approximately 1,000 persons attended. Those going from the Hafer Chevrolet Company were U.L. Hafer, Miss Rachel Nichols, R.R. Church, J.H. Alexander, E.J. Pierce, W.H. Barlow, William B. Hart, Lester Walker, and Paul Hutchens. Miss Lula Jennings of this city was a guest of the local Chevrolet company at the meeting.

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Boone Trail Motor Company, 1920-1939 Founded in 1920 in North Wilkesboro by Roy Foster and Clint Smoot, Boone Trail Motor Co. was one of the premier car agencies in town for many years. Boone Trail Motor Co. was located on A Street in a building next door to the S.V. Tomlinson wholesale grocery store. I’m sure that Mr. Tomlinson was financially involved, and in later years, it was well known that this was a Tomlinson-owned business. Mr. Tomlinson owned many successful businesses. Boone Trail was a dealer for Buick and WillysOverland automobiles. In later years, they also sold the Pontiac automobiles. Buick was one of the earliest cars to be produced, beginning in 1903, and was known as a quality car. Buick was a good seller in Wilkes County for many years. In 1939, the Buick franchise was sold to W.F. Gaddy and was operated as Blue Ridge Motor Co. for a short while before being merged into Gaddy Motor Co. Also, the Pontiac franchise was sold to M.B. McNeill in 1939 and was operated as Wilkes Motor Co. and relocated in the Cricket community a few miles west of town.

Circa 1931: Service Department, Boone Trail Motor Company

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This picture is what started it all. My Grandpa Lockhart (H.M. Lockhart, center of picture, with bow tie and overalls) gave me this picture prior to his death in the early ‘70s. I was a young auto mechanic at the time and had no idea that thirty years later, this picture would inspire me to begin a research project into the existence of early auto dealerships. Boone Trail Motor Co. was just one of many auto agencies that I had no idea existed way before my time. Grandpa Lockhart, the shop foreman, was around thirty-three years old at the time of the picture. The tall, slender mechanic to the right is Wade Barlow, who is mentioned several times in this book. Wade worked for several dealerships mentioned throughout this book but finished out his career selling cars for Gaddy Motor Co. Wade and Grandpa Lockhart were nextdoor neighbors, and they both loved to farm and raise cattle on their farms in the Mulberry Community five miles north of town. Wade Barlow lived to be ninety-one years old. Oakland/Pontiac Oakland Motor Co. was founded in 1907 on Oakland Avenue in a buggy shop in Pontiac, Michigan. Oakland built a quality car and as result was purchased by General Motors in 1909. In 1926, a version of the Oakland was named “Pontiac.” The following picture is of a 1922 Coupe. W.A. (Will) Bumgarner was selling the Oakland, Overland, and Willys automobiles in the Cricket Community a few miles up the Boone Trail west of town in the early ‘20s. Records show that in the late ‘20s, he was selling Oakland and Pontiac in downtown North Wilkesboro. The following clipping from the Journal Patriot shows a name change in 1928. Family members recall that Mr. Bumgarner went bankrupt around 1929 because of the depression and completed his working years selling Fords for Yadkin Valley Motor Co. Newspaper advertisements show that Boone Trail Motor Co. was selling Pontiacs in 1933. In the later part of the century, Pontiac would be associated with the M.B. McNeill family.

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Chapter Three

Yadkin Valley Motor Company

F

ord Motor Company first produced cars in 1903. The first Model-T, with the average working man in mind, was produced for sale in 1908. Henry Ford reduced prices on the Model-T continuously. Because of rising profits and mass production, he could afford to sell for less money, resulting in more sales. By 1915, the price of a Model-T touring car was dropped to one-half of its original price to $440. Demand for an affordable car for the masses was so great that a Ford dealership was considered to be a goldmine. Because of this, on March 1, 1915 at 8:30 p.m., the first meeting of Yadkin Valley Motor Company Inc. took place at the residence of C.C. Smoot III. Officers of the company were President

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C.C. Smoot III, Vice President Rebecca Smoot, wife of C.C. Smoot, and Secretary F.G. Harper. F.G. Harper was the only active officer in the company. His starting salary was $50 a month, which was later raised to $1500 a year in 1917. Between 1915 and 1918, Harper purchased the Smoot stock. Shortly thereafter, a modern building was constructed on the corner of 9th and C Streets. Eight different brands of new automobiles, two brands of trucks (including Ford), and Ford tractors were sold at Yadkin Valley Motor Company. Fords, Overlands, and King automobiles and Indiana trucks were sold starting in 1915. In March of 1918, Overlands were dropped from the inventory and Buicks were made available for sale. In 1920, Franklins and Lincolns were available at Yadkin Valley. Lincoln Zephyrs were sold beginning in 1937 and Mercurys in 1939. The first car sold by Yadkin Valley was a touring car sold to Mr. A. Caudill on April 6, 1915. Some other people who bought 1915 Model-T’s were E.G. Finley, R.S. Ogilvee, J.T. Prevette, J.D. Phillips, W. J. Palmer, T. C. Caudill, W.E. Colvard, J.T. Finley, A.F. Kilby, W.D. Woodruff, and Brame Drug Co. Some people who bought 1916 Model-T’s were J.D. Phillips, Walter Call, Pearson Brothers, F&F Bottling Works, W.P. Holder, W.A. McNeil, Oak Furniture Co., E.V. Williams, F.D. Forrester, R.C. Jennings, H.H. Morehouse, C.C. Smoot, C.C. Wright, J.H. Johnson, R.M. Brame, J.L. Hemphill, and H.C. Kilby.

This popular 1915 touring car was a favorite for families, police, and taxi operators. It sold for $440.

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Model-T Fords were shipped, unassembled, in boxcars by rail and were assembled by the dealer. It took two men five to six hours to assemble a Model-T. Wade Barlow and Tom McNeil worked together in a warehouse near the railroad tracks in the early ‘20s for $1.50 per day. Later, due to their “hard working ethic,” their pay was raised to $2 per day, a good wage for the time. Ambrose Reeves of the Millers Creek Community was a wellknown and respected auto mechanic who served Yadkin Valley for 43 years. He first went to work for Yadkin Valley in 1916 and retired in 1959. Ambrose was the shop foreman during most of those years. Some of his ten sons who have also served long tenures at Yadkin Valley are Vaughn, Hoyle, Bill, Clate, Roy, and Rex. Rex is still selling Fords and Mercurys as of this date. Hoyle recounts that his dad was working as a blacksmith at a shop at the intersection of Mt. Valley Church Road and Hwy 18 North in the Mulberry Community when he was asked to come to work for the fast-growing Ford dealer. Good blacksmiths were in high demand at that time due to the poor quality of parts and the unavailability of parts. Ambrose reportedly told them that he would need some new blacksmith tools and was told they would buy him anything he needed. The roads were very poor at best, and the Reeves home was a good ten miles from town. Hoyle recalls that his dad would walk to town on Monday morning and stay in town during the week, walking back home on Friday evenings. Soon Ambrose and a partner went in together and bought a new Ford truck chassis and built a bus body on it. They ran a “jitney” service from North Wilkesboro to Millers Creek for several years. This extra money helped pay for a house and raise ten boys.

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Ambrose Reeves Circa 1959 Among the first to purchase new Buicks from Yadkin Valley in 1918 were W.J. Pulear, R.L Doughton, E.M. Hutchens, F.D. Forrester, R.W. Gwyn, W.A. Taylor, A. W. Foote, L. C. Sockwell, J.R. Hix, Dr. C.S. Sink, and C.E. Jenkins. R.W. Gwyn bought the first Franklin at Yadkin Valley in June 1920.

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In 1919, after serving in the Swiss Alps during World War I, A.F. Kilby was employed at Yadkin Valley Motor Co. by Gwyn Harper. Kilby was sent to West Jefferson to manage the first Ford agency, which was a branch of Yadkin Valley Motor Co. After two years, he returned to North Wilkesboro. In 1924, A.F. Kilby set a sales record of 42 cars in one month; that has yet to be surpassed by any Yadkin Valley salesman. In the early ‘20s, A.F. Kilby would take Frank Tomlinson, among others, and ride a train to Flint Michigan to receive their inventories of new Buicks. It would take approximately five days to drive back to North Wilkesboro over the rough roads of the day, if the weather was good. Sometime between 1919 and 1929, Gwyn Harper sold his stock to C.D. Coffey, who reissued it to his son C.D. Coffey Jr. At that time, C.B. Lomax and his mother, Sarah Lomax, bought stock in Yadkin Valley Motor Co. In 1933, Q.A. McNeil bought ten shares of stock from Sarah Lomax. In 1937, Q.A McNeil sold his holdings to J.H Somers.

Andrew Kilby, president and general manager, and C. B. Lomax, secretary-treasurer, in Yadkin Valley’s modern showroom in 1931.

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Yadkin Valley Shop in 1929. Left to right: Kenneth Brooks, Sam Eller, Carl Holder, Press Holder, Max Foster, and Ambrose Reeves.

Yadkin Valley Parts Department, 1929. Left to right: Albert Somers and Spencer Elledge.

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Andrew F. Kilby From The Journal Patriot, Thursday, October 31, 1935

A.F. Kilby Head Yadkin Valley Co. Ford Dealer Here Enjoying Successful and Growing Business For the past sixteen years Mr. Kilby has been actively associated with the Yadkin Valley Motor company. At the end of the World War, after terminating his services for Uncle Sam, Mr. Kilby became identified with the organization with which concern he still carries on as president and general manager. The Ford agency in North Wilkesboro has made an enviable record during all the years of its history. The business is carried on from its own building. The display rooms are attractive and the lighting system is exceptionally well placed. There are two entrances to the main office. Eighteen people are on

the payroll of the Yadkin Valley Motor Company and every one of them is imbued with the spirit of service. Mr. Kilby is noted in all this territory for the equal way in which every purchaser is treated. He is known for business acumen and the degree of friendliness and goodwill that goes into making him one of the most popular gentlemen in Wilkes County. He served in the Engineer Corps during the World War. Mr. Kilby is vitally interested in his "buddies". As past commander of Wilkes Post American Legion, he gave the best in him to further the true cause of Wilkes Post. "As a native of Wilkes county, one of my most pleasant memories is associated with the appreciation that many tourists who visit this section are appreciating the natural loveliness of Wilkes County. The schools all over Wilkes County are a credit to any community. They are finely managed and have a splendid lot of teachers," said Mr. Kilby.

