Donnie's search for a Petit Jean Tire caused me to go digging a little bit. Who was Petit Jean and where did the automotive connection come from? I hear about the swap every year and have seen pictures of the park, along with some great stories.

The Legend of Petit Jean is a romantic Arkansas tale that purports to explain the origin of the name of Petit Jean Mountain. Although there are other explanations that are both more logical and more mundane, when someone refers to “The Legend of Petit Jean,” the person is most likely alluding to the romantic one.
According to the story, in the 1700s, a young French girl named Adrienne (or, more specifically, Adrienne Dumont) disguised herself as a cabin boy named Jean in order to follow her beloved to the New World. Because of her small size, the other sailors nicknamed her “Petit Jean,” French for “Little John.” At some point after arriving in Arkansas, Petit Jean became ill, although the exact nature of her illness remains unclear. One source implies that she contracted swamp fever while nursing her lover back to health from that disease; another lists symptoms—“fever, convulsions, delirium, and finally coma”—but only says that her malady was “strange to Chavet and his sailors.” Whatever her illness might have been, her identity was revealed. Unfortunately, she succumbed to the illness, died, and was subsequently buried atop the mountain now called Petit Jean. More info at: "Arkansas History and Culture http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=347 4

So where the tires come from? Attached are a few bits and pieces starting with the dispersal of PJA equipment and the start of Universal Vintage Tire.
"1968 marked the beginning of Universal Vintage Tire with the acquisition of the PJA (Petit Jean Attractions) tire molds and factory equipment. Since then our goal has been to provide a full line of tires to compliment all of the finest antique and classic automobiles in the world. Located in Hershey Pennsylvania, the home and national headquarters of the AACA and their museum, Universal Vintage Tire is now a leading worldwide supplier of quality tire products for the auto enthusiast." (Stolen from Universals home page)

Then I ran acrossed an ACCA thread that had quite a bit of info that starts with the 11th post in the thread listed below.
http://forums.aaca.org/topic/162442-early-car-hobby-antique-tires/?tab=comments# comment-782634

John has pretty well summed up the "legend of Petit Jean".

The top of Petit Jean Mountain is also the site of Petit Jean state park, our first state park in Arkansas. Winthrop Rockefeller, governor of Arkansas during the 1960s (I do not remember the exact years) lived atop Petit Jean mountain, his property adjoining the state park. He also started the Petit Jean swap meet and also the Museum of Automobiles during the 50s 60s era as his "Fathers day picnic" Back then the entire swap meet was a little area in the woods next to the museum. It has grown thru the years to have over a thousand swap meet spaces and a nice car show. It is the largest show and swap meet in Arkansas

In the basement of the museum is where the tires were made. I do not know for how long they made them, but it was several years. When they started to liqudate a lot of the excess and not used parts and cars is when I believe Universal Tires bought all the tire making equipment. At that time is when the P.J.A. tire molds were lost. No one really knows where the molds went to, but it is an accepted belief they went to the scrap yard in Morrilton AR. with a lot of the unsold parts cars. More than likely Universal Tire did not see a "saleable" product in the P.J.A. tires and just left the molds for them at the museum to sell as scrap.

They also made other tires. I believe they had the "Firestone" molds, the "Non Skid" molds, and made some smooth and white tires that at the time were no longer being made, so Rockefeller had the equipment there to just make his own tires. But they also sold some tires. They never were a very big production business.

Im hoping to find a few examples of the tires to save and keep in the area before they all are lost to time ...

have fun and be safe ........

Thanks to Bill and JD. Here are a couple pics of the logo on the Petit Jean Tires.

smooth tire


white rubber tire

Donnie, when I arrived at Little Rock AFB in July of 1963, Orval Faubus was governor. When I left in July of 1967, Winthrop Rockefeller was governor. That sent me to Google, where I see that Rockefeller was governor from January 1967 to January 1971. Winthrop was Nelson's brother.

Thanks, I thought it was the "late 60s era" but I was just "too lazy" to google it ...

