FJ - Montana Towe & Howe & Ford Engines

[FreighTer Jim]

Friday found me in Eugene, Oregon picking
up some engines donated to a museum.

As it turns out - these were no ordinary engines.

The kind gentleman was no ordinary man.

That led to discovery of a connection between
Edward Towe & Stan Howe

By all accounts - Edward Towe was one helluva guy.

Born in Norway, Iowa he started in business as a bicycle repair man at age 15 in Paulina, Iowa - he bought old
Model T cars and turned them into farm wagons.

He completed engineering school in Ames, Iowa
- purchased the Paulina Ford dealership with a cousin - ran that for a year - then moved to California where he
bought a gas station - hand pumped gas sold
for 11.9 cents a gallon


FJ

[FreighTer Jim]

Mr. Towe put his engineering skills to use
for several aircraft companies during
the war years designing parts.

After the war he returned to Iowa to farm.

He sold the farm and bought his first bank
in Dupree, South Dakota in 1950.

He bought his first bank in Montana in 1954.
From there - he grew his Montana Banking Empire.

Stan Howe wanted a $400 bank loan when he
was in his 20’s to go back to college - Mr. Towe
put $750 in Stan’s account and told him if he
needed more to let him now.

Although frugal - Mr. Towe was a generous man
by all accounts.

He was instrumental in helping to start
The Montana 500 Race

Lewis Rector - who did a lot of mechanical
and restoration work on Mr. Towe’s cars -
lived with his wife in a basement apartment of
Mr. Towe’s Deer Lodge Home.


FJ

[FreighTer Jim]

Steve’s Towe Museum Engines

FJ

[StanHowe]

Lewis Rector moved to Circle, Montana in about 1960 to run Ed's restoration shop. He and his wife bought a nice home in Circle and lived there until about 68 when they moved to Helena. I moved here in 72 and renewed our friendship.
Lewis lost his wife and later married a widow from Circle, Anna James. They lived in Helena about a mile away from me for years and then moved to Deer Lodge when they opened the museum in the old prison complex. They lived in the lower part of the house in Deer Lodge but it was not a basement so much as a two level house built on a bank.

When the IRS attached the collection and sold it we helped 89 year old Lewis and Anna move to Sacramento.

He was a great guy.

Ed was close with a dollar and frugal but was an excellent banker. He owned 11 banks in Montana, South Dakota and Iowa.
If he thought you could pay it back he would loan you a million dollars .
If he didn't think you could or would he wouldn't loan you fifty cents.

Fifty plus years down the road when he was nearly 100 I saw him on T tour. His daughter was driving as he was nearly blind. She told him who I was , he shook my hand, asked me how was the auction business was going and then asked if I still owned our ranch at Westmore. He had an amazing memory.

Mayville in my Herman and Freida books is a tribute to Lewis's wife.

[Angmar]

Great Story. Fantastic engines.

[Chris Haynes]

There used to be a Towe Ford Museum in Sacramento, CA. Somehow it morphed into The California Automobile Museum.

[Bud Delong]

On a auction of the Towe a flier showed a Model T racer said to be the #2 cross country race car. I was in the money then and very interested but Model T people said i was not real. I see those engines are V-8'S but what are they?? Bud.

[FreighTer Jim]

One is a V-12 Zephyr

FJ

[Thorlick]

I enjoyed visiting the Sacramento Towe Ford Museum several times. Then I went down and got a bidding number and attended the auction. It was painful to watch. The best cars seemed to go to internet bidders, many in Japan.

As I remember it the tax men had Ed down front at the table to field questions. I don’t remember him having any. It sort of looked like some functionary had him there to rub his nose in the collections liquidation.

I only went there one time since, around 1999, when BCA (Buick Club of America) fielded a display of Buick’s for a month. I had just finished a 6 year restoration of my 1929 26S... a small series coupe with rumble seat and side golf door. My car was the featured one at the entrance since it was the oldest one there. Car clubs often augmented the sparse displays back then. They later moved in a theatre organ for concerts with car displays (I never attended).

TH

[FreighTer Jim]

Mr. Towe owned over (300) cars - mostly Fords.

And of course Early V-8 Engines

His collection started with a 1923 Model T Roadster
purchased in 1954 and restored by him.

His favorite Ford was the 1914 Model Touring
because that was the year he was born


FJ

[Rich Eagle]

I enjoyed visits to the Ed Towe antique Ford collection when it was in Helena. They boasted of over 35 historic cars. This is their 1911 Torpedo.