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In 1937, A.B. Somers became the manager of Elkin Motor Co., a Ford dealership that was owned by Yadkin Valley Motor Co. A. B. Somers purchased that dealership in 1938. In 1941, G.R. Andrews purchased J. H. Somers’ Yadkin Valley stock. At that time, the stock was held in three equal parts of 70 2/3 shares per person. Those people were A.F. Kilby, C.B. Lomax, and G.R. Andrews. When the U.S. entered World War II, the government stopped production and froze sales of the 1942 model cars to the general public. The remaining 25-30 new cars and trucks in stock at Yadkin Valley were sold through the office of Price Administration at a controlled price to people whose jobs were necessary to the public welfare, such as doctors and mail carriers. During the war, there were no new Fords to sell. Yadkin Valley had to rely on used car sales and repair work to survive. After the war ended, Ford Motor Co. was able to stop its production of war machines for the government and to start producing cars again. In 1945, production of 1946 model Fords was slow, causing sales to suffer. The first 1946 Ford sold at Yadkin Valley was purchased by H.C. Buchan of Lowe’s Hardware. The first Mercury available for sale, a club coupe, was purchased by Boyce Cheatwood of North Wilkesboro. On June 9, 1948, after serving in the U.S. Air Force during WWII and attending college, A.L. Kilby, son of A.F. Kilby, bought the stock of G.R. Andrews. By 1955, production and sales were on the upswing. In 1954, Grace Lomax Kilby became a stockholder. On September 5, 1963, Yadkin Valley Motor Co. purchased the stock held by the C. B. Lomax estate, placing all the stock in the hands of A.F. Kilby, A.L. Kilby, and Grace Lomax Kilby. On April 1, 1967, Yadkin Valley moved into the former B&L Cadillac-Olds building on 2nd Street because of the need for a larger facility. On April 2, 1973, a fire destroyed that building and almost everything in it, including many cars and records. On December 1, 1973, Yadkin Valley moved into a new building erected on the same site.

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On May 29, 1974, after graduating from Appalachian State University, John A. Kilby, son of A.L. Kilby, was employed at Yadkin Valley. On March 15, 1976, John Kilby became a stockholder and was appointed secretary and treasurer.

Yadkin Valley receiving an award from Ford Motor Co. around 1951. Left to right: Ford representative, A.L. (Bud) Kilby, Ford rep., A.F. Kilby, C.B. Lomax.

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On June 12, 1977, A.F. Kilby died. He was born September 1886, making him the oldest living Ford dealer in North Carolina and one of the oldest Ford dealers in the United States. He received the Ford Motor Co. 50-year dealer award in 1965. He was a charter member of the N.C. Auto Dealers Association and a member of its original board of directors. On January 23, 1978, Grace Lomax Kilby, vice president and wife of A.F. Kilby, died. On February 24, 1978, Denny Leon Haymore was appointed secretary-treasurer and became a stockholder. D.L. Haymore had been office manager since 1954, after graduating from Roanoke Business College. Also, at this time, John Kilby became a vice president and Betty S. Kilby became a vice president and stockholder.

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The Kilby Family. Left to right: John Kilby, A.L. (Bud) Kilby, Betty Kilby Foster, and Sam Mayberry. Now approaching 90 years old, Yadkin Valley Motor Company is North Carolina’s oldest Ford dealership and one of the 100 oldest Ford Dealerships in the U.S. It is still very much a family operation, with A.L. Kilby at the helm as president, John Kilby as vice president and general manager, Betty Foster Kilby as 2nd vice president, and Sam Mayberry as service manager. Yadkin Valley has achieved a high level of distinction in being one of Ford Motor Company’s “Blue Oval Certified” dealers, Ford’s highest honor, awarded to dealers who have met the standards in customer satisfaction and all-around performance. From its modern facilities on 2nd Street in North Wilkesboro, Yadkin Valley sells cars all over the country via the internet, a modern marvel with which Andrew Kilby would be amazed. Yadkin Valley’s homepage on the internet features the pristine 1915 Model-T that sits in its showroom. If Mr. Kilby were here today, he would probably look at that old Model-T and smile and say they don’t make them like that anymore. Mr. Kilby would be proud today of the achievements, distinction, and the high level of standards he set years ago that are still being carried on by his family today.

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Bud and John Kilby receiving the award for Yadkin Valley’s 75th anniversary.

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Andrew Kilby would probably look at that old Model-T and say, “They don’t make them like that anymore.” These two vehicles sitting side by side would be the perfect example of extremes from very low tech to very high tech.

The Yadkin Valley service department today. A far cry from the old shop down on 9th Street. The technicians use computers and the internet to repair today's Fords.

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The Yadkin Valley Motor Co. parts department today is completely computerized.

Yadkin Valley Motor Co. 1422 Second Street January 1, 2002

Chapter Four

The Dodges

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ohn and Horace Dodge were bicycle machinists with a real talent for making things. In 1902, they had a contract to build transmissions for Olds Motor Works. They had caught the eye of Henry Ford and had impressed him with their talents. In 1903, Henry Ford offered them a deal to build motors for new Ford Motor Company for ten percent of the company. Henry Ford and the Dodge brothers were too much alike: independent and fiery. Henry grew to hate and distrust the brothers. Nevertheless, the partnership went on for several years until 1914, when the Dodge brothers decided to build their own automobile. When asked why the Dodge brothers wanted to take the financial risk and build their own car line, John Dodge said, “Just think of all the Ford owners who will someday want an automobile.” By 1924, one million Dodge Brothers cars had been built. In 1920, Walter P. Chrysler, who had just retired from Buick as president, was asked to head up a reorganization of the nearly bankrupt Maxwell Motor Co. Maxwell was a popular, higher-class car. The company did well under Walter Chrysler and by 1925 was reorganized and renamed The Chrysler Corporation. In 1926, they introduced the Imperial, their first big luxury car. In 1928, they began producing Plymouths and Desotos and bought out the Dodge Brothers Corporation. In 1930, Chrysler dropped the Brothers from the Dodge name. In 1930, Plymouth franchises were given to Dodge and Desoto dealers as well as Chrysler dealers. Back in North Wilkesboro, it is uncertain when the first Dodge was sold, but by 1921, E.L. Hemphill, head of Hemphill

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Motor Co., was selling Dodges at a 10th Street location. He later moved to a building adjacent to Yadkin Valley Motor Company on 9th Street. There is no evidence of any other Dodge agencies before this time. In 1926, T.L. (Scott) Kenerly bought out the Hemphill agency on 9th Street. It is believed that at some point in time, a Chrysler and Desoto franchise was added to the agency. This company was renamed Motor Service Company. Nevertheless, Scott Kenerly, in financial difficulties, sold his agency in 1930 to C.D. Coffey, a successful North Wilkesboro businessman. In 1933, Mr. Kenerly decided to try it again. Along with partners R.I. Moore and H.L. Moore, they gained a franchise for Dodge cars and trucks and Plymouth cars. The location was in the basement of the well-known Forester building on west Main and 10th Street. The new agency was to be called Wilkes Auto Sales and would be around for many years. Scott Kenerly was to be successful this time around in the car business. Sometime in the mid-‘30s, he would build an ultra-modern and spacious brick building on Forester Avenue nearby his present location. At some unknown point in time, F.D. Forester Jr., of the prominent family of merchants, came into the business as an active partner. In 1941, and in failing health, under advise of his doctor to get his affairs in order, Scott Kenerly sold his interest in Wilkes Auto Sales to W.O. (Oliver) Absher. Absher and Forester operated a successful dealership for many years. In 1972, W.O. Absher retired, selling his interest in Wilkes Auto Sales to Sales Manger Clay Blackburn and Parts Manager M.W. Green. In 1979, F.D. Forester retired, selling his interest to Blackburn and Green. In 1982, M.W. Green retired, selling his interest to Clay Blackburn, making him the sole owner. Along about this time, the name was changed to Country Side Dodge. A new multi-lane business loop being built around the town took all the buildings on Forester Avenue, including the old Wilkes Auto Sales building. Clay Blackburn purchased land on Hwy 421 West about three miles out of town for a new building. In January 1984, Countryside Dodge moved into the new building. In 1986,

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Clay Blackburn sold Country Side Dodge to Ron Canter and Kim Caudill. The two did not have automotive experience and soon sold the dealership to Bill Templeton, the owner of Templeton OldsCadillac. The Dodge dealership was moved into the Olds-Cadillac building in West Park. Eventually, David McNeil, the owner of Northwest Toyota, and local entrepreneur, J.C. Faw, purchased the Dodge franchise and moved it for a while to a building on the hill above Northwest Toyota. Now Dodge is housed in a modern, new building a short distance up 421 in the growing new business row. The dealership is called Empire Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep. Walter P. Chrysler and his first Maxwell Chrysler Six-1924.

