Pictures From our Past-
The Automobile comes To south Texas
1912 - 1918- Revised Sept. 2003
© Copyright 2000, Harold Arnold- All Rights Reserved
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Automobiles were being seen on the streets of San Antonio since before the turn of the century. Yet during the first several years of the Edward Arnold album (1908 - c1912) there are no pictures of motorized vehicles. The only pictures of vehicles were various horse drawn wagons and even a 1908 picture of an 18th century style ox cart making its way west on E. Houston street between the Alamo and the Post Office. The first appearance in the album of an apparently motorized vehicle came in 1912. This picture (to the left) has the earmarks of a "do it yourself" project involving the installation of a gasoline motor and steering mechanism in an old farm wagon. The setting is Lissie, Texas on the Southern Pacific Railroad about 150 miles east of San Antonio. One of the daughters of August and Julia Arnold had married a man named Causey. This branch of the family moved to Lissie and became prosperous rice farmers. The San Antonio branch made several visits including one in 1909 to attend a meeting of the Evangelical Church. This picture was made 3 years later as it is hand dated, "Lissie, June 1912." |
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the San Antonio family began to appear in the album about the same time
perhaps 1912 and certainly by 1914. The picture to the right is an
early family vehicle, definitely pre WW I. Doubtlessly the
proud owner of this slick new machines was from the Zirkel branch.
I do not know the make of the pictured vehicle. The plate near the top of the front reads 1914. I suppose this may have been a license plate indicating it was licensed for that year. Perhaps the practice of including a plate with a large, readable, distinctive identifying number had not yet become customary. The headlights burn acetylene. Note the right hand steering system and the two seat configuration. The driver in this case seems dressed in ordinary street dress, but the woman in the back seat is wearing what has the appearance of a veil of some type. It is probably a duster with a headpiece to keep road dust from her hair |
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| I think the machine in the
next pictures is a different vehicle. To me it appears shorter
with just a single two passenger front seat. Again the
vehicle is operated from the right side. Somehow the engine
cover appears different from vehicle in the previous picture. The
cylindrical tank on the running board was probable for the acetylene
gas required for the headlights.
I know most roads outside of the city were unpaved, but somehow I would be afraid to drive very fast in this car, particularly on a wet pavement. The treadless smooth oval tires would seem to offer little in the way of ability to hold the road or to quickly brake in an emergency. Also the simple mechanical brakes would seem most inadequate. Hydraulic braking systems were not common until the 1930's. I think this picture was taken in front of one of the family homes on Monumental street on the near east side of San Antonio. It probably is not my grandparents house at #217, but the gentleman standing on the left side may be my Grandfather Edward Arnold and the woman in the front seat my Grandmother Lula Arnold. |
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| Here is a picture of another new car. The steering, quite clearly from the enlargement, is still from the right side. This vehicle appears to be larger than those in the previous pictures, and it has a windshield; and is that a fold down canvas top in the rear barely discernable in the fading near century old image? I count at least 9 people including a woman with a baby gathered around the vehicle. |
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The handwritten note across
the bottom of this picture says, "Sunday Afternoon in the new
Dodge." It is undated but the fact that three of the five
male occupants are wearing army uniforms establishes its vintage as one
of the war years, 1916, 17, or 18. The civilian in the light
colored suit on the running board is Harold Henry Arnold. The
driver, also a civilian, is unidentified
It appears from the picture that the steering wheel is located on the left side. In all of the previous pictures steering was from the right-hand side. |
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The final picture is surely another shot of the Dodge here fording a river or flooded creek. When this picture was made the Dodge was perhaps not quite so new, but it was not later than 1918. The enlargement clearly indicates the presence of a tow line from the shore to the guy perched atop the hood. It is difficult of say exactly what is going on here. Perhaps he is in the act of attaching the line to the front of the car so that a team of mules hitched to the other end could pull the vehicle from the river There appears to be no one in the drivers seat at the time the picture was taken. Yet the other passengers do not seem very concern |
| I think the last
picture gives us a view of how the family used their
automobiles. In addition to routine City trips, they took Sunday
afternoon drives in the country. The picture above could have been
less that 25 miles from their homes near downtown San Antonio.
There are other pictures of family groups at several of the 18the
century Spanish missions on the outskirts of the city and one picture of
the group perched over a large roadside advertising sign. In other
pictures the group is at places I recognized today as located within 25
to 50 miles of the city though none of these actually picture
automobiles in the view.
The family was soon using the automobile for longer trips such as the 150 mile trip to the beach at Corpus Christi. I know they were using automobiles for these vacation trips at least by in the early 1920's because my father in the late 1930's told of the earlier years when the road was yet unpaved and how they would have to stop to fix flats or free the vehicle stuck in the loose sand or mud. These stories were our fare as we whizzed along the narrow 2-lane but smoothly paved U.S. Highway 181 in the 1938 Chevy bound for the same Corpus Christi beach destination. Yes by 1918 the automobile was firmly rooted in the South Texas culture, and as WW I ended it was poised to become the dominant cultural force in the peace time years that followed. |
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