AUTOMOBILES & GARAGES
by Ross W. Irwin

AUTOMOBILES

First car in Canada about 1898, by 1904 there were 600 and by 1907 2,000. Ford and McLaughlin started the next year. Citizens did not welcome the intrusion of horseless buggies.

The first Ontario license plate was of patent leather and issued to John Craig Eaton in 1903. The operator car license was pinned to your coat.

In Guelph, Louis Wideman is said to be first with a one cylinder affair of crude body type which seldom went on a trip. John McHardy, had the first real car he was a good mechanic to keep it in running order. McHardy built the first garage on Glasgow St. It was removed and a new brick garage replaced it.

The second car was brought from Buffalo on trial by George Williams and George Walker. They left Buffalo on a Friday afternoon and arrived in Guelph Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. It was equally troublesome. On June 10, 1906, Williams had an accident on Waterloo Avenue with a team of horses which ran into him.

James W. Lyon was another early motorist but had much trouble. George J. Thorp bought a Tudhope car made to resemble a buggy. Dr Angus McKinnon was the first doctor to have one in October 1906.

The Guelph Mercury reported, 14 Apr 1908, there were a couple of local automobiles on the streets today, taking advantage of the streets which are now pretty well dried up. Mr Matthews had his new runabout out and Doctor Howitt's war horse is again in running order. Spring motoring started in April. Cars were stored on wooden blocks for the winter.

As of May 8, 1913, an automobile replaced horses on the Erin-Guelph stage run. The automobile took 1.5 hours but horses took 4 hours for the trip.

The Guelph Automoble Club was organized, with the Ontario Motor League, June 13, 1910. The club, of 10 to 15 cars would run to the Erora rocks for a picnic. Even by 1912 car travel was still, to most people, more of a sport than a means of transportation - a summer sport, in fact, and one restricted to the rich, the eccentric, and the adventuresome.

The Guelph Motor League, formed in 1922, supplied standard road signs, and erected 188 by July 1923.

AUTOMOBILE GARAGES

If automobiles were scarce in those early days, garages, good mechanics, supply houses, and service stations, were scarcer.

Sam Laughlin Jr., an electrician, opened first garage in March 1908 and became an agent for Ford. The garage was the old blacksmith shop opposite the Crowe Foundry beside Norfolk Methodist Church on Norfolk St. Charles Nash was the mechanic. It was noted he sold a machine to Thomas Matthews, "a runabout of the smaller styles".

J.H. Johnston succeeded Laughlin as the Ford agency and opened a garage in the old Cork St Hotel stables. He later erected a building across street. Heber Little succeeded him as the Ford agent when Johnson retired in 1916.

Charley Moxley had been in the bicycle business on Perth St and opened a garage there. He became the agent for E.M.F., predecessor of Studebaker.

E.L.C. Browne, Ford agency, opened in May 1916 at 23-27 Cork St. He had winter storage for 40 cars. At the same time Verne and Stanley Tolton who were agents for the Russell car, formed the Guelph Motor Car Co. They opened the first big garage in the old Crowe Foundry on Norfolk St where J. H. McNally later had his Studebaker agency. He offered accommodation for 80 cars at the corner of Norfolk and Cambridge. They were agents for Chevrolet, Dodge and Chalmers cars. In 1916, cars are stored, cleaned and painted ready for spring use. On May 3, 1916 the Guelph Motor Car Co.received a railway carload of Chevrolet cars. Price $675.00 FOB Oshawa

Due to better refining, gasoline tank wagon price falllen from 16c to 9.5c (1915)

Jules Motor Co. had their Auto delivery car out for a demonstration December 11, 1911, and was utilized by J.A. McCrae, grocer. It went through mud on Gordon St subway and on Grange st. Delivered parcels to 386 residences, doing the work of 2 horse wagons.

1912 Automotive Road Guide listed only Moxley Motor Car Co. and Guelph Motor Car Co. The road to Kitchener was via Mossborough - Kitchener Road.

No pavement out of town - macadam roads - compacted crushed stone. The Toronto-Hamilton highway was paved in 1911.

The speed limit was 15 mph in town, 20 mph elsewhere, if you could stand it. Advised to stay off clay roads, steep hills and shaky bridges.

GARAGES AUTO REPAIR & STORAGE

Guelph Motor Car Co. Norfolk/Cambridge

Johnson's Garage 55 Wyndham

Royal City Garage 5 Trafalgar Sq.

McLaughlin Motor Car Co. 92-94 Macdonald

AUTOMOBILE SALES

Aubreybrook Bros 129 Woolwich

J.M. Johnson (Studebaker Agency) 27 Cork

Moxley Motor Co 18 Perth

James Reinhardt 16 Cork

SERVICE STATIONS (GASOLINE, ETC)

Crain 40 Cork

Durkin & Rechit? 132 Ontario

Marathon Service 154 Woolwich

Robin Hood Service Stn Woolwich/Norfolk

Tire Manufacturer was Partridge Rubber Co., 101 Queen W

Nov 27, 1919 - City Council - Public Works Committee - charge rent to local garage men $25 for the privilege of having lanes in front of their place of business and bond city against loss. Not pay then move off street.