Chapter Five

Motor Service Sales Co. (1930-1988)

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he following information was received in an interview with Mr. Leonard Brooks, son of Wiley Brooks, a man whose name was synonymous with Motor Service Sales and Chrysler-Plymouth for many years. Mr. Wiley Brooks was born in 1889 and was the caretaker of the “County Home” where Leonard was born in 1919. Wiley was hired in 1921 by A.F. Kilby at Yadkin Valley Motor Co. to sell Ford tractors and related farm equipment. He also sold all products that Meadows Mill made and had a working agreement with Jenkins Hardware to sell the Geyser thrashing machine. He was an “outside salesman,” something that was common at the time since the people in the country didn’t get to town very often, and if you wanted to sell them something, you had to go to them. In 1923, Wiley was given the job of canvassing the entire county to see what kind of automobile that people might want to buy. Leonard recalls his dad telling him about selling a Model-T to a man up in the Summit community. Summit is an isolated, mountainous community about twenty miles to the west of North Wilkesboro. Roads were very poor at that time and the road came up three miles short of the man’s house. That was no problem for this enterprising country gentleman. He got a neighbor to agree to let him build a “brush arbor” on his property to house his prized new possession. When he wanted to make a trip to town (a rather time consuming task back then), he simply walked to the neighbor’s property, got his Model-T out of the brush arbor, drove to town and back, and parked back in the brush arbor. Now, since

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Summit was a rather remote community and no houses were near his precious car, a concern even back then was theft: horse theft, car theft, you name it. So this enterprising gentleman came up with a solution that worked for him. When he left his car in the brush arbor, he would unscrew the steering wheel nut, remove the steering wheel, and take it home with him. Cars today have all kinds of electronic theft deterrents. Maybe removing our steering wheels would be simpler. Sometime in the late ‘20s, C.D. Coffey sold out his Yadkin Valley stock, and Wiley also left Yadkin Valley and went to work for him in a business called Motor Finance of 9th and D Streets. During the depression, many car agencies went out of business. There was a Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge-Desoto agency (Motor Service Co.) that was located directly beside Yadkin Valley that had gone bankrupt around 1929. Mr. Coffey was able to acquire this business around 1930 and sent Wiley down the street to run it. The new agency was called Motor Service Sales Co. In 1934, Wiley and Paul Billings bought half interest in this business from Mr. Coffey. In 1938, Paul Billings bought out Coffey’s half interest, making him and Wiley the sole owners. That same year, Leonard had finished Business College in Roanoke, Virginia and had come to work for Motor Service for $8 per week. About a year later, Leonard recalls, he was raised to $10 per week. Along about this time, the GMC truck franchise was acquired. The business had grown due to good business ethics and the strong desire to always give “top notch, A, number-one service,” and more space was needed. This motto was strongly instilled in Leonard until the day that he finally sold the business in 1988. So in 1939, Motor Service moved up the street to the Coffey building on the corner of 9th and D. This gave them the much-needed space and also afforded Wiley his dream of having a large, modern, number-one body shop, which was to be located upstairs on the second floor. Wiley operated the body shop himself, making sure that quality work always prevailed. Wiley had a wrecker and always operated it himself. Leonard recalled that his dad always loved to operate the wrecker. He also recalled spending many a night out on wrecker calls with his dad all night long. Motor Service and Gaddy

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Motor Co. were the only ones at that time that operated night wrecker service. A new 1939 Plymouth sold for $490 at full retail price, minus radio and heater of course. Later on, around 1940, the best Plymouth sedan with all the luxuries such as radio and heater sold for $890. Leonard says that around that time, Motor Service would trade you a new car for your one-year-old car for $100, if you had kept it in good condition. Motor Service never sold a large volume of cars like Yadkin Valley or Gaddy. Wilkes County people favored Chevrolet and Fords more than Plymouths. 15 to 20 cars a month (new and used) was a good month for Motor Service. After the war ended, the Brooks family, consisting of Wiley, Leonard, Kenneth, Bruce, and Branford, bought out Paul Billings’s stock in Motor Service. About this time, Quincy McNeil bought into Motor Service. In 1953, land was purchased down on East Main Street for a new building. A large, modern body shop was planned for the second floor. Wiley managed this body shop himself until he retired. Of course it always had a reputation for being the best body shop in town. Since this large space was to be filled with cars, the floor had to be really strong. This necessitated very large and heavy steel beams to be installed in the floor. Leonard recalls the check written to Salem Steel in Winston-Salem being for the amount of $38,000. Bill Myers, the office manager at the time, recalls that he wrote the check for twenty-something thousand dollars. Nevertheless, this was a sizeable amount of money at that time. In 1955, the Brooks family bought Quincy McNeil’s stock. Bill Myers recalls being very conservative with the money, saving back every dollar that he could until he had enough to pay Quincy McNeil the money owed for the stock. Bill was the office manager from 1952 until 1988. Prior to that, Tal Barnes was the office manager. After Quincy McNeil left, Leonard was the general manager until he sold the business in 1988 to David McNeil and J.C. Faw.

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In 1958, Motor Service sold Nash autos (Nash Rambler). In 1961 or ‘62, this franchise was sold to Hubert Vickers of 421 Motor Sales. Wiley Brooks retired from managing the body shop when he was around seventy years old and died eleven years later. Leonard carried on his daddy’s legacy, trying his best to always do what Wiley had taught him: always maintain “Good, Dependable Service.” Leonard Brooks was in the car business for 51 years. He says that he always loved the car business. Some of the people who have worked for Motor Service: Jeter Crysel was service manager from 1932 until 1938; Grant Whittington was service manager from just after the war until the late ‘70s; Gilbert Foster was a salesman for a number of years, versatile and noted for being able to perform many jobs; Barney Harrold was body shop foreman after Wiley Brooks retired; John Baily was an outstanding painter for a number of years; Brady Hayes came to work after the war and worked until retirement; Rex Handy came after the war and was the parts manager until retirement in the mid-‘80s; Bill Myers was office manager from 1952 until 1988; Jeter Blackburn, Ivan Absher, and Charles Eller were salesmen, just to name a few. Some of the body shop personnel: Conrad Reeves, Argil Riggs, Oid Hawkins, Ernest Walker, Van Wood, and Clint Harrold, who had the reputation of being one of the best painters and color-matchers around. John Baily was also an outstanding painter for a number of years In the service department, just to name a few: Royal Baker, Carl Holder, and John T. Patterson, and R.V. Carlton on the grease and wash pit. What Wiley Brooks started in the ‘30s is now Empire Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep, a modern complex on Hwy 421 West, a hot, growing area for car dealerships and retail businesses.

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Much the same as it was built in 1953. The Motor Service building was used for storage for several years but now is occupied by a garage and body shop (Miller. Motor Co.). Note the large body shop on the second floor. The service entrance was just to the right of the showroom.

Empire Chrysler-Plymouth-Dodge-Jeep

Walter P. Chrysler and his first Maxwell Chrysler Six-1924.

Chapter Six

Gaddy Motor Co. (1934-1987)

William Franklin Gaddy, 1904-1971.

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illiam Franklin (W. F.) Gaddy was born on an Anson County farm in 1904, one of nine children. Before coming to North Wilkesboro at the young age of thirty, he was operating his own Chevrolet agency in Reidsville as well as managing other business interests. W.F. had a good mind for math and a keen business sense. Reportedly, he seldom lost in a business deal. In North Wilkesboro, no one ever had any success selling Chevrolets. U.L. (Les) Hafer was struggling with his Hafer Chevrolet Company, which he had only operated about a year.

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Apparently, Chevrolet Motor Division, discouraged by the failure of previous agencies, was looking for someone who could turn this around and sell Chevrolets at large numbers. W.F. was a bright young man who, at the age of 30, had already made a success of his Chevrolet agency in Reidsville. On December 1, 1934, W.F. Gaddy assumed ownership of Hafer Chevrolet on C Street. There were eight employees. Rachel Nichols, later know as Rachel Nichols Phillips (Mrs. Lloyd Phillips), had started in the office at C&C Chevrolet in 1928 and was working in the office at Hafer at the time of purchase. She would continue to work for Gaddy Motor Co. until 1942. Gaddy, better known to Wilkes County folks as “W.F.” or Mr. Gaddy, had a motto of “fair and honest dealing” and always wanted the customer satisfied. This was to become his trademark. Apparently, his business practices led to the tremendous growth of Gaddy Motor Co., and soon the business outgrew the C Street location, with new car sales reaching 22 and used car sales reaching 45-50 cars per month. The number of employees doubled from 8 to 16. The car agency desperately needed more space. In April 1936, Gaddy Motor Co. moved into the 50 x 100 building on 10th Street built by A.F. Phillips in 1922. Mr. Phillips at one time was the largest buyer of roots and herbs and had used the building for his root and herb business. The shop was on the main floor and had an entrance from 10th Street. L.L. Carpenter was the first general manager, and he stayed until around 1941. Wade Barlow, the service manager, had been with Gaddy since the beginning, having worked for most of the earlier Chevrolet agencies, Boone Trail, and Yadkin Valley Motor Co. Wade was to work for Gaddy until retirement, except for a few years during the ‘40s when he went to Baltimore to work for the war effort. Clate McGlamery, known for being an outstanding mechanic, was the shop foreman for many years, becoming the service manager when Wade Barlow left in the ‘40s and remaining in that capacity until retirement in the early ‘50s. Spencer (Ted) Absher started working for Gaddy on 10th Street greasing cars, later becoming one of Gaddy’s outstanding Buick mechanics and working in that capacity until his retirement in the ‘70s. Mr. Gaddy treated his employees like family and recognized talent, and he promoted many to better positions within the company.