John Steel - Very interesting thread. Living where I do, in the extreme upper left-hand corner of the lower 48, the name Petit Jean was a name I never heard of until I became a regular "subscriber" of the forum. The only thing I have not been able to find out is how to correctly pronounce the name Petit Jean. But then, I probably should just do a little more "digging" on the internet,....harold

Harold the Petit part is pronounced like pet it (think of pet you dog (pet it) the Jean part is pronounced like in "blue jeans" (just not plural)

I have a very hard time spelling Petit like they do. My grandmothers maiden name is Petitt (with two ts) So all my family on grandmas side, use the name Petitt spelled with two ts. It drives me crazy that everyone else in Arkansas spell Petit with one T.

Thank you so much Donnie! Now I know,....not that I was losing any sleep over this, but it did bother me that every time the name "Petit Jean" came up on the forum, it made me wish I was sure just how to pronounce it.

Actually, I really did do a bit of "digging" on the internet, ref the correct pronunciation, and all I found was that Wikipedia explained "how the locals pronounced it", which left some doubt in my mind as to the "correct" way to pronounce the name. That's because I know of many place names here in the Pacific Northwest that are regularly mis-pronounced, just because,......well,......."just because"! Thanks again Donnie,.....harold

AACA Link

Report post x #11
Posted January 11, 2011
I remember early on that the museum in Arkansas was selling tires, for some reason I think they made them in the basement? It was a museum owned by a Rockefeller at the time, on Petit Jean Mountain in Morillton (?SP?). I seem to remember the tires were PJA brand. This would have been in the 1960's, when, as mentioned, only a few tire sizes were available, and very few, for the early cars.

I have a 1910 Hudson fore-door roadster that suffered the "change wheel" fate. Luckily, the original hubs were kept, but it was switched over with demountable rims for a 30x3.5 tire, a tire too small to hold the weight of the car.....


Report post x #12
Posted January 11, 2011
This thread is a very interesting read. Being born in '56, I had no idea about the tire issue during WWII. Thank you for the history lesson.


Report post x #13
Posted January 11, 2011 (edited)
David is correct~~~

Winthrop Rockefeller the grandson of John D., and brother of Nelson, indeed did start a car museum.

In fact he bought the collections of several early collectors as the starting basis of his museum. The James Melton collection was but one collection that he bought.

Rockefeller did in fact start an early antique tire production business from his museum's basement !

All tires were made to order !

Dad once told me that Winthrop in fact lost money on every tire that he made and sold~~~ And he really did not care as he produced tires for the love of the Antique car hobby !

Winthrop Rockefeller is often forgotten today.

He was a true pioneer in the Antique car hobby movement .


Report post x #14
Posted January 12, 2011
trimacar said:
I seem to remember the tires were PJA brand.
The logo on the tires was/is PJA Pneumatic with the logo of the museum between the "PJA" and "Pnuematic".

The molds for this venture were purchased from Gehrig.

As a side note there was a Mercer at the 2010 Pebble Beach that completed the driving portion of the tour with dual spares and all 6 tires were PJA Pnuematics.


Report post x #15
Posted January 12, 2011
For many years we attended the Petit Jean Mountain Swap Meet, hosted by MOTAA, Mid-America Old Time Auto Association, held on the grounds of the museum which housed the Winthrop Rockefeller collection - I still have my swap and car corral spaces.

The tire molds in the basement of the building reminded me of when my Mom's uncle made military tires during WWII, and recapped tires for local folks in the Linden/Edison, Colonia/Iselin, NJ area for years after the war. The aroma of those days is still in my mind's nostrils.

The Rockefeller Ranch hosted many great parties, and while we were not necessarily invited, I did inadvertantly attend one.

The ranch was famous for its Santa Gertrudis cattle.


Report post x #16
Posted January 12, 2011
I have a set of 4 (all white) on my 1914 Grant roadster. These are clincher type on wire wheels. I have replaced all of the tubes but the only replacement tires that i have found are made in Vietnam.

These old tires are a bit of a concern "at speed". From past experience it's quite possible to

end up in a soybean field if not careful.


Report post x #17
Posted January 12, 2011
Wow, very cool to read! Being 30, I also had no idea about any of this!

I won't complain about the cost of the Coker repro Firestones on my '56 :D Actually t be honest, I thought they were almost cheap. I pay more for the modern tires on my Trans Am.


Report post x #18
Posted January 12, 2011
As asked what the "S3" stood for, it was some of the first synthetic tires. These were crap from the start. A lot were taken off cars and pick ups when fairly new and put on farm trailers.



