The Long & Winding Road – TheTransition from the Horse & Buggy tothe Automobile

Part One of the Historical Society of Easton’s Series on Transportation inEaston.

In the beginning, when man needed to move about the landscape, he walked.Everywhere. All the time.

By the time our ancestors arrived in Easton and Redding, they had either horses or oxento aid in their transportation from the towns along the coast out to their newly acquiredfarms in the hills. Horses had first been domesticated on the plains of northernKazakhstan some 5,200 years before the first settlers had arrived in the colony ofConnecticut in the late 1600’s and little had changed since.

When steam power was adapted to power the locomotives of the first railroads late inthe first half of the 19th century, inland transportation took a major leap forward. Withfast and reliable means to transport goods then available in many communities, industrybegan to flourish. The 1852 opening of the Danbury & Norwalk Railroad that ran alongthe western edge of Redding allowed the Gilbert & Bennett Manufacturing Company in

Georgetown to grow and produce more wire products. It also provided the lime quarry inWest Redding a better way to get its product to market. While the western part ofRedding flourished, growth of the businesses along the Aspetuck in both Redding andEaston was hampered due to the lack of rail lines that would have made transportingfinished goods to the seaports along Long Island Sound more economical and faster.

By the late 19th century, steam power was a proven commodity. It was consideredrelatively safe, extremely reliable, and by then, very familiar.

The first mechanized modes of personal transportation began appearing on America’sroads in the late 1890’s. The earliest motorcycles were not much more than motorizedbicycles, and the first automobiles were powered by a variety of methods ranging fromsteam to electric to gasoline. Most early builders were located in small shops thatproduced only a handful of vehicles that were engineered and designed by the men whobuilt them. Some of the earliest models changed with each subsequent build as themakers experimented with different engines, gearing, suspensions, steering, and brakes.

By the turn of the century, there were hundreds of different brands being builtthroughout America. Very few would survive more than a few years at best. Building anautomobile that could withstand the rigors of traversing a patchwork of cart pathsoriginally meant for horse and ox drawn wagons was much more challenging than mostentrepreneurs with dreams of speed and utility could handle.

Many of the earliest automobiles were powered by steam. Steam powered autos coulddeliver massive amounts of torque without the need for additional gearing. Maintaininga constant speed on varied terrain was not an issue. Steam power was also extremelyquiet. And steam powered automobiles were capable of obtaining speeds that farexceeded the capability of early roads to handle it. In 1906, a Stanley set a record forsteam powered automobiles by covering a one-mile run in only 28.2 seconds. Thatrecord would stand until 2009!

While not all states had passed legislation requiring the registration of automobiles by1902, those that had recorded 485 out of the 902 vehicles registered that year werepowered by steam. During the years of 1898 and 1899, twin brothers, Francis andFreelan Stanley built and sold 200 steam powered automobiles in New England. Afterselling the rights to build their steam powered vehicle to Bridgeport’s LocomobileCompany in 1899, the Stanley brothers re-entered the automobile business a few yearslater with a larger and more powerful steam powered vehicle – the well known StanleySteamer. Locomobile built steam powered vehicles until it switched to the gasolinepowered internal combustion engine in 1903.

1899 Locomobile Steam Car

Also a major producer and seller of steam powered vehicles during the early years of the20th century was the White Motor Company. In 2019, Redding resident Mitch Gross ranhis 109-year old White MM Pullman steam powered touring car in the famed Peking toParis Motor Challenge. There were a total of 106 crews that competed in the 8,500 mile36 day event. It was perhaps the longest journey ever completed by a steam car andowner/driver Gross offered this assessment of the achievement: “We set a world distancerecord for steam powered cars but had to have three engine rebuilds on the way. Wealso almost ran out of fire extinguishers. But, with the help of our great support crew wemade it.”

Redding resident Mitch Gross’ 1910 White Steam Car during the 2019 Peking to ParisChallenge. The 109 year-old automobile completed the 8,500 mile journey despite itsage!

While steam power certainly had some major advantages, it also had one majordrawback – one that would eventually knock it out of contention for long-term use. In

order to build enough steam to power an automobile, the boiler needed to be fired aboutthirty minutes prior to driving away. Early steamers mainly used gasoline to fire theboiler until about 1910 when most switched to the less expensive, easier to obtain, andfar less volatile kerosene. There were more than a few steamers over the years thatcaught fire while their boilers were heating up the water to produce enough steam.

Electric vehicles were perfect for city use. By the turn of the last century, most majorcities had a good power grid and electricity was readily available. Electric cabsdominated early horseless taxis in New York and London. They were quiet – so theydidn’t spook the horses that most folks still used through the early years of the twentiethcentury. Like steam powered automobiles, they also didn’t require transmissions thatneeded shifting between gears, and they were exceedingly easy to start – no crankingneeded! Simply turn on the switch and use the throttle to accelerate.