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Gaddy Motor Co. 10th St. Circa 1937 Bill Gilbert, well-known service manager through the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, started out on 10th Street and retired from Gaddy’s in 1982 with more than forty years of service. Vernon Woodruff, son of former Chevrolet dealer W.D. (Sheriff ) Woodruff, was a mechanic for Gaddy until retirement. Many prominent names in the local auto business have worked for Gaddy Motor Co. at one time or another. Probably because of the Gaddy ethic of fair dealing, the spacious 10th Street building was to quickly prove inadequate. New facilities were needed again. The town at that time was very closely built, and all businesses were very closely placed together on just a few blocks. W.F. needed wide-open spaces for what he envisioned for his new facilities. He did not intend for this facility to be outgrown again for many years. Out on the western end of D Street and across the Reddies River, not much existed but cornfields. This was the ideal place for a sprawling new spacious and modern automotive complex. W.F. purchased land on the west bank of the Reddies River. The property didn’t look great and was nothing but hills and valleys sloping off to the river, but W.F. envisioned what the property would look like with lots of grading.

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Anyway, it would provide the space he needed and it was a bargain, so he purchased it. Some local businessmen told W.F. that he had made a bad error in judgment and would never make it going that far out of town. W.F. proved them wrong as that turned out to be a very valuable business location, and other businesses sprang up all around. Through the next thirty years, W.F. would prove many times that he had talent for buying land that others didn’t see much value in and turning it into valuable property.

“Too far out of town,” local folks told Mr. Gaddy. Notice there really is nothing here on this side of the Reddies River at the time except cornfields. Gaddy’s foresight would soon change this. He was instrumental in building the Wilkes General Hospital on the hill overlooking the auto dealership, and in later years, he would build the Gaddy Shopping Center between the dealership and the river. In the ‘70s, he would develop land a short distance up the road that is now the home to several businesses. The 37,500 square-foot building would prove be one of the most modern in the southeast. The front would house showroom space for Chevrolet cars and trucks and the recently acquired Buick franchise as well as sales offices, business office, and parts department. The service and body departments would be the most

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up-to-date to be found anywhere and were for many years. I’m told that General Motors representatives and others from all over the southeast came to see this modern facility. The facilities were truly ahead of the times, and Gaddy Motor never did outgrow this facility. W.F. was good hearted and liked people. People reciprocated by buying lots of cars from him. Most of his employees worked hard and made lots of money for Gaddy Motor Co. W.F. made lots of money and later set up sons Fred and Jack in their own Chevrolet Dealerships: Fred Gaddy Chevrolet in Lenoir, N.C. and Jack Gaddy Chevrolet in Mt. Airy, N.C. On Friday, November 28th, 1941, W.F. Gaddy held the grandest of all grand openings that Wilkes County had ever seen. The “New Gaddy Motor Company” facilities were on display from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Wilkes County came out in droves to see the very spacious, beautiful new Gaddy Motor Company facilities. The premier local paper, the Journal Patriot, was full of articles about the grand opening, pictures of the personnel, and congratulatory articles from local businesses. W. F. Gaddy was the talk of Wilkes County. He had made a great deal of accomplishments in only seven years. The front of the 150 ft. wide building, which contained the parts department, showroom, and sales offices, featured broken tile floors. The parts department boasted modern steel shelving, but it would later outgrow its space and would be moved rearward into the service department in order to have adequate groundfloor parts storage as well as a modern upper floor “mezzanine” with modern GM-numbered steel shelving. The parts department never outgrew these facilities.

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The parts department, located on the west side of the showroom, soon outgrew this space and expanded rearward into the service department. The later parts department had an upper floor steel grate mezzanine and double the space. They never outgrew the new parts department.

Gaddy Motor Company’s ultra modern 37,500 sq. ft. new building under construction in 1940.

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Completed building in 1941. Employees left to right: Service Manager Wade Barlow, Assistant Service Manager Clate McGlamery, Spencer Absher, Vernon Woodruff, Grant Whittington, Edison Burgess, Carl Barlow, Carl Dickens, F.D. Hayes, Bill Gilbert, Monty Handy, Ted Taylor, Grandville Barlow, Hannan Patrum, Foy Raymer, Archie Smith, Charlie Golden, Richard Rousseau, T.G. Alexander. Service men not shown in picture are Sam Eller, Richard Foster, W.F. Gentle, Barney Harrold, Clyde Craig, and George Farmer. The service and body departments featured painted cement floors, with paint added to the cement, and twelve modern inground lifts for lifting cars, a first for the area. One of those lifts was a heavy-duty truck lift for lifting anything up to the largest Chevrolet truck of that day. The body shop was located in the left rear of the building and would outgrow this space and be moved into a new large shop that would be constructed in 1948. That would also give the growing service department more much needed space. Little known at the time was the tragedy that would befall the nation nine days later. On Sunday morning, December 7th, the invasion of Pearl Harbor would thrust the nation into World War II, and the country would never be the same. Production of cars in America was stopped, and all automotive plants were converted to wartime production. It would be four years before new cars would roll off the assembly lines in the United States again. Most able-bodied men were either drafted or signed up for military

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service. Women signed up for the military, became production workers in assembly plants, or, equally important, held down the home front. Gaddy Motor Company would survive the wartime economy and perhaps become even stronger, surviving on used car sales and good service. Car parts were scarce, as were gas, oil, and tires, making good service vital to the car owner who had to maintain his automobile as best he could. Mechanics had to be imaginative, and body mechanics had to be able to straighten and repair any damage. After the war ended, returning men were looking for a career to support new lives, wives, and families. The economy would abound with tremendous demand for houses, cars, trucks, and the accompanying necessities. W.F. realized what was happening and wanted to be a part of this rapid growth in the post-war economy. More space was needed for the growing body department, which was housed in the rear corner of the service department.

Sales personnel in 1941, left to right: W.F. Gaddy, L.L. Carpenter, Guy L. Snow, Gilbert G. Foster, Lloyd Phillips, George Vannoy, Arvin Foster, and Brack Richardson.

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Guy L. Snow is the general manager of the Buick division of Gaddy Motor Co. He came to North Wilkesboro in 1940 when W.F. Gaddy bought S.V. Tomlinson’s Buick Agency. Snow, a Surry County native, formerly was associated with the Chevrolet dealership in West Jefferson and prior to that held positions with GMAC.

L.L. Carpenter was Gaddy’s first general manager, and was with the company until late 1941.

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R.R. Church Is-Cedit Manager Gaddy Motor Co. R.R. Church, credit manager of Gaddy Motor Company began his career in the automobile business as a salesman for the Chevrolet dealership here in 1932, and except for one year, has been with Gaddy Motor Co. for the past seven years. Prior to his connections with the automobile business, he held a position in the office of International Shoe Co. Mr. Church carries out his duties as credit collections manager efficiently and with a maximum of courtesy. Mr. Church is widely known. In addition to his business activities, he is active in public life, being a member of the Wilkes County Board of Education, and is a member of the Key City Songsters, a widely popular male quartet that has performed over radio and at many public gatherings.

Mrs. Phillips Is-Office Manager of Gaddy Motor Co. Mrs. Rachel Nichols Phillips, office manager of Gaddy Motor Co. has an enviable reputation in that capacity with the firm. She was reared in the Purlear community. She graduated from Wilkesboro High School and attended Draughton’s Business College in Winston Salem. In 1928, she accepted a position in the office of C&C Chevrolet Company here and has been with the Chevrolet dealers here since that time. During the past seven years as Office Manager of Gaddy Motor Co., she has been the recipient of several awards in recognition of the excellence of her work, including a $50 award by the Charlotte division of Chevrolet Motor Co. for excellence in credit and collection records and for office management. She was also awarded two diplomas for being on the national honor roll of Chevrolet bookkeepers. The assistant office manager if Miss Juanita Rorie. They invite their friends to the formal opening of Gaddy Motor Company Friday from eight a.m. till nine p.m.

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Wade H. Barlow Is-Service Manager of Gaddy Motor Co. With the exception of a short period, Wade H. Barlow has been service manager for Gaddy Motor Co. for seven years. Prior to his joining the company, he was service manager for three years with Boone Trail Motor Co. here. He is one of the most experienced service men in the automobile business in this part of the state, and he has earned a most enviable reputation in his line of work. Many motorists depend on Mr. Barlow to keep their cars in first class condition at all times and appreciate his dependable service.] The manner in which he maintains the service department at Gaddy Motor Co. has received many favorable comments from customers and from many with wide experience in the automobile business.

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G. C. McGlamery Is-Assistant Service Manager Gaddy Motor Co. G.C McGlamery of the Millers Creek Community is the capable assistant service manager at Gaddy Motor Co. which will hold it formal opening tomorrow in its new building four blocks west on the Boone Trail Highway. Mr. McGlamery started in the auto-business with operation of a garage of his own for some time. For several years, he was a mechanic for the state before joining Gaddy Motor Co. about six years ago. He has a wide knowledge of motor vehicles, and his ability to service and repair cars is widely known. As an automobile mechanic, he has few superiors anywhere, and his ability to thoroughly do whatever task assignment has earned him a good reputation in his line of work.

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Clint Foster, the 22-year-old assistant Parts Manager was also bright and ambitious and later became the Parts Manager for McNeil Pontiac located in the Cricket community at the time. In 1948, Clint went to the newly established B&L Cadillac-Olds on D St. as Parts Manager and would stay there until 1967, when the business would close. At this time, Clint and Don Miller, B&L’s Service Manager, would open up their own independent garage called B&L Sales and Service in the former Yadkin Valley Motor Co building on Ninth St. Soon they would acquire the franchise to sell new Fiat automobiles. The growing business would move to the US Hwy 421 by-pass in 1971. Fiat stopped exporting to the US in the early 80’s and B&L would go out of business in 1982. This building would then be occupied by Northwest Toyota for many years. O.K. Pope was the bright, young, and well-liked parts manager who soon became the general manager, a position in which he served until the early ‘50s, when he became a Chevrolet dealer in Mocksville, N.C.

Gaddy Motor Co. Service Department in the ‘40s.

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Gaddy body shop in the ‘40s.