Report post x #19
Posted January 12, 2011 (edited)
Silverghost said:
David is correct~~~
Winthrop Rockefeller the grandson of John D., and brother of Nelson, indeed did start a car museum.

This information is correct.

Silverghost said:
In fact he bought the collections of several early collectors as the starting basis of his museum. The James Melton collection was but one collection that he bought. Rockefeller did in fact start an early antique tire production business from his museum's basement !
Not entirely correct: The museum (Museum of Automobiles) that Rockefeller built was not built because he needed a place to house his collection. In fact as the museum was conceived and planned he had no collection. All of the cars had to be purchased to stock the museum. The museum came to be as a result of Winthrop being appointed, by then governor Orval Faubus, as the chairman of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission (AIDC) that was later changed to Arkansas Economic Development Commission (AEDC). As part of the many facets of his involvement in increasing industry, jobs, etc. in the state of Arkansas, the Museum of Automobiles was conceived as one of the tools to increase tourism in the state of Arkansas. Winthrop was a man of considerable means and this was a venture that he conceived and funded on his on.

Silverghost said:
In fact he bought the collections of several early collectors as the starting basis of his museum. The James Melton collection was but one collection that he bought.
Rockefeller did in fact start an early antique tire production business from his museum's basement !

Not entirely correct: He was offered the Melton collection very early in its dispersal when the collection was near the 100 count but declined to purchase the collection. As no buyers were found for the complete collection, dispersal was started and cars were sold off in single/multiple lots. After the collection had dwindled to approximately 40 cars Rockefeller did buy the remaining cars. After the completion of the transaction Rockefeller was informed several of the cars had IRS leans on them and in addition to paying Melton for the cars he had to also pay the IRS leans. The Melton collection was the only collection purchased of any significant numbers.<O:p</O:p

An event was held at the museum as part of the “ceremonial transferring of the collection” and James Melton came and I believe performed at the dinner/banquet.

James Melton died less that a year after this if I have my dates correct.

Silverghost said:
Dad once told me that Winthrop in fact lost money on every tire that he made and sold~~~ And he really did not care as he produced tires for the love of the Antique car hobby !
Not entirely correct: The tire venture was a separate entity under the museum umbrella and was set up as a non-profit. The intent was the profits from the tires would be donated to the Arkansas education and as an on going concern provide additional funding for public schools in the State of Arkansas. While it is true that he lost money on each tire it is quite untrue that he did not care. With no profits, there were no profits to donate to public education, at least from this venture.

Silverghost said:
He was a true pioneer in the Antique car hobby movement .
Not entirely correct: The significance and contribution by building the Museum of Automobiles should receive nothing but glowing accolades; Winthrop really was not a “car guy”. The museum was a product of an attempt to build tourism in the state of Arkansas. Even though Arkansas was his adopted home it would be difficult to find a single individual who did more to promote and improve the state than he did.


Report post x #20
Posted January 12, 2011 (edited)
mdsbob:

Thank's for setting the record straight here~~~

Most of the information i posted early in this thread were from my memory of talks that I had with my late Father over these many years.

I am quite sure if my Father were still with us he would have been able to provide much more accurate information on Winthrop Rockefeller's Museum operations as you have just done for us !

James Melton's career & health took a turn for the worse & he decided to re-locate his collection to Florida for health reasons.

His style of music was no longer in vogue~~~

Rock-and-Roll was now here to stay~~~

Melton had also spent tons of cash on his old car hobby & lifestyle.

He had thought that his career would go on forever~~~

Sadly this was not the case !

This move put him under much more financial & health stress and sadly as you stated he passed-away at a very young age shortly after just establishing his new Florida museum !

My Father was great friends with James Melton~~~

Sadly~~~

I never met him personally .


Report post x #21
Posted January 13, 2011
Were there any catalogs or early brochures on the Winthrop Rockefeller collection? I've always enjoyed tracing the cars in early collections. For the most part the truely great cars that were in the Melton and Clark collections have stayed in great collections of second and third generation collectors. When Melton moved the collection from Norwalk, Ct. to Florida there was an auction of extra cars. A friend that was there told me that at the end cars were sold in lots of of 2-3 cars, pre 1905 could be had for $500. Were is the 1907 Rolls Royce that was James Meltons favorite car?

