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Not really a mystery

Not really a mystery

Not really a mystery

  • Not really a mystery
  • Not really a mystery

Do you know what the rest of the PreWarCar looks like when you see this (very muddy) wooden spoke wheel, mudguard and leaf springs? Use your imagination…

If you click on the second photograph, you see the answer to the question. The PreWarCar in the picture is a 1910-11 Stoddard-Dayton. The car belonged to jeweller Charles Wright and his artist wife, Cora Wright. You see them during one of their outings in the Redwoods in Humboldt County in 1913.

The photo was sent to us by Charles. He found an extensive album with pictures of tours around Humboldt and Del Norte Counties in Northern California in the early 1910s. Thank you very much Charles for sharing them with us! In the upcoming weeks, we show you more photos from the album.

Do you also have dusty old black and white photographs of PreWarCars? Do not throw them away! Please send them to office@prewarcar.com. We would love to see them!

Words by the editor. Photographs sent in by Charles A. Petty.

 

Published:
Friday January 1st, 2021

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Ace Zenek
31 December 2020, 17:03
Based on information from old California vehicle registration data I think the photo of the car in the first photo is a Lozier. See the attached photo for a snapshot of these documents. Using the California license plate shown in the first photo, we know that the car was purchased by the Wrights in 1913. Pre-1914 California used a sequential numbering system. The first use of license plate number was in March 1913, but the 1905 - 1913 registrations did not include the name of the vehicle manufacturer.

In 1914 California issued new license plates for the first time. Prior to this you had to provide your own license plate. These new registration information did include the manufacturer name. So by searching for the Wright's name and address in the 1914 vehicle registration data we come to license plate number 62902 and see the name Lozier for the marque. So based upon these two listings we likely see a 1913 Lozier. Hopefully this information solves the mystery of the automobile in the first photo.
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A. Bos
25 March 2019, 08:26
Interesting pair of photos! Raising however two questions for me. First, 14 wheel spokes in the rear wheel was an identifying feature for the Stoddard-Dayton, but not always (as seems to be the case here, although the second picture is not very helpful). Is there any Stoddard expert around who can tell if the 12 spoke rear wheels were used for a specific model or not? Second, the transverse rear spring doesn't seem to be a Stoddard-Dayton feature at all, but I'm not fully sure. Could the Stoddard expert help me out here too?
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