In May 1948, a 100 x 60 foot modern body and paint shop was completed and opened for business. The space formerly occupied by the body department later became an auto-trim shop, which became a vital part of the Gaddy Motor Co. business for many years. Ernest Sims, with twenty years experience, was the body shop manager at that time, and Gaddy’s was operating two large wreckers. Sam Eller was a well-known long-time wrecker

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operator for Gaddy’s, and Archie Mathis was a well-known wrecker operator for Gaddy’s throughout the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. Gaddy Motor Co. would provide wrecker service, as did the other dealers, throughout its history. Shop foremen throughout the years were Barney Harrold, Ledford Cook, Alvin Eldridge, Haggie Faw, Chuck Courier, Gerald Wood, and John Schuder. Body men that served many years were Foy Raymer, Carl Barlow, Rich Call, Walt Harris, Morris Shumate, Grant Shumate, Herman Harrold, and James Adams. Some of the painters in the later years were Clint Harrold, Cliff Richardson, Ted Wiles, Elb and Doug McClure, and Buster Mitchell.

W.F. Gaddy then had Gaddy Motor Company positioned for thirty years of unparalleled business success. New car sales would always be good, and Gaddy Motor Co. would be well blessed with dedicated and talented employees. W.F. would be able leave dayto-day business matters to his managers and do what he always loved: farm, buy and develop land, and raise Tennessee Walking Horses. His world champion horse “Roadmaster” was well known and is still remembered locally. Sons Fred and Jack would soon come into business and eventually have their own dealerships. Employees like Haggie Faw would work up through the ranks from mechanic to service manager, sales manager, and eventually

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general manager. W.F. was always blessed with outstanding general managers. L.L. Carpenter was the first and worked until around 1941. O.K. Pope was general manager until he left to have his own Chevrolet dealership in Mocksville. Bill Hardister was reported to be as good a judge of character as his boss and served until Haggie Faw became the general manager. Haggie was followed up by Jack Gaddy, who was general manager and later the dealer principle after W.F.’s death and until his own death in 1978. Jack’s son Eric then became general manager and dealer principle. The ‘50s were prosperous times, and W.F. was civic minded and gave back to the community. Gaddy Motor Co. always provided drivers’ education cars.

Left to right: W.A. Hardister (general manager), Jack Gaddy, G.G. Angell (Chevrolet Motor Division), and Fred Gaddy presenting the keys to a new 1953 Chevrolet Drivers’ Education car to Wilkes County School Superintendent C. B. Eller, Millers Creek School Principal John Idol, and Millers Creek driver education instructor Sam Osborne.

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Haggie Faw presents key to a 1956 Chevrolet to Wilkes County School Superintendent J. Floyd Woodward in front of Wilkes Central High School.

Jack Gaddy presents the keys for a 1978 Chevrolet Malibu to Assistant School Superintendent Rex Whittington.

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Gaddy Motor Co. Service Department around 1954. In the center of the picture is Haggie Faw, service manager.

Gaddy Motor Company from the air around 1950.

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Salesmen in 1955, left to right: Haggie Faw (sales manager), Quincy McNeil, D. F. Beshears, Arvil Cornett, Wade Barlow, and Bob Crawford. Haggie Faw came to work at Gaddy Motor Co. right after the war, disillusioned because his old job at the Wilkes Hosiery Mill was no longer available to him. Haggie was another of Gaddy’s success stories. Haggie started as a mechanic, soon working his way up to service manager, then sales manager, and finally general manager. After leaving in 1962, he worked for Faw Insurance Agency for a good number of years, coming back to Gaddy Motor Co. around 1969 as the body shop manager. He helped to get the new Empire Olds-Cadillac dealership started in 1970 and served as the service manager for a couple of years. He then worked for the Wilkes County Sheriff ’s Department, helping to set up the Wilkes County Communications Center. He also served as assistant coroner for several years. He retired from the Sheriff ’s Department and developed land until his illness and death in 2003. Quincy McNeil had a long history of automotive experience behind him, having served as the general manager and a partner

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of Motor Service Sales Co. of North Wilkesboro before selling his part in the early ‘50s. D. F. Beshears left Gaddy Motor Co. to work for the U.S. Postal Service until retirement. Arvil Cornett later sold trucks for City Sales, an International Truck dealership in North Wilkesboro. Wade Barlow and Bob Crawford continued to sell Chevrolet and Buicks for Gaddy’s until their retirement. Wade Barlow came to Gaddy Motor Co. in 1934, and Crawford came to work part-time in 1939, full-time in 1941. Both retired in the ‘70s.

The Gaddy Motor Company sponsored racecar in 1955. Fred Gaddy is on the left and Gene (Foots) Foster on the right. Notice Jr. Johnson in the background. In 1959 and 1960, Gaddy’s sponsored a NASCAR Grand National Racecar driven by Junior Johnson. Hubert Westmoreland was the engine builder, and Raymond Brown and Ralph Wyatt were the mechanics. The race shop was in a nice, large building to the rear of the property which was also used a warehouse to store (or to hide) new cars before the new car show

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date. In those days, racing was pure sport and not a business as it is today. Many car dealers tried sponsoring a “Grand National Racecar” only to learn that this was a quick way to dump lots of hard-earned money. W.F. Gaddy was a good businessman and soon decided to exit that venture and devote his energy to selling cars, developing real estate, and raising Tennessee Walking Horses.

Fred Gaddy Jack Gaddy Both sons grew up working in the dealership and learned the business from the ground up. W.F. Gaddy set up both of his sons, Fred and Jack, in their own dealerships in the ‘50s, Fred Gaddy Chevrolet in Lenoir, N.C. in 1955 and Jack Gaddy Chevrolet in Mt. Airy, N.C. in 1958. Fred Gaddy Chevrolet was sold in 1958, and in 1962, Jack

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Gaddy Chevrolet was sold, and Jack Gaddy returned to North Wilkesboro to become general manager of Gaddy Motor Co, a position he held until his sudden death in 1978. W.F. Gaddy died on April 16, 1971 as result of injuries received in a fall. He had been critically ill for 9 days. His youngest son, Jack Gaddy, had been the general manager of Gaddy Motor

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Co. for several years and would then become the dealer principle. Under Jack Gaddy, the business would not change much and would continue to thrive for several years. On December 18th, 1978, Jack Gaddy died suddenly from a heart attack. His son, Eric Gaddy, was already in training to run the dealership, and Jack had the foresight to make arrangements with GM: should anything happen to him, Eric would be the dealer principle, and his mother, Agnes Gaddy, would become the business owner.

Eric Gaddy

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The above picture of the Gaddys and others on following pages were the brainchild of Eric Gaddy as a series of promotional ads that ran in the local Journal Patriot throughout the year of 1979. I suppose the idea was to show the community that Gaddy Motor Co. was in the capable hands of lots of long-term and loyal employees. After all, his grandfather has shown that he was a good judge of character and that good employees had helped him build a very successful business. Many of the employees still working in 1979 had started many years previously for W. F. I remember Eric calling a meeting in the back of the shop of all the employees immediately after his father’s funeral and telling everyone of the business arrangements his father had made for him to become the dealer and that he needed everyone’s help, and he asked that everyone work hard and do everything they could to make the business successful. Little did anyone know at the time the fate of Gaddy Motor Co.

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Gaddy Motor Company in 1979: the 50+ employees behind their new leader.

Salesmen in 1979, left to right: Bill Eller (new car sales manager), Ralph Shumate, Dwight Triplett (used car manager), Jarvie Mathis, Bob Church (new truck and leasing manager), Larry Roope, an unidentified gentleman, and Grady Ward.

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Service department in 1979, left to right: Howard Hendrix, Joe Woodie, Frank Caudill, Guy Woodruff, Roger Brown, Walt Earp, Jackie Settle, Kenneth Lytton, Jimmy Owens, Harvey Baity, Bill Gilbert (service manager), Conrad Carlton, and Archie Mathis.

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Bill Gilbert and Joe Woodie. Bill Gilbert came to North Wilkesboro from Mt. Airy to work for Gaddy Motor Co. in the ‘30s and was known as an outstanding mechanic. In 1956, he became service manager and remained in that position until his retirement in 1982. I am proud to have worked for Bill for a good number of years. I worked closely with him on a good number of hard repair problems. Bill taught me a lot about repairing cars, and I am certainly a much better auto technician because of having known him. I would consider Bill Gilbert the brightest auto mechanic (now called technician) that I have ever known. Bill really got a lot of satisfaction out of helping the technicians diagnose the hard-to-fix problems, and he was very good at it. Very few cars ever left Gaddy Motor Co. without being fixed. Bill’s primary responsibilities as the service manager were to deal with the customers and see that the shop ran efficiently, but his greatest joy was to help the technicians. Bill always had a calm nature, and I never saw him mad, although I might have seen him a little upset. He was also very firm, and when he decided the way things were to be, then that was the end of that. All and all, he had a lot of great qualities necessary for a good service manager.

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Gaddy’s always had good people-oriented service advisors/assistant service managers through the years. Some of the long-term advisors/assistant managers were Millard Shew, Ray McNiell, and Chip Bumgarner. Others that served shorter terms were Blain Church, Joe Woodie, Kenneth Lytton, Paul Gustafson, and Tommy Pruitt, who became service manager when Bill retired in 1982.

Chris Gaddy, General Manager from 1985-1987. Chris Gaddy, the younger son of Jack and Agnes Gaddy, was active in the business after the death of his father. Chris worked in sales initially and was general manager of Gaddy Motor Co. from 1985 to 1987.

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Jr. Morrison, parts manager in the ‘70s and ‘80s. Chalmer Dyer was a long-time employee, serving as a collector. Other long-term office employees not pictured were Mary Watts, who was office manager for many years, and Louise Bowers, who worked with Mary for many years and then served as office manager after Mary’s retirement. Ruth Lockhart, another long-term employee not pictured, was the service department secretary for 22 years. Ruth, personable and outgoing, was many times the first person with whom service customers came into contact. Many Gaddy customers remember Ruth because of her friendly and helpful demeanor.

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Charlie Triplett, used car recondition manager.

Chuck Courier, body shop manager, along with Doug McClure, painter.

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Because of a sluggish economy and high interest rates, Gaddy Motor Co. did not flourish, and by late 1987, in poor financial condition, Gaddy Motor Co. was sold to Mack Brown of Boone, N.C. Mack Brown eventually sold the dealership to Brent Smith of Hickory, who was unsuccessful with the business, and he sold to J.C. Faw, a successful North Wilkesboro businessman who built a modern complex on Hwy 421 a couple of miles northwest of the old D Street location that Gaddy Motor Co. sat on for over 50 years. Mr. Faw bought other GM franchises and still sells all GM car lines at his Premier Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Buick, Pontiac, and GMC. The old building was torn down in the summer of 1998 to make way for a new Eckerd drug store. This picture saddens me greatly every time I look at it. I call it “The End of an Era,” a true American success story.

Premier Chevy, Buick, Pontiac, Cadillac, GMC on busy Hw. 421 West.

Chapter Seven

The Oldsmobiles

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t all began in 1897 when Ransom E. Olds, a gasoline engine manufacturer, teamed up with a buggy company to produce a quality automobile. The price of the automobile was $1,000. The curved-dash Olds was well known for its curved front body, and Oldsmobile led all American auto manufacturers in number of autos produced. This automobile had a wood body and a tiller for steering. In 1904, a steering wheel was installed, and Ransom Olds was forced out of his company. He then founded the REO Motor Co., which became a popular car company and eventually became a strong truck company. REO’s were built and sold for many years. In 1908, Oldsmobile became a division of General Motors. Back in the Yadkin Valley, there have always been Oldsmobiles around. The earliest record of an agency selling Oldsmobiles is of the Smoak Bros. in 1917. They were advertising in the local paper, selling a model-45 touring car for $1,467. Any other dealers remained unknown until C&C Chevrolet came in the late ‘20s. The next known Oldsmobile dealer was Williams Motor Co.

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Williams Motor Company

T.H. (Tom) Williams opened an automobile and radiator repair shop in 1932 along the side of the Reddies River at the edge of North Wilkesboro. He was known locally for his outstanding mechanical abilities. In 1934, Tom Williams moved his operation a mile and a half from the old location up Boone Trail (Old Hwy 421), a main artery out of town westbound and the direct route from Winston-Salem to Boone, N.C. It was reported in a local newspaper article at the time that Williams opened at this operation with limited resources, but soon, due to a strong commitment to customer satisfaction and business growth, Williams was able to purchase the latest shop equipment for radiators, automotive repair, and welding. Williams Motor Co. was the first in the area to install the modern “Bear” frame and alignment equipment, which allowed them to specialize in frame and wheel alignment and wreck rebuilding throughout their history, spanning the ‘30s and ‘40s. In the fall of 1935, Williams Motor Co. acquired the Oldsmobile franchise for Wilkes County, and a new two-story building was built. The 1936 Oldsmobiles were the first to be received and sold. Oldsmobiles were sold until 1941. Williams

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went on to sell Hudson, Kiaser-Frazier, and Henry-J automobiles. They later acquired the franchise of the short-lived “Tucker” automobile. The “Tucker” was a streamlined, rear engine, and futuristic car possibly out of tune with the times. Politics and production costs led to the demise of the Tucker. Only fifty 1948-model Tuckers were ever built. It is believed that Williams Motor Co. may have taken delivery on one Tucker but never made a sale before the Tucker Corporation folded. Williams Motor Co. went out of business in the early ‘50s.

Williams Motor Company - Sales lot and Body Shop

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B & L Motor Company B& L Motor Co. was founded in the summer of 1948 by Jim Lowe and his brother-in-law, Carl Buchan. Cadillac and Oldsmobile cars and Case tractors were sold. The business was first located in the former C&C Chevrolet building on D Street. Glenn Andrews, formerly with Yadkin Valley Motor Co., was employed as the general manager. Cecil Bumgarner was employed as the service manager. Salesmen were Jud Yale, Bob Yale, Arvin Foster, and Cecil Kilby. Ritz Hardin was one of the mechanics, and he would become well known as an outstanding Olds–Cadillac mechanic and would stay with B&L until 1967. In October 1949, Ralph Wooten, who was known as an outstanding clothing salesman, was employed as a car salesman. Paul Newton came January 1st, 1950 as service manager, and Clint Foster was employed as parts manager, a job that he would hold until the demise of B&L in 1967. Buchan and Lowe were partners in some cattle farms and in Lowe’s Hardware. Jim Lowe’s interests varied, the least of which was the hardware business, while Carl Buchan had great visions of a large hardware company to serve the post-war building boom. In 1952, the two traded their business interests, which meant that Carl Buchan then had controlling interest in Lowes Hardware

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and 49 percent of the car dealership. Ralph Wooten and Paul Newton purchased Carl Buchan’s interest. Sales were booming, and a new facility to house the growing business and replace the old outdated and outgrown D Street building was badly needed. In the summer of 1953, construction started on a new modern spacious facility on 2nd Street. B&L moved into the new facility in the fall of that year. After moving to 2nd Street, sales really began to grow. They were selling an unprecedented 60-75 new cars and 300 used cars per month, sometimes selling 30 cars on one Saturday. B&L sold more Oldsmobiles than any other dealer in N.C. or S.C. Cars were sold all over the U.S., and even Grand Ole Opry stars bought cars from B&L. Don Kilby became the service manager when Paul Newton left in 1956 and remained in that position through the early ‘60s before he left to go to Froelick Cadillac to become service manager, and he later would serve as service manager for Black CadillacOlds for many years. Kilby now owns a Nissan Dealership in Baltimore, Maryland. When Don Kilby left, Don Miller, who was his assistant, became service manager and stayed in that position until B&L closed in 1967. Bill Blevins of Hays serviced as assistant service manager, and later, his brother-in-law, Jim Rhodes, was assistant service manager until 1967. Jim Lowe became stricken with cancer in the mid-‘60s, and Susie Triplett actively managed the company until his death in November 1965 and the termination of the franchise in 1967. On April 1st, 1967, Yadkin Valley Motor Company moved into the old B&L building, which it had recently purchased. At that time, Don Miller and Clint Foster rented the former Yadkin Valley building and operated an independent repair shop and Fiat dealership known as B&L Sales and Service. In 1971, they built a new building on West D Street and did business there until their retirement in 1985. Northwest Toyota then purchased that building and operated their business in that location until selling out in January of 2003.

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B&L employees in 1965, left to right: Front row: Percy Ferguson (janitor), Bobby Dimmette (mechanic), Roger Brown (mechanic), Ritz Hardin (mechanic), Ted Wiles (painter), Clayburn Roten (painter), Gus Vannoy (oil/lube), and Bruce Cockerham (body repair). Second row: Lee Hutchinson (mechanic), Ed Summerlin (frame and alignment), Tiny Pruitt (frame and alignment), Jim Benton (sales), Karen Wayne (office), Harrison Anderson (sales), Jim Rhoades (assistant service manager), J.D. Gibbs (mechanic), Wade Brown (used car reconditioning), and Ralph Gilbert (mechanic). Back row: Don Miller (service manager), Glenda Wayne (office manager), Susie Triplett (general manager), and Clint Foster (parts manager). The Fast Cars In 1948, Oldsmobile and Cadillac offered the industry’s first highcompression V8 motors. That was just what the doctor ordered for Wilkes County’s bootleggers to power their liquor cars. Fords were popular with the local moonshiners because they were, up to that point, the only car with a V8 motor, but they did not have nearly the horsepower of the Cadillac or Oldsmobile motors. B&L sold lots of new Cadillac motors to bootleggers and also installed many of them in the cars through the ‘50s and ‘60s. 1940 Fords were the most popular cars in which to install the Cadillac

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motor; however, Cadillac motors were installed in everything imaginable. Hayes Reynolds, who also drove the B&L wrecker, was the best-known mechanic for his ability to make adapters and get the Olds and Cadillac motors in vehicles not intended to have them. He even installed Olds and Cadillac motors in some of the B&L wreckers. In 1954, B&L entered into NASCAR racing by sponsoring a 1954 Cadillac driven by Jr. Johnson. In 1955, they fielded a ‘55 Olds 88 driven by Johnson. Paul Newton and Hayes Reynolds worked on these “Grand National Stock Cars” and were helped by other B&L mechanics. Those cars really were stock cars in those days, having little race preparation and very little safety equipment. They raced one car over the whole season. Clint Foster, the long time B&L parts manager, recalled that he kept virtually every piece of those cars in stock, and sometimes they would clean him out on Monday after a race. GM helped some with the parts cost, but the other expenses were borne by B&L. Clint Foster recalled riding with Paul Newton one evening in the Oldsmobile racecar down toward Charlotte to break it in and see how it would run before the race. In those days, the car was trailered, towed, or driven to the racetrack. Racing was more of a hobby than a business, and although Jr. was very successful, the ‘55 racing season would be the last for B&L. Racing helped B&L become known and was a great asset to car sales. In addition, Ralph Wooten was a great car salesman. Jim had an interest in country music, and country music stars would invite other stars to the new-car showing each fall, which was a grand event for most car dealers at that time. Many times, the stars would leave North Wilkesboro with a new Oldsmobile or Cadillac. B&L was selling cars to people all over the country, but repossessions were hurting business. Ralph Wooten in an interview prior to his death in 2002 recalled that B&L never made much money. Paul Newton was ambitious and restless, and in 1956, he left B&L to go to Reidsville to buy out a Cadillac-Olds dealership. Ralph Wooten bought Paul’s stock, giving him 49 percent of the B&L stock. 1958 was a bad year for most car dealers. The ‘58’s had radical styling changes and were full of problems. Car sales