I've always thought the PJA stood for "Petit Jean, Arkansas," not "Petit Jean Attractions." The folks at Universal probably didn't know any better.

The Petit in Petit Jean is pronounced "petty,", not "pet-it." The Jean part of it is pronounced more like "John" than "Jean." It's French, so it has that funny "jh" sound to it.

Petitjean as one word is a fairly common surname in Creole country. It's pronounced "pettyjhon." I met a fellow from there named John Petitjean. (really!)

Mike, most of the folks in my area (north of the mountain) use the "pet it" pronunciation and Jean like blue jeans but south of Petit Jean they use the pronunciations more like you mentioned. There are a lot of French influenced names and pronunciations with a heavy French accent south of the mountain, but very few north of the mountain. The Arkansas river valley seems to be the dividing line between the French of the south and us hillbillies to the north. The Arkansas River valley from Fort Smith to about Little Rock seperates the Ozark Mountains of the north from the Ouachita Mountains to the south. Both regions are distinctly different from each other as to customs, names, and pronunciations.

As to the PJA logo. I also thought it stood for Petit Jean Arkansas.

I always heard "petty jean," but I'm not an Arkansan and just sojourned there a bit in the sixties. The Arkansas phrase that struck me and that I heard often was, "Y'all come back, heah?"

Are you sure Dick?
I spent a couple of weeks there in ‘56 and I remember, “yall come back ‘n see me ‘gin sometime, ya hear”?
My iPad won’t let me write the word h e a h but you know what I mean

Are you sure Dick?
I spent a couple of weeks there in ‘56 and I remember, “yall come back ‘n see me ‘gin sometime, ya hear”?
My iPad won’t let me write the word h e a h but you know what I mean

Thank you John P S and Donnie B, and all. I really enjoy hearing (reading?) the background tales of places I have heard about for many years.
Linguistics and etymology have always been fascinating subjects to me. Enunciation also, but it becomes so convoluted when looking at it from the standpoint of even short regional distances. Having been most of my life in Califunny, we have many Spanish influences, as well as Indian (Indigenous person's) names all over the state.
French is such an interesting language (I really do not know that much French!). But the enunciation is what interests me about it. Just the way French is spoken seems so different than most of the rest of Europe or other "romance" languages. It would seem that about half of all consonants in the French language writing are barely (if at all) enunciated in speech. A few vowels are also silent (like many an "e" in English).
When I was first tying to learn all I could about automotive history (many MANY years ago), I read of Cugnot's steam tractor (often said to be the world's first on land self propelled vehicle) in many books. Being interested in such things, I wanted to know how to pronounce "Cugnot". Almost everybody, teachers of all kinds, said "Kug-not". Somehow, I knew that just wasn't right. Eventually, I learned enough about the French language that I came to the conclusion that "Koo-no" was more likely correct. I am still not totally convinced, but a few people that know and actually can speak French tell me that I am correct. Likely, like so many other linguistic puzzles, there are probably a few variations in how the name is "properly" pronounced.
A word like "petit" (or petite) can be particularly difficult. It has been adopted and modified through several languages and regional dialects for a few hundred years now. The enunciation has changed regionally as has its attachment to many local names and uses. The name "Jean" has undergone similar changes across the centuries and adoption by different languages. Given the history, and legend, of Petit Jean, I would think it appropriate to try to pronounce it as "petty-jhon". But that is me. And if you try it? You will probably get a lot of "HUH?"s from people you are talking with. Me? I will probably never get to go to that swap meet myself anyway. Although now, knowing the story behind it? Makes me want to go even more.

As if I hadn't rambled enough already? The tale of Petit Jean reminded me of another person in days long ago, that was born a girl, but lived as a man. Charley Parkhurst was a "man" living on the East coast. He had worked for years tending horses, and was well known as an expert wagon driver. When the gold rush to California was in full swing, "he" bought his tickets, boarded a ship, and headed toward the golden state. Not an easy trip in those days, he had to walk across Panama to catch another ship for the final voyage North to California.
Charley quickly found employment driving wagons and stage coaches, working in many different areas of the state. Charley was so good, "he" became well known and respected as one of the best stage coach drivers of the day. "He" worked on many of the most valuable coach runs, and, at least once, shot and killed a robber attempting to hold up the stage. It was often said that nobody could handle a six horse team any better.
As the railroads began to take over most long distance transportation, Charley used some of his savings and bought a small ranch where "he" farmed for the remainder of "his" life. "He" died in 1879 (at the age of 67), at home, on "his" ranch. It was only after "his" death, that neighbors and the local physician discovered that "Charley" was in reality Charlotte.