The drawbacks to electric power were basically the same as they are in today’s world: ashort range (back then approximately 25 to 30 miles), a lengthy recharging time, and aprice that sometimes ran as much as three times their gasoline counterparts. In 1912,Ford sold its Model T for $650, while the average price of an electrically poweredautomobile that year was $1,750. As prices of gasoline powered automobiles declined,sales of electric powered cars followed suit.

However, the largest obstacle to high sales volumes of electric vehicles was the fact thatother than in the cities, there were very few electrical transmission lines in ruralAmerica. Living in the country was not at all conducive to owning an electric vehicle.Redding summer resident, Walther Luttgen, had the rare distinction of owning andoperating an electric vehicle in the country. Luttgen’s Detroit Electric’s batteries wererecharged by the electricity his windmill driven generator provided, as Sunset Hillwouldn’t be fully electrified until well into the 1930’s.

Walther Luttgen on his Villa Linta Estate on Sunset Hill in his Detroit Electric runabout.He recharged his car’s batteries using a wind powered generator.

The early internal combustion engine presented major challenges to those wishing touse it as their source of power. The first gasoline engines were small with limitedamounts of power that required a geared transmission that would allow the engine tobuild enough momentum and torque to move an automobile loaded with passengers.

Gasoline engines were also difficult to start. They needed to be cranked by hand to turnthe crankshaft enough to compress a mixture of air and fuel to the point where it wouldexplode when the magneto provided each cylinder with its “spark” at just the rightmoment. Just starting the engine required moving the spark lever to advance or delaythe timing of the firing of the spark plugs, ensuring that the engine would start and thenrun smoothly. If the fuel & air mixture wasn’t adjusted to the proper level and the sparktiming set just right, the cranking motion could suddenly be reversed if the enginebackfired – causing many drivers to experience broken thumbs, wrists or even arms. Inaddition, depending on driving conditions, adjustments of the timing were oftennecessary throughout the drive. It wasn’t until 1911 that electric starters beganappearing on some of the more expensive automobiles, but by 1914, those starters were

available on just about every model made in America.

Unlike their electric and steam counterparts, internal combustion engines were noisyand produced noxious fumes. While not a huge problem out in the country, it was adefinite nuisance to both city dwellers and their poor horses. Many a horse spooked byan early encounter with a gasoline powered automobile bolted and either threw its rideror caused the driver of the wagon it was pulling to lose control. Almost as soon asgasoline powered cars began selling in numbers, mufflers began appearing on thevehicles to alleviate much of the noise issue.

Another major drawback to the gasoline engine was the lack of infrastructure forsupplying the fuel it needed to operate. While it could go many miles on a tank of fuel,when that fuel ran low, it needed to be refilled. It would take a number of years beforeenough places began pumping and selling gasoline to make automobiles with internalcombustion engines a viable commodity.

But by 1905, gasoline powered automobiles began to dominate. The discovery of largedeposits of oil in Texas made fuel extremely cheap. In addition, the price to build agasoline powered car made it affordable to a growing number of middle-classAmericans. Gasoline pumps began appearing in front of just about every general store inthe country. Making refueling easy and cheap gave the internal combustion engine theadvantage it had needed to make it the power plant of choice of just about everyautomaker in the world.

Automobiles in Easton & Redding

Today, we all think of Easton and Redding as rather affluent communities. Audi’s,BMW’s, and pricy Jeeps seem to dominate the automotive landscape. 110 years ago, thatwouldn’t have been the case.

Many Easton’s wealthiest farmers continued to prefer their elegant carriages to thenoisy new automobile. Pictured here with his custom built carriage is Sylvanus Mallett,owner of the Sweetbriar farm on Sport Hill Road.

Both towns were dominated by agriculture – hardly a lucrative venture. The averagefarmer couldn’t have afforded to purchase a newfangled horseless carriage even if hehad wanted to. And quite frankly, most had not the desire to own something so limited inits capabilities. And neither did some of the more wealthy industrialists who had summerresidences in Easton and Redding. One of the directors of Standard Oil – a company thatby 1910 was making millions of dollars refining oil and making gasoline – FrederickSturges, who lived on Burr Street detested automobiles, “The only time I ride in a car isin a taxicab in New York, and then I take my heart in my hand every time I do it.” Hardlya ringing endorsement for the product that used all that gasoline his company wasrefining.

Not all Easton residents were interested in transitioning from the horse and buggy to theautomobile. 1909 photo taken just before the Sport Hill Races that year.