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and profits were not good. Ralph Wooten decided to sell his stock and start his own used car lot in 1959. Along about that time, Jim Lowe persuaded Paul Newton to return and to help see that the dealership was successful. Linley Perryman, who was the sales manager at the time, was made a co-general manager along with Paul Newton. For some unknown reason, that arrangement didn’t work out, and in approximately six months, Paul Newton left to sell cars for Froelick Cadillac in Winston-Salem. Paul was a good salesman and loved to work with people. He would stay in Winston-Salem until 1970, when he would return to start Empire Olds-Cadillac in Wilkesboro along with local businessmen J.C. Faw and Harold Mayes. Linley Perryman would soon leave to go back home to Winston, and Susie Triplett, who was a secretary/administrative assistant to Mr. Lowe, would become the general manager, with help from her boss. Empire Olds-Cadillac Empire Oldsmobile-Cadillac, Inc. was started in the spring of 1970 by local businessmen J.C. Faw and Harrold Mayes with seasoned Oldsmobile-Cadillac salesman Paul Newton. Newton was the dealer. Newton had many years of Olds-Cadillac experience, having worked in service and sales at B&L Cadillac-Olds, owned a dealership in Reidsville, N.C., and sold Cadillacs in WinstonSalem for several years. A new ultra-modern building was built in sparsely settled Western Wilkesboro. Newly built Wilkes Community College, located directly across the road, was leading the growth in that rapidly developing former farmland. Faw’s Lowes Food Store was building a large office/warehouse complex directly adjacent to the auto dealership. Wilkesboro, a very small town for many years, was very proud to have this new car dealership in their town. Mayor Charlie Bumgarner told me that he was very happy that Wilkesboro was chosen for the site for this new car dealership instead of North Wilkesboro, which had enjoyed most of the business and industrial growth for many years. Wilkesboro only had one car dealership: Midway Pontiac. The building featured a steel structure with brick façade and large drive-through bays in the service and body shops. The large carpeted showroom had space for showing several of the compa-

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ny’s Oldsmobile and Cadillac models. The sales office and a large business office were also located in the front section of the building. The building was up-to-date in every respect possible. The service and body shops featured radiant gas heat. The latest Bear frame and wheel alignment were installed. The latest in body equipment, including a modern paint booth, was purchased. An attempt was made to hire the best personnel possible. Early in the spring of 1970, Haggie Faw, who had shown his management talents at Gaddy Motor Co. rising from a mechanic to service manager, sales manager, and finally to general manager, was hired to direct the hiring, to set up the business, and to serve as service and body director. I was hired as the shop foreman, John Stewart was hired from Midway Pontiac as parts manager, Benny Turner was hired for body shop foreman, and as I recall, most of the personnel were on board by the end of May, even though the dealership wasn’t officially opened to the public until July. We performed many functions: getting the facilities ready for business, ferrying cars from other dealerships, working on used cars, and getting equipment set up.

Newly finished Empire-Olds Cadillac building summer 1970.

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Paul Newton came back home to Wilkes County from Winston Salem to head up the new Olds-Cadillac dealership. Newton was selling Cadillacs for Froelick Cadillac in Winston Salem at the time. I always considered Paul Newton as a master Cadillac salesman. He seemed to know how to cater to the Cadillac customer.

The original service department in 1970, from left to right: Haggie Faw (service and body director), Roger Brown (shop foreman), Allen Baity (technician), J.D. Gibbs (technician), Tommy Pruitt (front-end technician), Gus Vannoy (oil/lube technician), and Larry Minton (technician).

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Red Snyder, formerly with Gaddy Motor Co., was Empire’s sales manager. Snyder was to be the key to Empire’s success as he was noted for being an outstanding salesman. He was customer oriented and always tried to give something to the customer. Sometimes it would be a set of floor mats or an eight-track tape deck removed from another used car. The customers loved him and bought lots of cars from him. Snyder was a positive thinker and always tried very hard to make sales and, first and foremost, to make the company a success. Even with all the efforts and desire to succeed, Empire was to experience the fate of many of their early-day predecessors. By the late ‘70s, the dealership was in poor financial health and was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Bob Whitaker, a wealthy Florida couple who had a home in the mountains of Banner Elk, N.C. Mrs. Whitaker had always wanted to own an auto dealership. They owned the business, kept Paul Newton as the dealer, and still operated it under the Empire name. The dealership was sold in the early ‘80s to Wilkes County native Bill Templeton, who had a successful Oldsmobile dealership in the Washington, D.C. area and who had already bought McNeill Pontiac-Nissan at the West Park shopping center in North Wilkesboro. The Olds-Cadillac dealership was operated at the same location for a while under the Templeton Olds-Cadillac name. Eventually, Templeton moved the dealership to the West Park location (in the mid-‘80s). He then had Olds, Cadillac, Pontiac, and Nissan all under one roof. That was a business trend being observed in the auto industry at this time, perhaps to lower overhead and make the business more cost efficient. Soon, Templeton acquired the Dodge franchise also. Looking for more space to better accommodate the growing Templeton dealership, he acquired a large former skating-rink building directly

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across the street from the dealership, which was remodeled in order to serve the Templeton car dealership needs. By the late ‘80s, the Templeton organization was suffering from poor financial health, and the dealerships would be sold to J.C. Faw, who would move them up the road to new facilities on the fast-growing Hwy 421 business strip. There today, you will find Faw’s dealerships: Premier Chevrolet, Buick, Olds, Pontiac, Cadillac, and GMC, and, next door, Empire Nissan, with Empire Chrysler-Plymouth, Dodge, and Jeep across the road.

Chapter Eight

The McNeill’s

M.B. McNeill

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.B. McNeill, better know as “Marv,” started out his automotive career working for Williams Motor Co. In 1939, he acquired the Pontiac franchise and located it temporally a couple of miles up the Boone Trail in an old metal building. This business was called Wilkes Motor Co. Soon, a new 36 x 75 ft. building was started a short distance up the road. That building would have a show room, office, and repair shop. The building was finished in the fall of 1940. About the same time, William H. McNeill bought half interest, and the name was changed to McNeill Motor Co. In 1946, McNeill Motor Co. was moved to Wilkesboro at a point that was considered to be midway between Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro. An ultra-modern building designed to be a car dealership was constructed for Mr. McNeill by well-known attorney Kyle Hayes. The ground level contained sales, service, and parts, and a body shop was in the basement. The name was changed to Midway Pontiac, and R.R. (Roby) Church was a new partner.

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Gene McNeill, son of M.B. McNeill, came into the business in 1953. In 1954, Gene McNeill bought a Pontiac dealership in Galax, Virginia. Gene McNeill sold that dealership in 1959 and returned to Midway Pontiac to help his father since he had recently had a heart attack. Some of the car brands sold through the years other than Pontiac were Hudson, Crosley, Vauxhaul, Studebaker (1960), and Subaru (1970). Of course, Pontiac was Midway’s mainstay and was always a very popular, well-selling car. Midway did not change much through the years. M.B. McNeill retired in 1972 and died in 1974.

In 1979, Gene McNeill, desiring more spacious and modern facilities, moved Midway to the West Park shopping center into a new building. Also, a Datsun (now called Nissan) franchise was acquired. The business was renamed McNeill Pontiac-Datsun, Inc. In 1982, Gene McNeill sold this dealership to Bill Templeton and H.O. Lowe. Templeton’s Oldsmobile-Cadillac dealership, located in Wilkesboro, was moved to West Park, and the business was renamed Templeton Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Pontiac, Nissan. Later, the dealership was moved across the road to a large former skating-rink building. This building was totally renovated and

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proved to be a very adequate building for the dealership. A Dodge franchise was added. In the late ‘80s, all the franchises were sold to local businessman J.C. Faw, who moved them to new facilities on the fast-growing Hwy 421 business strip in Western Wilkesboro. All the GM lines were under the Premier Olds, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick, Pontiac, and GMC name. David McNeill, son of Gene McNeill, came to work for his father at the West Park location after finishing college. In 1983, David McNeill bought a Toyota dealership from Ashe County businessmen Howard Turnmire and Russell Vannoy. They were also the owners of Ashe County Motors, a successful Ford dealership. This facility was located in Western Wilkesboro behind the old Empire Olds-Cadillac facility. The new name was Northwest Toyota. David McNeill practiced his father and grandfather’s business ethic of treating everyone fairly and with respect, and the business grew in leaps and bounds. To alleviate overcrowded conditions, David McNeill moved the business to the West D Street/Hwy 421 bypass area in the former B&L Sales & Service building, formerly a Fiat dealership. Fiat was stopping exports to the U.S., and owners Don Miller and Clint Foster were ready to retire anyway. This location proved to be excellent for business. The business continued to grow and enjoyed an excellent reputation in the community for fair dealing. Northwest Toyota received 16 consecutive President’s Awards and 20 consecutive Service Awards from Toyota. They were rated number one in owner satisfaction in the United States in 1993. David McNeil got national attention and was even featured in People magazine. The dealership sold 2000 vehicles in the year 2000, outstanding for a small town dealership. The Northwest campus grew to three buildings on both sides of D Street and a modern body shop at the West Park Shopping Center about a half-mile up the street. In December 2002, David McNeill sold Northwest Toyota to Jeffrey Cappo of Morristown, Tennessee. Cappo owns twelve other dealerships across the country. The new name is Victory Toyota. Today, David McNeill is operating a Kia dealership in Greensboro, N.C. Lots of local people are hoping that one day he will return to Wilkes with another dealership. Gene McNeill is enjoying some much-deserved retirement.