This is one of their post cards with photos taken by Mike Roberts who also did the HCCA Gazette cover photos back then. Ed was very encouraging to me in a 5 minute chat on a '60s Montana 500. I had just started restoring my first T. I also met Lewis Rector at swap meets and sold him a Racer body. Both were wonderful to meet. My brother went to Costa Rica for the Peace Corps with Kristy back in the 60s. I treasure those brief memories of those who gave so much to preserving those cars and their history.
Rich

[Ken Lefeber]

I remember visiting a Ford car museum in Deerlodge, MT in 1989 when I was on vacation with my dad and little brother.
They had a Model T for every year that they were made if I remember right. There was one car there that they let you sit in and get your picture taken. Here is my dad sitting behind the wheel. He didn't get his first ride in a Model T until I bought mine about 5 years ago.

[StanHowe]

The Museum at the Old Prison Complex in Deer Lodge had Model T's in it at that time and still does. Several of the more interesting and valuable cars were bought by Sherm Anderson, the owner of a large sawmill and lumber company. He then either donated or loaned them to the museum. Other people also bought cars and donated them or put them on load. I had a couple there for a few years.

Towe got in trouble with the IRS when he sold his banks. He set up a trust to take care of the cars and the museum in perpetuity. They disagreed with his method and wanted several million dollars from him. He fought them for several years but the legal fees and strain was too much to overcome, you cannot out wait the government. They attached his collection and sold it to satisfy the lien against it.

His son Tom was a prominent lawyer in Billings at the time, they argued and fought and went to court and finally were defeated. I'm no attorney so I don't know the whole deal but many people thought it was unfair that they would not settle with him. I dunno. I hated to see the car collection sold off, especially a few things that looked like a vendetta to me. Lewis Rector lost his 15 Roadster that he had since the early 60's as he did not have a current title for it and so could not prove that it was his instead of Towe's. He managed to take his Pasco wheels off that he bought in 1942 before they locked it up. I bought the wheels and still have them waiting for a speedster project that may never get done.

Before they moved to Sacramento he gave me his set of Model T reamers in the original box, a bunch of timers and small parts as well as his entire book collection. Doug Abelin and I helped he and Anna pack up and Doug drove a UHaul truck to Sacramento for them.

I think Ed still owned one or two banks that were not part of the original sale and survived financially. He also owned a lot of land in eastern Montana and some property in Helena where the restoration shop was.

Years later I did some appraisal work for them regarding other cars and parts, etc., He treated me well, paid me a fair price and thanked me when we were done as did Tom and the family. I have nothing bad to say about Ed and always felt bad that he got entangled with the IRS but as I said, I'm not much of an accountant or lawyer.

[Rich Eagle]

Ed's collection much like Harrah's, Henry Austin Clark's Long Island Museum and Bovey Restorations in Montana were the result of one man's passion and hard work. How wonderful their drive and interest made these things. We were so luck to have them yet their absence has let these assemblages dwindle to lesser forms of what they were. Many of these magical things are memories. I hope future generations can find things this wonderful or look back to enjoy what was.

[StanHowe]

True but the cars are not gone. Some of them went back to being driven, some went to other collections, some went overseas to either collections or enthusiasts. Other than giving people a place to take a quick look at the past, I sometimes question the value of museums that take various things out of circulation and think it would have been better to pass it on to someone interested in driving it and loving it rather than setting in a museum.

Women are made to love, money is made to spend, cars are made to be driven and fiddles are meant to be played.

A fiddle in a showcase is nothing but fire wood and wire. Its only real worth is the music it can make and the joy it brings the player and the audience. Every major museum in the world keeps their Stradivarius and Guadagninni, etc., instrument ready to play and nearly every one has a day when they invite violinists to come and play them and people to come and hear them. Without that they lose their sound as their soul gradually dies.

In every violin shop in the world with a sense of tradition there is a carving or a sign that reads, "When I lived in the forest I was silent, but in death, praise God, a Luthier bade my voice to sing." or something very similar to it.

The original was in Latin 300 +++ years ago. Mine is above what remains of my inventory of violins, carved by my hand into a board and put there nearly 50 years ago. But in English, not Latin.

I must have missed school the day they taught Latin.

I think it is like that with some of those museum cars, too. They are pretty and interesting but dead, dead, dead.

The lucky ones are the ones that went to someone who drives them and cares for them a loves them.

[FreighTer Jim]

I regret meeting The Legends That Journied On
long before I had the opportunity to meet them
in person

Harold Lemay
Edward Towe

Imagine finding an old Ford in another country
and driving it back home across international borders.


FJ

[david_dewey]

that Wurlitzer organ Terry H mentioned is now in the State Theatre in Oroville. I'm almost finished with the installation, with much help from David Moreno, who installed it in the Museum. It brought quite a few folks into the museum, but new director couldn't see why a car museum should have an organ in it, so out it went. New director came in some years later, "Where's the Organ? That really helped attendance." "GONE!"
The Ahooga horn in the organ is a Dodge Brothers' horn (OK, actually North East electric) I donated to the cause. Didn't want a modern "J C Whitney" special in there, want one that would sound RIGHT. It does!