Harry Hause’s First Car
Octavius Bull, Harry Hause’s First Car, 1905. Courtesy of Chester County History Center, West Chester, PA
This is one of my very favorite photographs from the collection at the Chester County History Center in West Chester, PA. Harry Hause ran the general store in the crossroads village of Marsh in rural E. Nantmeal Township along the Conestoga Turnpike. It was the only place for miles around that you could get a bag of chicken feed, a new rake or a spool of thread. Harry must have done a good business because he purchased the car seen here. It was the very first one in the neighborhood. On the day when it arrived the whole family and the neighbors piled in to take a ride. It was a totally new feeling speeding along the unpaved road at about 10 mph!
To my delight I found the registration for Harry Hause’s car in the Automobile Registry Book for 1903-1905 at the Chester County Archives in West Chester, PA. After 1906 the state began keeping the registration records. I discovered Harry registered the car made by Cadillac Auto Company on April 1, 1905! So now we have a date for the photograph seen here taken by Octavius Bull, printed on Photo Postcard paper. Harry may have sent these out to friends to proudly notify them of his new machine.
The Automobile Registry Book is a gold mine of information for the few years that it covers. Many familiar names were there among the first county residents who owned automobiles. Among them were businessman P. M. Sharples of the Sharples Cream Separator Co. who first purchased a Baker Electric car in 1904 and a Packard in 1905. He was definitely ahead of his time. President of Parkesburg Iron Company, Horace A. Beale, Jr. registered eight cars, from six different manufacturers, several from local maker Autocar Company. He built his own auto racing track on his property.
It was amazing to see how many people designed and built their own cars. B. D. Murdaugh, Stephen C. Black and A. Roberts Sharples all of West Chester registered models of their own making. Josephine Roberts of Allerton Farm outside West Chester, bought an Oldsmobile in 1904 to assist with her errands and was the first woman to register a car. Photographer Joseph Belt of West Chester bought a Ford Model 920 in May of 1904. He had been hired by the court to photograph accidents and crime scenes and needed transportation he could rely on at any hour of the day or night. It was a lot quicker to crank up a Ford than to harness a sleepy horse!