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Gene and David McNeill on their last day of business at Northwest Toyota on December 30th, 2002. Notice the many coveted awards and recognitions received by Northwest in the background.

The original building and the second building (on the hill). The second building was originally built for a short-lived Chrysler-Plymouth and Diahatsu dealership. This building now is a truck center and express lube.

Chapter Nine

The Studebakers

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he Studebaker brothers had been building horse-drawn equipment for fifty years when they started building cars in 1902. Their first automobiles were electric, although they quickly moved into building gasoline-powered vehicles. Since Studebaker was an established manufacturer, they quickly marketed their products to dealers all over the country. Studebaker was a heavier, more powerful, and better riding car than the Ford Model-T, but it was much more expensive. Studebaker probably always had a presence in Wilkes County; however, Studebaker dealers suffered the same fate as other car dealers and did not exist for very long. Some early-known Studebaker agencies in the ‘20s were Dixie Service Company, Smoot and Phillips, and Wilkes Motor Company. Records show that Wilkes Motor Co. operated at the corner of A & 10th Streets, while Dixie Service Co. and Smoot and Phillips are believed to have been located in a small garage located beside Yadkin Valley Motor Co. on 9th Street.

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The best-known Studebaker dealer was Motor Market Co., started in 1946 by Gilbert and Wayne Foster in the old garage next door to Yadkin Valley Motor Co. on 9th Street. Gwyn Jones was the service manager, and Bryce Sebastian of the Mulberry Community was the parts manager from 1946 until 1950. Rell Caudill, Frank Caudill, and Monty Handy were mechanics. Motor Market sold Studebakers, auto accessories, sporting goods, and appliances. In 1949, Mrs. Carl Coffey bought $10,000 worth of Motor Market stock. Her son-in-law, Bob Yale, was employed as a salesman and parts manager. In 1956, Bob Yale and his fatherin-law, Carl Coffey, bought out the Fosters’ stock and moved to the “Coffey Building” at the corner of 9th and D Streets. The business was closed in 1959. B&L Cadillac-Olds acquired the Studebaker franchise and sold Studebakers during the ‘60s. The last Studebaker was built in 1966.

Chapter Ten

Local Boy Goes to Detroit

Robert Boyd Jones

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first met Robin Jones in the spring of 2001 at Wilkes Community College, where I am employed as an automotive systems technology instructor. Wilkes Community College has a vast Wilkes County oral history videotape collection of local persons of interest. Mr. Jones had driven his ‘57 T-Bird down from his retirement home in Hendersonville, N.C. to be interviewed for the oral history project. Dr. Fay Byrd, the director of learning resources for Wilkes Community College, knew I would be very interested in meeting Mr. Jones and brought him up to my building for us to meet. The following recount is a brief summary of his life’s work as an auto designer in Detroit from our conversation and from the oral history videotape. Robert Boyd Jones was born in 1919 in North Wilkesboro, N.C., the son of a local dentist, Dr. Robert Jones. The family lived

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on D Street. Young Bobby grew up with a fascination for cars and for drawing cars. Bobby, or Robin as he is now called, remembers drawing cars at an early age. His father’s dentist office was upstairs over a Rexall Drug Store, and they got supplies in large cardboard boxes, which made excellent canvases for the drawings of his cars. He recalls drawing cars all over both sides of that cardboard. His mother wanted to get him interested in the finer aspects of art and sent him to art lessons on Saturday mornings to learn to draw something besides cars, but Robin wasn’t interested in drawing people or landscapes. He just wanted to draw cars. He found work after finishing high school designing socks at nearby Wilkes Hosiery Mill. Robin escaped the war because of a bad heart and scoliosis of the spine. His older brother was off in the war, and his father was sick at the time: his help was badly needed. He met and married his wife, Elizabeth, in 1943 and was shortly thereafter restless to get on with their life and carry out his life-long dream to design cars. In 1945, they caught a train to Detroit for Robin to attempt to get into some design school and eventually land a job with a major car company. He finally was accepted into the Detroit Institute of Arts, which was not a school of his choice as they taught nothing about designing cars. But as fate would have it, this was probably a lucky move in that he met and made good friends with another student named Bud Kauffman, who had the same goals as Robin and knew the Joneses were nearly out of money. He told Robin about an opening he had heard of at Briggs Body, who supplied bodies to Ford, Chrysler, and Packard. Briggs had a good design department, but design staffs were very lean because of the war, and Bobby was quickly hired at $200 per month and given a promise of a raise as he got better. He worked on ‘48 model Packards and saw his first clay mock up, with which he was not very impressed, and he designed hardware for the Packards. He stayed with Briggs Body for a year, and then he heard of an opening at Ford, applied, and was hired immediately. Robin worked in the commercial department at Ford and did design work on trucks, busses, tractors, and Fords foreign makes. He wanted to work on cars and finally worked his way into the car

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design studio. While at Ford, he did advance design work on the ‘50 and ‘51 Ford cars. Edsel Ford liked them the way they were, but others thought that changes should be made so that the public would recognize the models of different years. Robin worked on the headlight bezel, grill, hood ornament, and parking lights. Ford, like most gigantic corporations, was full of interoffice politics and jealousy and was hard to work for. Robin was not used to that at Briggs, and he soon became dissatisfied and wanted to leave Ford. Robin heard that Packard was doing some new programs and decided to apply and was hired on January 1st, 1949. Politics had gotten into Packard by that time, and many changes were taking place. Studebaker bought Packard, and Bobby went back to Ford in 1952, this time to stay until retirement. This time he was assigned to the Lincoln studio and shortly moved to the Mercury studio to do design work on the ‘55 and ‘56 models. Later on (about ‘55), he heard about a new car and was asked to work on it. Although the car had no name for a long time, it later turned out to be called Edsel. Robin was asked to head up the design studio for this new car but declined, only to be appointed the assistant design head. This car was to be a crossbreed between the Lincoln and the Mercury with the body being mostly Lincoln and the running gear being Mercury. He thought this was the reverse of what it ought to be. This new car was supposed to come out in ‘57 but didn’t come out until ‘58. Robin knew that it needed a strong identity (front end). He mainly worked on the front end and sides of the car. Initially, there were supposed to 18 different models and a small version. Robert McNamara, a vice president, thought that this car shouldn’t exist. McNamara later became the president of Ford, and from 1961 to 1968 was the secretary of defense in the Kennedy administration. There was a lot of discussion about what the front end should look like, and lots of design work was done on the grill. Many drawings were made. Finally, the car was named the Edsel, and production was started for the ‘58 models. The ‘58, ‘59, and a very few ‘60 models were built before production was halted.

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Timing was not right for this big car; most people thought it was a big, ugly bomb. The “Baby Edsel” however, was kept and was renamed the Mercury Comet, and had a successful run. Robin went over to the Mercury studio to work on the Comet and the Meteor. Next, he was transferred to the truck studio to work on the next generation of Ford trucks. He worked on exteriors, grills mouldings, and name plates on ‘64s, ‘65s, and ‘66s. Then he was transferred to the automotive interior studio, where he worked on small and intermediate cars. Finally, he was transferred back to the truck interior studio to work on big truck interiors and to improve the ergonomics. Robert Jones retired from Ford Motor Co. on January 1st, 1980.

About the Author

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oger F. Brown started out in the car business as a technician at Yadkin Valley Motor Co. in 1964 after graduating from Nashville Auto-Diesel College in Nashville, Tennessee. He has worked for several of the dealerships described in the book. He has been a technician, service manager, factory representative, and shop owner. For the last twenty-three years, he has been an automotive instructor at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, N.C. He is a graduate of Western Carolina University with a degree in occupational education. Writing this book is his “calling,” having entered the industry while the founders of these enterprises were still active and having personally known them as well as the second and third generation family members.

About the Book Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley highlights development of roads and transportation system in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The book delves into the arrival of the automobile in town and the springing up of auto dealerships, which were founded by entrepreneurial businessmen who built their struggling car dealerships into sound businesses by the beginning of World War II and survived the war despite having no new cars to sell. In addition, Wheels and Deals tells the story of the oldest Ford dealership in North Carolina, founded in 1915, in North Wilkesboro. The dealership is still in existence under the leadership of the founding family.

What the Readers Say Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley, authored by Roger Brown has been a pleasure for me to read. It gives a complete history of the automobile business in Wilkes County. — Bud Kilby, President, Yadkin Valley Motor Company.

Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley illustrates how Wilkes citizens have traveled from horse and buggy to modern days, and how they have developed their transportation systems. This book reflects on the entrepreneurship of individuals, companies, and the early struggles of car dealers. This is truly a tremendous asset to preserving the history of Wilkes County and Northwestern North Carolina. — Dennis Huggins, Wilkes County Heritage Museum.

Roger Brown has been an educational leader and instructor for twenty-three years in the excellent automotive program at Wilkes Community College. He is known for his research and knowledge of the automotive history in Wilkes County beginning with the early 1900’s, including the agencies selling and servicing automobiles from the early days up to the present day. His research is now compiled in a one of a kind book, Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley that preserves the rich history of the automobile dealerships in Wilkes County. — Dr. Fay Byrd, Director Learning Resources, Wilkes Community College.

Roger Brown’s book, Wheels and Deals in the Yadkin Valley, is a valuable asset to those interested in preserving a glimpse of history of Wilkes County. His meticulous research is rewarded by the wealth of information about the different Wilkes dealerships and the people involved. That beginning era of small locally owned and operated automobile dealerships in Wilkes is almost gone

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today. We are fortunate Brown chose to compile such a unique book of our heritage for our reflection today. — Libby Absher Brooks, Daughter of W.O. Absher, Partner/Secretary/Treasurer of Wilkes Auto Sales