Statewide County, SD History - Books .....Automobiles 1925 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/sd/sdfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 15, 2007, 8:06 pm Book Title: Doane Robinson's Encyclopedia Of South Dakota Automobiles. The first "horseless carriage" to be brought into South Dakota was a Haynes electric driven "democrat wagon" exhibited at the State fair at Yankton in 1897 by Montgomery Ward & Company, secured for the occasion through the initiative of the editor of the Yankton Daily Gazette. An electric motor installed under the seat drove the car by chain transmission to the rear axle. The fair management advertised it as "The Wonder of the Century." It operated very satisfactorily and had the trick of turning around within the length of the wagon. The following winter (1898) Louis Greenough, a hardware merchant of Pierre, who was a steam-fitter by trade, and Harry Adams, a machinist, devoted their spare time to planning a horseless wagon, and by spring had the proposition fairly worked out and detailed plans made. At that time they were employed to install a two cylinder, internal combustion engine (manufactured by the Wolverine Marine Engine Company, of Detroit) upon the ranch of Charles K. Howard, at Smithville on the Cheyenne River. They concluded that that engine was best designed for their purpose, and Mr. Adams went to Detroit and had an engine built particularly designed for their horseless wagon. A foundry-man at Elkhart, Indiana, built the wagon for them and by mid-summer (Mr. Greenough having joined Adams in Indiana) they had an automobile in operation and running successfully. It was a strong wagon with seats for the driver and seven passengers; the engine tucked under the rear seat with chain transmission to the rear axle. They shipped it by freight to Pierre, intending to use it to transport passengers from Pierre to the Black Hills. When they arrived in Chicago it was necessary to transfer the machine across town from one depot to the other, which they did under its own power and the exhibition created vast interest. They were offered a high price for their invention, which they promptly refused. When they tried out the wagon at Pierre they found it unable to climb the hills on the Black Hills trail, the power being insufficient; but it ran steadily upon fairly level roads. They resolved to exhibit it at the fairs, hoping for profit in carrying passengers; but everywhere the authorities were hostile. At Mitchell they were not permitted to bring it within the corporation limits. They went on to Yankton and applied for license to exhibit it at the State Fair and to transport passengers from the city to the fair grounds, but this was refused. "The Press and Dakotan" voiced the general view when it was said, "It is a dead moral certainty that that infernal machine will frighten horses and endanger the lives of men, women and children." Defeated at every turn, they shipped the wagon back to the foundry to have greater power put into it; but they had exhausted their resources and could go no further. In 1899 Harry C. Fenn brought a one cylinder Winton two passenger car to Sioux Falls and operated it there,— the first practicable automobile owned in South Dakota. In January, 1899, Dr. A. D. Hard, of Wentworth, ordered a "Stanley Standard Carriage, Stanhope, Model 1," of the Mobile Company of America, for which he paid $650. f. o. b., Tarrytown, New York. It was not delivered to him until September, two months after the Fenn car reached Sioux Falls. It was destroyed by fire soon after. Thereafter automobiles came in quite rapidly so that they were exhibited in every portion of the State east of the Missouri. There is no record of the number of motor vehicles until after the passage of the license act of 1913, which became effective, July 1, that year: 1913 14,437 1914 20,929 1915 28,725 1916 44,257 1917 67,154 1918 86,157 1919 104,157 1920 120,395 1921 119,274 1923 132,704 1924 131,165 The first automobile to be driven into the Black Hills from the Missouri River was a one-cylinder Cadillac, in April, 1905, by Senator Peter Norbeck, accompanied by Oscar W. Nicholson and Ole Iverson. The roads were wet, there were no bridges and the enterprise was a trying one; from dawn to sunset they made but 88 miles; at the Cheyenne River three cowboys kindly attached their lariats to the car and putting spurs to their horses crossed the stream on a gallop, over a rocky bottom; but the machine was not injured. Motor vehicles are required to secure a State license and as evidence of the same bear numbers assigned by the State conspicuously upon each vehicle. The license fee is in lieu of all taxation upon the vehicle. The money received is paid into the highway funds of the state and counties. There were 131,165 motor vehicles licensed in 1924. The numbers of the license plates for each county are arranged by the following schedule, by which means it is easy to identify a machine. Observe that with the counties arranged alphabetically the license number is the number of the county in the alphabetical list plus one, down to Moody; thence to the end of the list the plate number corresponds to the county number: Minnehaha 1-1000 Minnehaha 1A-1000 Aurora 2-1000 Beadle 3-1000 Bennett 4-1000 Bon Homme 5-1000 Brookings 6-1000 Brown 7-1000 Brule 8-1000 Buffalo 9-1000 Butte 10-1000 Campbell 11-1000 Charles Mix 12-1000 Clark 13-1000 Clay 14-1000 Codington 15-1000 Corson 16-1000 Custer 17-1000 Davison 18-1000 Day 19-1000 Deuel 20-1000 Dewey 21-1000 Douglas 22-1000 Edmunds 23-1000 Fall River 24-1000 Faulk 25-1000 Grant 26-1000 Gregory 27-1000 Haakon 28-1000 Hamlin 29-1000 Hand 30-1000 Hanson 31-1000 Harding 32-1000 Hughes 33-1000 Hutchinson 34-1000 Hyde 35-1000 Jackson 36-1000 Jerauld 37-1000 Jones 38-1000 Kingsbury 39-1000 Lake 40-1000 Lawrence 41-1000 Lincoln 42-1000 Lyman 43-1000 McCook 44-1000 McPherson 45-1000 Marshall 46-1000 Meade 47-1000 Mellette 48-1000 Miner 49-1000 Moody 50-1000 Pennington 51-1000 Perkins 52-1000 Potter 53-1000 Roberts 54-1000 Sanborn 55-1000 Spink 56-1000 Stanley 57-1000 Sully 58-1000 Tripp 59-1000 Turner 60-1000 Union 61-1000 Walworth 62-1000 Yankton 63-1000 Ziebach 64-1000 Additional Comments: Extracted from: DOANE ROBINSON'S Encyclopedia of South Dakota FIRST EDITION Published by the Author PIERRE 1925 COPYRIGHT BY DOANE ROBINSON. 1925 WILL A. BEACH PRINTING COMPANY PRINTERS AND BINDERS SIOUX FALLS File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/sd/state/history/1925/doanerob/automobi285gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/sdfiles/ File size: 7.5 Kb