One wonders how many other women back in those days did the same thing. Good, well paying, jobs were difficult to get for an unattached woman. How many more did that? And how many were never found out?

Wayne, I took French in high school and college and after the Air Force went to France, where I spent almost a year before moving to Holland for almost nine years. Some languages can be written phonetically in English, but French is a challenge. Too many sounds we don't have. Proper names can be tricky, but I would say KOON-yo for your steam tractor guy - the "g" before the "n" creates the "y" sound. Phonetically, I would write "petit" as "puh-TEE." "Jean" introduces a nasal sound we don't have, so I don't know how I would write it.

Yes, languages are fascinating.

To give Jean the correct French pronunciation, say John with a clothespin on your nose.

French and Italian are written and pronounced very differently, but I believe they share the pronunciation of gn. Think lasagna.

I want to add that Mikes pronunciation of "petty" is probably more widespread than my version of "pet it"

Our area is heavily influenced by our family name of Petitt that is pronounced "pet it" Our family homesteaded the area around Clinton Arkansas in the 1800s following the civil war. The homesteads are aprox 40-50 miles north of Petit Jean Mountain. There are still quite a few Petitt's in the area.

My great grandparents on the Petitt and also the Brown side of the family moved from this area in aprox 1899 to move to the area north of Fort Smith Arkansas on the Oklahoma/Indian territory state line. But there were lots of Petitts and Browns that did not leave.

Its strange that about 70 years after my great grandparents left the Clinton Arkansas area, my dad would decide to buy a farm at Clinton Arkansas in 1969. We had lived there for a few years before Grandma Brown (Petitt)came for a visit. We had heard the stories of our family coming from Arkansas, but we had never put 2 and 2 together about it being Clinton Arkansas. While shopping in Clinton, Grandma just casually mentioned that it had been a long time since she had been to Clinton. She said her last memory of Clinton was as a little girl, in aprox 1899, sitting in the back of the wagon as they moved to the new homestead on the Arkansas/Okla line north of Fort Smith

With a little research, we found the locations of the original homesteads of the Browns and Petitt's. We now live about 5 miles from where the homesteads are.

Its strange how small the world can be ...

have fun and be safe ....

Donnie, do you happen to know the story of this little graveyard on I-40 near Ozark? Robert Nichols was 25, Ollie Nichols was 24, and Carrie Nichols was 19. They all died in the summer and fall of 1899. It must have been horrible for their parents. I've often wondered what took them, and whether there were any sisters or brothers.

Steve, Im not familiar with the graveyard. We go to the town of Ozark fairly often either camping or just "passing thru" I do not remember ever seeing the graveyard.

The word "Ozark" is another link to the French explorer's and their influence on our history .

Here is a link to how "Ozark" came to be ...

http://www.ozarkmerchants.com/aux_arcs.html

Steve, found this:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/24105640/carrie-nichols

Nothing about what got them. Donnie, it's in the I-40 westbound rest area.

Thank you Dick L and Steve J for your reply comments, and all for a very interesting OT thread.

The local historical society has a set of 4 NOS Petit Jean tires. Unfortunately the wrong size for Donnie.







These came with a disassembled parts car we got to go with our 1913 Empire touring car.

Regarding the Nichols graveyard above, this was the only thing I could find on the web.

Source:

http://www.argenweb.net/franklin/Cemetery/Nichols/nicholscem.htm

Answer from the mailing list.
Don
From: "Jane Wade" <janewade at hughes.net
To: <arfrankl at rootsweb.com
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 7:19 PM
Subject: Re: [ARFRANKL] Surname: Nichols


The rest stop is in Franklin County, out of Ozark, AR., on the site of
the old NICHOLS farm. The 3 children are those of William & Catherine NICHOLS. I was told by a
grandson of William & Catherine that there was a typhoid epidemic in Franklin County and that William made burial boxes and buried the children on the homeplace. The family is listed in 1880 Franklin County, Arkansas census.

jdw

(Message edited by Wmh on February 26, 2018)