Automobiles were fair-weather, summer and autumn only vehicles. Early canvas topswere more for keeping the sun off the occupants of an automobile than keeping the rainout. Many cars of the day weren’t even available with side curtains. Cabin heaters didn’texist. A man or woman operating a horse drawn sleigh could have kept themselveswrapped up in a heavy blanket – they needed only to have their arms and hands free tohold the reins that guided the horse. It would have been difficult for the driver of anautomobile to keep warm in the same manner. Constant movement of the legs and feetwere needed to use the clutch and brakes, and it took both hands to steer when onehand wasn’t being used to shift the gears or adjust the throttle that was mounted at thecenter of the steering wheel.

Bridgeport Businessman Jesse B. Cornwall in his 1906 Locomobile at his summerresidence “Oak Knoll” in Redding. Like many summer residents of Redding and Easton,this automobile didn’t appear in the official Connecticut Registry of Motor Vehicles asbeing registered in Redding. Instead, it was registered at his winter residence inBridgeport. Cornwall drove one of his other automobiles, a De Dion Bouton, in the 1908Sport Hill Race to win in the Light Gasoline Class.

Early autos required tire chains for traction – not for driving in the snow, but rather fordriving in the mud. Prior to WWI, local roads would have never seen a snowplow duringthe winter. Instead, the snow would have been packed by stone laden runner-lesswooden sleds or rolled with horse drawn heavy rollers. This allowed horses to pullsleighs and oxen to pull heavy wagons. The narrow tires on early automobiles weremostly useless in making it up area hills covered with snow and ice. If you owned anautomobile in 1910 Easton or Redding, you parked it in the barn sometime aroundThanksgiving and left it there until sometime after Easter.

Early 20th century Easton and Redding roads were not conducive to the operation ofmost early automobiles. In addition to the mud, they were extremely dusty during thesummer months. All those early motoring photos you’ve seen show both drivers andpassengers wearing long coats, hats, and goggles even in the best of weather. That wasto keep their suits, skirts, shirts, and blouses from becoming caked in dirt and dust asthey merrily traversed the countryside. Imagine wearing that many clothes when thesummer temperatures approached 90 degrees.

Most will recall the famous Sport Hill Races of the early 20th century. The first race washeld in 1902 and only attracted a handful of spectators and a like number of racers. Butby 1908, the crowds were enormous, and the race drew a record entry of fifty-nineautomobiles. That was over seven times the total number of automobiles that wereproperly registered with the State of Connecticut in Easton and Redding combined!!!The official Connecticut registry of motor vehicles for Easton and Redding that year was8 automobiles and one motorcycle.

1908 Sport Hill Race Winner Al Poole in his Isotta

Undoubtedly, one of the reasons those early races drew such a large crowd was theopportunity for many local residents to see makes such as Peerless, Winton, and Isottathat almost none of them could have afforded to purchase. In 1908, the automobile wasstill a rare commodity in both towns. Even someone as wealthy and famous as SamuelClemens hadn’t yet embraced the idea of owning an automobile. Only one individual,Senator Lester O. Peck who resided on Sunset Hill in Redding owned two registeredautomobiles.

In 1916, prior to WWI, the lower prices attributed to the assembly line mass productionthat began in 1913 with Henry Ford’s venerable Model T led to a total of 16 vehiclesbeing registered in the Town of Easton. Nine of them were Ford T-Models. EmilyDisbrow of Sport Hill Road owned the town’s most powerful automobile rated at 32 HP –a 1909 Inter-State Touring car. Ezra Seeley owned a 27 HP Overland and future TownClerk Arthur Wheeler had given up his motorcycle after his marriage to Mary Ferris andbought himself a 22 HP Buick.

When answering the 1917 Military Census, the majority of the young men living inEaston and Redding answered “Yes” to the questions about their ability to ride a horseand handle a team, but “No” to the query about their ability to drive an automobile.While automobiles had then been around in significant numbers since the middle of thefirst decade of the 20th century, they were still a long way from becoming common inmuch of rural Fairfield County.

Vehicle ownership increased rapidly after WWI. As the automobile became moreaffordable and Americans prospered during the roaring ‘20’s, the better managed andmore successful manufacturers began to merge and improvements in both engineeringand assembly made automobiles inexpensive and reliable enough for most folks inEaston and Redding to own.

Coming soon: What if the railroad had come to the Aspetuck Valley? How much differentmight Easton look today?

Author’s note: Welcome Redding readers. As part of the Courier’s HistoryCorner, we will now be including historical events that pertain to Redding aswell as Easton. Until someone is willing and able to revive some form of the oldRedding Pilot, we will supply historical information & stories as they relate toboth towns.