John Dodge's Ford six (Model K) is stolen in Detroit in September, 1908.
Being a respected businessman and city official, what is a person to do? In this case, you call your brother and "go looking." Of course, you take your revolver, just in case.....
"Detroit Free Press" September 7, 1908
But not to worry, all ends well for "da boys."
I wonder if Henry Ford was nervous every time he knew the Dodge's were "out on the town?
Another Dodge brothers "night out" with a Ford agent story. Rated PG for "moderate violence":
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uee5cigk7txo8z9/Dodge%20Brothers%20out%20on%20the%20Town.pdf
Ah, the good old days.
I forgot to mention, the brakes on a Model K shouldn't be good enough to "throw" out the boy mentioned above. I think there may have been a little "roadside justice", but I'm just guessing....
God knows we could use a lot of that now...
At the Gillmore Red Barn"s collection in a spot where 4 or 5 Dodge Brs cars are parked there is a plackard which reads-[The Dodge Brs once took a fellows crutches and beat him with them!!] Bud.
The cutting says they "worked over Dupius for 20 minutes before he recovered consciousness". Where I come from, 'worked over' implies something other than tender care!
The old west where horse thieves were hung weren't so many years in the past in 1908. Have you seen any news stories about lynchings of car thieves back in those auto pioneer days?
I once heard a story which involved "The Brothers" and a local tavern proprietor.
It came to the attention of John and Horace that one of their immigrant production line workers, who was illiterate, was being bilked of most of his pay by an unscrupulous tavern keeper near the plant in Hamtramck, Mich.
Upon hearing this, "The Brothers" decided to pay a little visit to the tavern to straighten things out.
So, after breaking every mirror (apparently the Brothers weren't superstitious) and every piece of furniture in the establishment, they gave the proprietor a stern warning to never mess with another Dodge employee again.
I wonder if the C.E.O. of the company I work for (and I work for a BIG one) would go to bat for me like that? I think not.
Interesting to see that a kid knew how to start and drive a car back in 1908!
Kerry. And crank starting a K isn't "kid's play"
Click on the link above to read about a saloon where the Dodges pulled a gun on the owner.....
Rob,
What would you do to a Model K to make it a "$5,000 automobile"?
Tom,
That's what led me to this story ($5000 "special" Model K. I hope to find a photo of it some day. Maybe Dodge archives (if they exist) will show us pics of the cars John and Horace drove before they started Dodge Bros.
Rob
The other day "100 Years Ago in the Traveler" mentioned a recent meeting of the AHTA. Frontier days were a recent memory and the Fifth Amendment was taken less seriously than it is today.
C.M. Scott, the Traveler's first editor, reported on a horse thief caught near Elgin:
He found a rope, and picked it up, and walked with it away.
It chanced that to the other end a horse was hitched, they say.
They took a rope and tied it up onto a swinging limb.
It happened that the other end was somehow hitched to him.
To answer Roger, I'm surprised by the number of lynchings that show up (most in the south) in the 1904-1909 timeframe I've looked at news articles.
Steve, yes, it seems "mob rights" frequently outweighed "individual rights" back then. I suppose that seems OK, unless you, or a friend/relative end up on the wrong end of the rope.
I thought this one appropriate. A Sheriff may be charged with speeding, at the urging of a lynch mob for whisking their intended guest away:
In this account, a motorist who helps an injured women is almost lynched due to the mob not understanding what transpired: