Continued from Page 1

The November 5, 1916 issue of The Standard, an insurance industry weekly published the following account of the insurance industry’s losses related to the fire:

“Loss on Chauncey Thomas & Co. Plant

“Boston, Mass., October 30. The Chauncey Thomas & Company, Inc. plant at 101 to 103 Chestnut Street, in the West End of this city, together with a large number of high priced automobiles was totally destroyed by a four alarm fire to day, the loss being estimated at upwards of $150,000. The Thomas Company are carriage manufacturers and automobile painters and repairers and handled the best class of trade in that line in Metropolitan Boston. It is impossible to estimate the amount of insurance covering on the automobiles as it is very largely scattered.

“Following is a list of the insurance on building, rents, stock and machinery, together with the companies and amounts:

“On building, owned by M. J. P. Thomas, loss reported total; Royal, $14,500; Insurance Company of North America, $8,500; Etna, $5,000; General ,$2,500; Alliance, $1,500; total, $32,000.

“On rents: Royal, $6,000.

“Chauncey Thomas & Co., Inc., on stock and machinery, total loss: ($34,240)

“Urbaine $3,000; Merchants $2,000; Security $2,500; Norwich Union $1,500; Niagara $ 2,500; Scottish U. & N $1,500; Continental $2,500; Phoenix, Conn $1,500; Sun $2,490; Fidelity Und. $1,500; Queen $2,000; Lond. & Lan $1,250; Caledonia $2,000; Springfield $1,000; Yorkshire $2,000; Palatine $1,000; Mass. F. & M $2,000; Glens Falls $2,000.

“Total $34,240”

The fire department reported that Mary J.P. Thomas, Chauncey Thomas’ widow, was the property owner and that 60 automobiles were consumed by the flames. Both the factory and the firm’s assets were judged a total loss so the firm’s directors relocated to a modern garage at 16 Harcourt Street, Boston. The Boston Daily Globe reported the news in its November 14, 1915 issue:

“THOMAS & CO. INSTALLED

“Carriage and Automobile Makers in a New Fireproof Building at 16 Harcourt St.

“With traditional New England enterprise Chauncey Thomas & Co, carriage and automobile manufacturers, whose factory at the foot of Chestnut st. was burned a week ago, have already resumed business, this time in a new fireproof building, 16 Harcourt st.

“Though nearly all the stock of the former establishment was destroyed, the company announces that today it has all its old employees at work and that orders are coming in continually, not a few customers having delayed placing orders for a week, correctly anticipating that within that time the company would have new quarters and be ready for business.

“The company intends to erect in due time an up-to-date factory, fireproof throughout, near the junction of Beacon and Commonwealth av., which is the heart of the automobile district. Work on it will be begun in the Spring.

“The company takes pride in the fact that its president and treasurer, Leonard B. Nichols, was located at the old Chestnut factory for 50 years, during which period he was in active business and won a fine reputation for reliability and financial standing.

“He began in the Chestnut st. factory as a foreman painter in 1865, became a partner in the Thomas concern for which he was working in 1876, and on the death of Mr. Thomas in 1898 he became president and treasurer of the corporation formed at that time. Painting has always been one of the details of its business in which the management takes special pride.

“Mr. Nichols claims that he turned out in 1892 the first ’worth-while’ auto ever built in Boston, an electrically-propelled machine.

“Oscar H. Schildbach, vice president of the company, is a graduate of a New York technical school. He also studied design in Paris, working there some years, as well as in various American cities before coming to Boston 13 years ago.”

The first 'worthwhile' auto ever built in Boston, that Nichols referred to was the Holtzer Electric, of which a short history is available HERE.

Leonard B. Nichols retired at the start of 1917 and the firm’s vice-president, Oscar H. Schildbach, assumed the role of president.

The April 1904 issue of the Carriage Monthly included a short biography of Schildbach:

“O.H. Schildback, (born June 2, 1865, New York City) draftsman with H.H. Babcock Co., Watertown, New York, was born in New York City, June 2, 1865. In 1881, after a pretty thorough course of instruction in decorative painting and in technical lines, he began coach‑body building with Healey & Co., New York City, and continued in the same establishment until 1886. During that time he studied carriage drafting, and also took a course of study in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After thorough preparation, he visited Europe in the interests of his profession, and upon his departure his employers and shopmates presented him with a gold watch and chain.

“Mr. Schildback also received $100 from the trustees of the Technical School and a gift of $50 from J.W. Britton. While in Europe he pursued his studies with great success, and on his return to the United States entered the employ of Studebaker Bros. Mfg. Co., and later on accepted a position with H.H. Babcock Co. Mr. Schildback has a reputation for original work which extends throughout the United States. He has familiarized himself with carriage drafting on both sides of the Atlantic.”

As promised, a new factory was constructed and the April, 1917 issue of the Hub announced their removal to the new facility:

“Chauncey Thomas & Co.’s New Home

“Chauncey Thomas & Co. who have been in business since 1862, being the first carriage builders in Boston, are now located in their new building in the heart of the automobile district on Blandford street between the two principal highways of Boston Beacon street and Commonwealth avenue. The building is four stories with concrete basement and is fire proof with sprinklers throughout. The basement is used for blacksmith and machine shops also boiler room. On the first floor is the office assembly rooms and storage for finished work. The second floor has the upholstery and body building department. The third floor is used on one end for the aluminum metal workers department. The balance of the floor is used for the paint shop on one side of which there is a baking oven where all japanning is done. On the top floor are the finishing rooms. A feature about the paint shop and its finishing rooms is the special ventilating apparatus to create a current of air so necessary in most paint departments. The entire plant is operated by electricity and each department is run by separate power which is a great saving over the method employed in the old factory at Chestnut street and which was entirely destroyed by fire. A 25 ft. freight elevator and an electric ABC passenger elevator for the convenience of customers has been installed. O.H. Schildbach, a body builder of New York and a graduate of the New York Technical School, has been vice president of the corporation for ten years and has been elected president since January 1 this year. The company enjoys the reputation of building the finest of custom work.”

Shortly thereafter Oscar H. Schildbach had his surname changed to Sherbrook, no doubt to shield his German heritage, which put the firm at a disadvantage during the First World War due to Boston’s mainly British ancestry. The December 23, 1917 Boston Globe published the change:

“Name is now Sherbrook

“Oscar Herman Schildbach of Brookline Permitted by Norfolk County Court to Make Change

“Oscar Herman Schildbach, president of Chauncey Thomas & Co. of Blandford St., who lives at 30 Columbia St., Brookline, will hereafter be known as Oscar Herman Sherbrook, for in the Norfolk County Probate Court last week, Judge Flint gave him permission to change his name.

“Mr. Schildbach, or Sherbrook, told the court that he was born in Saxony, Ger., of a German father and a mother of French extraction, and came to this country as an infant. In explanation of his desire to change his name he said that Schildbach is both difficult to pronounce and spell and troublesome in business.

“His family settled in New York in 18??. There he attended the public schools, the Mechanic Arts School, Plassman’s School of Art and Metropolitan School of Art, finally being apprenticed to the coach building trade. In 1886 he went to Paris, and after graduation from the DuPont school was employed by Million, Guiet & Cie, French Coach builders.

“Returning to this county, he was employed by various large firms and was graduated from the New York Technical School. In 1905 he came to Boston, as designer and superintendent of construction for Chauncey Thomas & Co. After four years he was admitted to partnership as vice president and when the president retired, he succeeded him.

“He is a Mason, member of the Middlesex Club and past president of the Carriage Draughtsman’s Association of the United States.”

A classified ad in the April 4, 1917 Boston Evening Globe confirms the firm was now operating out of 23 Blandford St., its new facility. The firm’s garage was approximately 2 miles west of the old Chestnut St. plant, on the west side of Kenmore Square on a large triangular-shaped city block bordered by Blandford St., Beacon St. and Commonwealth Ave.

Neighbors included Boston’s Franklin Automobile and Kelly-Springfield distributors (corner of Blandford and Commonwealth) and Temple Adath Israel.

A 1922 Map of Boston indicates the Blandina St. factory was located directly across Beacon Street from George W. McNear’s plant, which was located off of Maitland St. between Beacon and the Brookline, Boston & Albany railroad tracks. As previously stated, McNear had worked for Chauncey Thomas during the firm’s Chestnut St. days.

Ads dating from as late as 1921 indicate Chauncey Thomas & Co. was still refinishing automobiles, but tragedy struck the firm the following November as reported by the November 30, 1922 issue of The Iron Trade:

“Oscar Herbert Sherbrook, president of the Chauncey Thomas & Co. Inc., manufacturer of truck and automobile bodies, died at his home in Brookline Mass recently.”

No further ads were forthcoming and it’s assumed the firm’s directors withdrew from business following Schildbach’s (Sherbrook’s) death.

Located on the corner of Blanford and Cummington, the Thomas building was subsequently acquired by Boston University and although substantially modified, it remains in use by the University’s Science and Engineering Dept.

© 2012 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com

Appendix I

In 1882 The Hub presented a lecture Chauncey Thomas had presented to the carriage drafting and construction students of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts’ Technical School on December 7, 1881 in New York City. The course was sponsored in part by the Carriage Builder’s National Association of which Thomas once served as vice-president. The school continued into the 20th century and was often referred to by its informal name, the Andrew F. Johnson school, in honor of its subsequent chief instructor. The presentation was published in three parts, the first in the January 1882 issue, the second in the February issue and the third and final, in the March 1882 issue of The Hub:

“NOVELTY AND EXPRESSION IN DESIGN
“Lecture by Mr. Chauncey Thomas of Boston.

“[On the evening of Wednesday, December 7th, the Winter Course of Lectures before the Class in Carriage Drafting and Construction, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Technical School, New-York, was opened by Mr. Chauncey Thomas, the well-known carriage-builder, of Boston, Massachusetts, who delivered an address on the subject of " Novelty and Expression in Design," the introductory portion of which is published below.--ED.] 

“Mr. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN: Had not non-professionals already been called to address you, some of whom were probably as unused to such tasks as I am, I should hesitate to appear. But as all our knowledge, of whatever nature, is gathered up bit by bit from practical observers and experimenters before it can be formulated and used in a scientific manner; and as our science is not an exact one, but must ever be the reflex of individual thought, what I shall say to you may not be wholly without value. Not long ago, in a good-natured contest with a friend who is an architect, as to whose business was the more arduous, and which demanded the greater measure of ability, good taste and technical knowledge, he seemed amazed at my claim that, to be a good carriage-maker, one must study as hard, work much harder, and possess as great an amount of brains as to be a good architect. "Why," he exclaimed, "a carriage is but a box on wheels, and what is a wheel?--nothing but a round thing with a hub and spokes!" Very well, Mr. Architect; and your structure is nothing but a box without wheels, and the world itself is but a round ball. If I had here told my friend that to build the best carriage wheel required more experience and more careful consideration than that necessary to build a big block of stores, my offense would have been unpardonable, yet I would not have been far wrong. Not that the wheelwright need be an intellectual giant. What I wish to say is that (he modern light carriage wheel is a marvel of perfection. Forty years ago it was impossible, and its improvement has received an amount of careful study and watchful experiment to adapt it to the great work it has to perform, that very few can understand. It is an embodiment of refined mechanical skill. There is really very little in common between architecture and carriage designing and construction. Architecture has a wonderful history. Scores of costly illustrated books detail all possible forms of structure and ornament ; the experience of ages is epitomized and ready for use. The architect produces new effects by new combinations of well-known elements; he deals mainly in straight lines; he has scope for his originality in grouping, massing, and disposition of parts. The designer of fine carriage work deals in simple forms, mainly in curved lines and rounded surfaces. His duties send him into the domain of pure art, scientific construction and mechanical skill. The faculty of producing graceful curves of the highest character is not a gift that all possess, and requires much cultivation. A proficient in mechanical drawing might not be capable of producing a fine drawing of a carriage; hence, we are in the habit of saying that a good carriage draftsman must be an artist. In addition to that he must have a scientific knowledge of construction, and a large amount of experimental knowledge of the best methods of the construction of the running gear, and the action of its parts. The fine carriage is one of the most beautiful forms that art has ever produced. The body, which is its chief characteristic, must be severely simple in its outline; no excrescences or purposeless ornamentation can be tolerated. 

“It must have the fewest parts possible, the greatest internal and the least external extension; it must have the greatest possible strength with the least possible weight; and, most of all, beauty of form; and it must also have novelty.

“It will perhaps occur to you that the carriage designer, hampered by the conditions just named, would seem to be placed in a straightjacket, where novelty would be a difficult accomplishment. But have we not curved lines to deal with? and can we not infinitely vary the expression of ideas by the use of curved lines? In nature we find certain persistent forms: the blade of grass, the petal of the flower, the trunk, the branches, and the limbs of the forest tree. Each has the same fundamental characteristics as its predecessors, but in all the myriad products of organic nature, every blade of grass, every flower, every tree, and every leaf of the forest, has its individual peculiarities; is both like and unlike its great family connections.

“Simplicity of form is no bar to novelty of expression. If you want an example, you have the best of all in the human face. Each and every face in the world has the same kind of features, the same number of prominence and depressions. In the facial outline there are five prominent parts and four intermediate depressions; yet in the variations of these few parts, how great the difference! How quickly we single out any known face from all the others.

“Col. T. W. Higginson, when he first recruited his regiment of colored volunteers, said that they all looked alike to him. He very soon, however, began to recognize individuality among them, and eventually came to know each and every one of them. The facial outline is very far from being the whole face, or showing us all its expressions, but it is the easiest part to draw, and the only part we can see in outline, so we will make use of it to illustrate our subject. (Using blackboard.]

“Thus we find that every human face, although nature has made them all on the same plan, is a new edition which differs from all the others. Thus we have infinite variety of form and expression, all derived from the variation of the lines of the face. As in nature, so in art. Take the Coach body, with its single curved outline and curved belt-rail. With these two elements we can never have done with making changes. Or the Brougham, with its beautiful Chariot pillar. This is one of the persistent forms that we are never tired of reproducing. The fame of the originator of the Chariot pillar should be equal with that of the designer of the Corinthian capital. It is as expressive as the nose of a beautiful woman.

“The belt-rail, the back-pillar and the bottom lines are also principal factors in giving character to the body. The boot, also, although a subordinate part, may be varied much more than the main portion of the body, and is a fascinating point of attach for the draftsman. And here let me say to you, who are to be the future masters of design, never despair of producing original forms; for have we not seen that nature is always variable enough so that everyone of a million has individuality enough to be quickly recognizable?

“Go to the blackboard and make your drawing with a fret; hand, and you will be sure to get new results. If you are not pleased with your work, apply the sponge and try again. When you have reached a point in your work where you can see no chance for improvement, you have done all that you can do; for your invention or your perception of the beautiful call go no further. It may not be as good as another can do, but it will possess a certain personality which you have imparted to it. Each designer will have some ideal of beauty which will find expression in his work. Dr. Mitchell, the noted astronomer of Cincinnati, while mapping the stars, found that with different assistants an appreciable difference of time elapsed between noting the star's passage across the transit instrument, and marking the time of such passage. The phenomenon of a star's passage is instantaneous, and the time is taken by a touch of the finger; yet, to ascertain the time taken by each individual to do this slight thing, the learned professor instituted a long series of experiments to find what he termed each man's personal equation. We will borrow this expressive term, and say to you that this "personal equation" gives character to the life of every individual, to all his acts and doings, to his methods of business or pleasure, and to nothing more than to the work of his hands.

“ALTHOUGH, as we have shown, there is ample room for originality within certain limits, yet, like the architects, we adhere with great pertinacity to certain persistent forms; most of these are quite old; and many of them of English origin. The Coach, the Chariot, the Cab Phaeton, the Stanhope, the Brougham, etc.,--the elements of all these old forms enter largely into our modern productions. The gentleman's Drag and the great army of open Carts we must also credit to the Englishman. The Englishman seems to have been the one "to originate new forms, and the Frenchman to refine and beautify them; the English designer makes bold strokes, is original, but often uncouth and crude, while the Frenchman is an artist with a keen sense of the beautiful. The Frenchman's lines are wonderfully fine and expressive, and the completed carriage seems to have been formed of plastic material, so perfectly is the ideal of the designer realized; while in many English productions something seems to have been conceded to the stubbornness of wood and iron, by which the original conception has been modified.

“Among the persistent forms which had a very long lease of life in New England was the Chaise, immortalized by Dr. Holmes. I believe the first of these two-wheel vehicles was imported from England. The famous Curricle was of this form, as well as the Spanish Volante used in Cuba. I know of no form of carriage body which is susceptible of such wide variations. At its best the form is very beautiful; but it may also be quite otherwise. I think it likely that I have, in my younger days, made fifty sets of patterns for this kind of body.

“Builders of Chaises differed very widely in their styles, and fashion also demanded material changes. Sometimes the bodies were full and generous in size, with fine sloping front pillars and plump side panels. Sometimes the sides were shortened to the last degree, with little straight-up front pillars, concaved at the bottom, and suggesting, when looked, at from the front, the high cheek-bones and hollow jaws of a starved savage. Sometimes the lines would be weak, bunchy, and uncertain in direction, looking exceedingly sorrowful; and sometimes finely-formed and fair to see. There were also "duster" bodies, and " fan-tail' bodies, and bodies with straight brackets, and curved-up brackets, and curved-down brackets; and also box-beaded moldings, and rounded moldings, and chamfered moldings.

“I refer to these bygone matters to show you how many changes may be rung on one little chime.

“Those were the days of unscientific methods. It might be called the ‘traditionary period,’ when venerable and venerated old patterns, worn and blackened by long use, hung on the wall at the head of the boss's bench. A few mysterious marks on these old patterns, and a few set gauges in the till of his tool-chest, told how the body was to be framed.

“Bodies were framed in the olden time. All joints were by tenon and mortise, and pinned together. Halved joints, fastened were not then thought to be good work. The most expert were regarded as prodigies of skill, and were thought to be crammed with valuable secrets. As boys, we were initiated into the old methods of the "thumb-rule," most of the boys continuing to, work on the same plan as long as they lived to work at the bench. Many of the methods were wrong, but they were persistently followed, as I will illustrate. For instance, all Coach bodies in those days were flat-sided, and all the fullness of the sides was obtained from the form of the door-pillars and the top-rail. Cant boards were then unknown, and in truth not much needed.

“It is a mystery to us now how carriages could have been produced in the olden time, by the old methods, at the prices which were then obtained. For example, an old gentleman, now 80 years old, who was a salesman in his young days, has told me that he used to get $125 for a Chaise and harness. This was in Amesbury. On the old shops used often to be seen the sign; ‘Chaise and Harness Maker,’ and to sell a Chaise without the harness was like selling a fiddle without the bow.

“These carriages had silver-plated joints and dasher handles, and silver nuts and side-lights. The harness was also silver-mounted. When you consider that both the body-maker and the carriage-part maker , took their stock in the rough plank and cut it out by hand, and that the wheelwright was simply given a pile of huge splits for spokes, and a plank from which to saw his felloes, the price named seems to us quite incredible. I suspect that a solution of the problem would show that the men worked very hard, worked about fifteen hours a day, and received very small pay; and that the bosses got very little more than the men. These pictures of the past, which old men with good memories love to revert to, are useful in showing us the changes which have taken place in the past fifty or sixty years; and many suggestive hints are contained in them.

“I do not propose in this short address to discuss the matter of carriage-parts, which are subordinate parts so far as the style of the carriage is concerned, although, of course, by no means subordinate in real importance; for the body and all its belongings, although the principal feature of the carriage, gives us much less anxious care and painstaking than the machine on which it is mounted. Volumes might be written on running gears without exhausting the subject,--even though the modern patent spring Side-bar Wagons, by which so many fortunes are being made, were left out altogether. Whoever enters the drafting-room with any hopes of success must be well grounded in the matter of running gears and their practical working. I have spoken of the running gears as being subordinate to the body in giving character and style to the vehicle; still the proper hanging of the body and the disposition of the supporting parts has much to do with the good or bad effect of the whole structure.

“None of us are wise enough to foresee what the future has in store for us. We are always disposed to regard the present time as about what it should be, and to look upon the past as belonging to the dark ages. Old fashions look very queer sometimes, we must admit; but the present styles, which we now admire so much, will shortly give place to the inevitable change which is soon to come. Changes we must have all the time, more or less radical; but what they will be, who can guess? The unexpected always happens, but we must wait and see.

“The improvement in American carriage work has been very great in the past twenty-five years, partly due to our greater familiarity with foreign models, and also largely due to the increased wealth of the country and the greater demand for fine work. The next quarter of a century will probably show us a vast increase in the magnitude of our business, for the prosperous millions of the next generation will make good customers. Fashion will no doubt banish many of our most cherished forms, and demand new ones. Your opportunities, pupils of the Technical School, are to cater to wants and fancies of these coming millions, and if you can do so you will be well employed.

“Those who have acquired a knowledge of designing by the slow and unscientific method of self-teaching must ever labor at a great disadvantage, as compared with those who have the good fortune to receive the benefits of this thorough course of instruction.

“Technical education seems to enlarge the faculties. During a late visit to a large manufactory of stained glass, I was admiring the new patterns of stained and cut glass. ‘Ah,’ said the partner, ‘if the old proprietor were alive to-day, who died ten years ago, he would not know the business, so great is the improvement. You see,’ he continued, ‘we used to depend on our old hands for designs, and we thought them good; but now we have the boys from the Institute of Technology, and the old men are nowhere! This is rather hard on the veterans,’ he added, ‘but the old men never had the training that the boys are getting to-day, and must of necessity give way to young blood and good training.’

“As a sign of the times, clearly showing how important this matter of scientific training in the technical schools is regarded by the business community, I may say that the Boston school, though crowded to its utmost capacity, cannot furnish graduates half fast enough to fill the situations waiting to receive them. Of course the most gifted get the best places, and it will be the same with you. The manufacturers cannot do without you, when you are sufficiently advanced to fill the places that will be waiting for you.

“There are two kinds of copyists that annoy those who make designs; namely, the servile copyist and the exaggerator. The former carefully reproduces, as nearly as he can, your new design; and the other, when he sees it, says to himself, ‘Aha! I can beat that! I'll show'em style!’ So, if you made fuller lines, he puffs them out still more, and if you have flatted them he makes them nearly or quite straight, sometimes making the bottom lines of a Brougham look like a cow-catcher or a plow.

“It is greatly to be hoped that this School of ours, now so well established, will develop sufficient talent to relieve us from the necessity of copying foreign designs, by producing designers of our own, quite as artistic, yet having characteristics peculiar to ourselves and better adapted to the wants of our citizens; and I confidently predict that eventually we shall cease to look abroad for novelty in heavy work.

“We are occasionally greatly aided in producing novelties by our customers. A gentleman will sometimes come to you who is possessed of very peculiar notions. He can find nothing to please him, and so, after getting his ideas as far as possible, you prepare for him a number of sketches. In such efforts to please a customer one often makes a decided hit, and something good may come out of it for you, or it may be such that your customer enjoys a complete monopoly of the new style. The benefit is, that the demand for something new puts us to the trial. I am inclined to think that more new things have been brought out in this way than any other, for with an order from a wealthy and liberal patron to do our best, we have an excellent opportunity to raise the standard of our work which we should be short-sighted not to improve.

“I would by no means urge you to be always striving for novelty, for this tendency is easily carried to excess. Of course, one style, however fine it may be, cannot last long, and we must continually make changes, but we need not strive for startling effects, but rather for new beauties, by giving our old forms a new expression.

“If it were my place to advise you on what to concentrate your best energies, I should say, after your geometry and drafting lessons, then turn to free-hand drawing. Next, I should advise another course of free-hand drawing, and third, still a little more free-hand drawing. This might be a habit rather than a study, and need not occupy much of the time so precious to you in your technical studies; but you should become perfect masters of the pencil, so that your thoughts may be expressed with the utmost facility. It is related of Michael Angelo that when an important work was in contemplation in the Roman capital a messenger was sent to him asking him to send the authorities a sample of his drawings, that they might judge of his merits. He seized the pencil, and with one sweep of his master hand described a circle so true that the dividers could detect no deviation from a perfect curve. ‘Show them that!’ he exclaimed, proudly. ‘This is a sample of my ability.’

“Some men, who claim to be very practical, object to taking the time of students to teach them to make pictures. This is very much like the cry of the old-time farmers against ‘book larnin'.’ I would have you make a picture of every object that you can find time to draw. Object-drawing trains the hand to do the bidding of the will, and trains the eye to observe all forms correctly, and to appreciate beauty in all things. Do this, and your designs will blossom with new beauty; and you will generally find that the practical man, who dislikes to have you learn so idle a thing as picture-making, will be very glad to borrow them from you without credit, thus paying you an unintentional compliment.

“I cannot but think that the sending out of the graduates of this school among the carriage-builders of the country will have the effect of preventing, to a very great extent, the servile copying system now so common in our trade. Men who are fully competent to make good designs scorn to copy each other, and it is only those who can originate nothing who steal everything. Each large manufactory should have its own individual styles, and have pride enough to maintain a little personality in its work by which it may be recognized; and if each of the large builders should employ really competent draftsmen this result would be almost sure to follow. This is a consummation devoutly to be wished for, by which all would be benefited, and many relieved from a great annoyance.

“The future of our business is by no means discouraging. The country is now on the flood-tide of prosperity, vast interests are being rapidly developed, and the wealth of the community is being vastly increased in all sections of the country. Wealth brings refinement and good taste in due time, and good taste demands fine carriages; and as nobody wants an article just like his neighbor, we always have opportunities for making changes.

“It lies with you, young gentlemen, to give us such novelties in the near future, and such fine new styles of such exquisite beauty and perfection, that American carriages will be sought for in all parts of the world. (THE END.)”

Appendix II

Near the end of his life Chauncey Thomas wrote an excellent history of the carriage in the United States which was published as chapter 79 of Volume 2 of Chauncey Mitchell Depew’s massive history of American commerce which was entitled ‘1795-1895: One hundred years of American Commerce’ published in 1895. The entire chapter follows:

Chapter LXXIX

American Carriage and Wagon Works by Chauncey Thomas, Boston, Mass., Chauncey Thomas & Co.

“In all classes and kinds of musical instruments American ingenuity has achieved great triumphs and introduced many improvements, adding to the quality, and especially to the durability of the article, so that the importation of them has almost ceased. FROM the earliest times of which there has been any historical record, mankind has utilized wheels as a means of transportation. On the great sculptured stones now in the British Museum, taken from the ruined city of Nimrod near Nineveh, can be seen, besides the innumerable war chariots, carts drawn by oxen, and carts drawn by men. The writer made a drawing of one of the latter kind, which shows very good construction. The wheels have six spokes and are well proportioned; probably they were about forty-two inches high. The body is framed up with posts and a top rail, and the spaces are filled with handsome wicker work. There is an arched guard over the wheel to protect the latter from contact with the overhanging load. The cart is loaded with logs of wood. On another slab is shown the king's chariot, with an elegant canopy over the royal head. This chariot carries, besides the king, the charioteer and an arms-bearer. In Biblical history the chariot is very frequently referred to, those of the great army of Pharaoh being engulfed in the Red Sea. It is worth noting that the word "carriage" was at one time used in the sense of goods or baggage, and we find in the New Testament, "After those days we took up our carriages and went up to Jerusalem." The Greeks and Romans were, of course, familiar with the horse-drawn vehicle, and in the story of the Trojan war we find Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy lashed to his chariot. Carriages without wheels were used as late as the seventeenth century, when they were known as litters, having shafts behind and before which were supported upon the backs of the horses. The litter was but a form of the sedan chair, itself a species of carriage. If we look for a carriage with wheels but without horses, we find it in the jinrikisha of Japan, a unique vehicle drawn by man-power. The ancient chariot, with all its splendor of decoration, was but a two-wheeled cart without springs, and this, the starting-point in the evolution of the carriage, we find among many barbaric peoples, the wheels being formed of solid wood rendered circular when nature formed the trees from which they were made. Even the triumphal and funeral cars of early history were but springless carts; and ages of progress lie between a gorgeous chariot of the Caesars and a modern buggy. Queen Elizabeth's wonderful state coach, with its highly ornamented and canopied body, was without springs. It was a sort of triumphal car, for State parades. Her usual mode of locomotion was by water or on horse-back.

The various forms which the modern carriage has assumed appear to be almost limitless. The old-time stage-coach has developed into the fashionable drag or tally-ho; the post-chaise and the curricle are no more; but there are still left to us innumerable forms of vehicles, of which the American buggy is perhaps the most useful and represents the highest development of the carriage-builder's art. Many of the forms came to us from England, notably the brougham, named for Lord Brougham. The landau takes its title from the town of the same name in Germany, where it was first made. A few specimens of the Irish jaunting-car have found their way to America, where they serve to remind us of the active nation with which they are popular. The hack as a name is solely American, but is of course a lineal descendant of the English hackney coach.

Carriage building, as an art, began to be developed in all parts of Europe about the middle of the seventeenth century. Steady but slow progress was made in all the great cities, and some almost elegant forms are shown in the old prints, profusely decorated. The running parts, however, were very imperfect. The first relief from the jolting of the dead axle carriage was accomplished by suspending the body of the carriages on long leather thorough-braces stretched from upright iron jacks which stood up from each end of the running part. The next improvement was made by transforming these stiff iron jacks into spring jacks, and by making them of steel plates. Finally, in the early part of our own century, the spring jack was given a bold, sweeping curve, and the beautiful C spring evolved. The Collinge axle now in common use all over the world was perfected almost 10o years ago, and the elliptic spring, the best of all springs, was invented at about the same time. It was early in the eighteenth century that the post-chaise came into use for journeying, and the hackney coach and hackney cab came to take the place of the sedan chair in the great cities. This created quite a war in London between the watermen and the chairmen on the one side, and the coaches on the other.

In very old times the post-chaise had a small body hung very high on its leather straps; the wheels were very high and far apart, and the driver rode the wheel horse. In later times this uncouth post-chaise developed into the elegant chariot, perhaps the most perfectly formed carriage ever built. This carriage, with its gorgeously draped coachman's seat, as well as the full coach similarly mounted, is now only seen at royal receptions and other state occasions in the capitals of monarchical countries. As with other inventions, the evolution of the carriage has taken place by fits and starts, the greatest progress having been made during the present century, and the field in which that progress occurred having been the United States of America.

The volume of business done by American carriage-manufacturers in 1795 was exceedingly small. Technical knowledge was not wanting, however, for there were many shops which had been established in colonial days, where fine carriages were occasionally built, and many imported French and English vehicles repaired. But business languished for lack of customers. Before the War of the Revolution the rich shipping merchants of Salem, Boston, Newport, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Charleston lived in good style, as was common in those monarchical times, and imported in their own ships coaches, chariots, and phaetons, from England and France. Repair shops sprang up in all the large towns and cities, and skilled workmen came from England, Ireland, and Scotland, finding ready employment on their arrival.

A curious bit of history, clearly showing the use of carriages in New York City in 1770, came to the writer's knowledge some years ago from the late George W. W. Houghton, who embodied the facts in a lecture delivered before the New York Historical Society. The old record, which he somewhere discovered, gives a list of fifty-nine owners of carriages and the vehicles mentioned were twenty-six coaches, thirty-three chariots or post-chaises, and twenty-six phaetons — in all, there were eighty-five vehicles. The names of the owners were Cadwallader Colden, Daniel Horsmanden, John Watts, Oliver De Lancey, Joseph Reade, Charles W. Apthorp, Colonel Roger Morris, Henry Cruger, John Cruger, James De Lancey, the widow of Governor James De Lancey, the widow of William Walton, the widow of Judge John Chambers, the widow of James McEvers, the widow Lawrence, Mrs. Waddell, Andrew Elliott, William Bayard, Nicholas Bayard, Philip Livingston, John Livingston, Robert G. Livingston, Walter Rutherford, Gerardus Beekman, Colonel Beekman, Nathaniel Marston, John Marston, Rev. Dr. Ogilvie of Trinity Church, Anthony Rutgers, Jacob Le Roy, David Johnson, William Axtell, Miss Lodge, Leonard Lispenard, Samuel Verplanck, Lawrence Kortright, David Clarkson, John Van Cortlandt, Robert Murray, James Jauncey, Dr. William Brownjohn, Dr. Jonathan Mallet, Thomas Tiebout, Jacob Walton, John Watkins, Nicholas Gouverneur, John Aspinwall, Hugh Wallace, Isaac Low, A. Van Cortlandt, Gerardus Duyckinck, General Gage, John Read, Archibald Kennedy, Thomas Sowers, Captain John Montressor, John Leake, Abraham Montier, and Ralph Izard. Many of these names are familiar to the New Yorker of to-day, the prestige of the old families having kept pace with the march of events.

It will be observed that there were but three styles of carriages known among the old aristocracy, and they were all for town use. No similar records are to be found in other cities, but there are many ancient relics of grand chariots now to be found in Boston and vicinity, still preserved in the stables of the old families as curiosities. One fine old chariot-body is now at the writer's factory, sound and serviceable. It was used by the owner's grandfather in London in 1793. The wheels and running-gear long ago disappeared, but the body is now being fitted with an elegant set of runners, and, when the first snow comes, will enter upon a new career of usefulness, completely rejuvenated as a stylish winter carriage.

The effects of the struggle for independence, and the hard times which followed, so impoverished the people that there was but little use for carriages of luxury in the early days of the present century. The tendency of all classes was essentially democratic, and rigid economy was esteemed a great virtue. This state of things was not favorable for the makers of fine carriages; but, fortunately for them, all well-to-do people required something to ride in, and that took the form of the two-wheeled chaise, immortalized by Dr. Holmes. These were in great demand as the country grew prosperous, and were built in large numbers in Boston, Salem, Worcester, Pittsfield, West Amesbury, Mass., New London and New Haven, Conn., as well as in Wilmington, Del., and Philadelphia. They had enormously high wheels, and the tops were stationary, being supported on iron posts. Curtains of painted canvas or leather covered the sides and back. These chaises were often built without dashers or aprons in the earlier times, but in later years they had falling tops and were gay with silver plate. So universally was this style of carriage in use that most carriage-makers were known as "chaise-makers," as the old sign-boards of fifty years ago plainly indicated. Chaise-making throve mightily, and up to about 1840 it seemed that nothing could ever fully supplant the favorite old two-wheeler. But the buggy, which had been struggling for existence for several years, began to come to the front.

The chaise had been for generations of nearly the same form, no radical changes having been tolerated; but the buggy came in a multitude of forms, as it was new and without any recognized standard of shape to hamper the fancy of the builder. At last the door was open for novelties, and has since been still wider open, with no signs of being closed again.

The buggy is purely American in its origin, and is without doubt the greatest achievement of American carriage-makers. The body may be of any form, but the running part is always of the same, or nearly the same, type. Its common-sense construction is wholly unlike the work of any other country. It is simpler, lighter, stronger, and cheaper than any other style of vehicle, and is so admirable in all respects that it is not likely to go out of use for at least another century.

In the early days of this century of progress a great stimulus was given to the carriage and wagon trade by the advent of the grand old stage-coach. It was elegant in form, gay with paint and gilded scrollwork, and when starting out on its journey, rocking on its tough thorough-braces under its load of passengers and baggage, with its team of four or six Morgan horses, it was an inspiriting sight. It has been said that the stage-coach was unknown in America prior to 1810, but this is a mistake. In 1776 John Hancock stole away from his duties in the Continental Congress to Tamfield, Conn., where he married the beautiful Dorothy Quincy, and took her on a wedding journey to Philadelphia by stagecoach. The incidents of the journey, including the upsetting of the coach, are duly set forth in the record of William Bant, attorney to Governor Hancock. It is also related that Mrs. Hancock took a similar journey with her son, who was but two weeks old, to join her husband in Philadelphia. This was in 1778. The roads, however, at this early date, were little better than bridle-paths, and the chief resource for journeying was the saddle. In 1791 there were but 1905 miles of post-roads in the States, and in these roads were many bottomless sloughs, and corduroy bridges consisting of round logs laid crosswise over swamps, sometimes for long distances. As the government and local authorities improved and extended the roads, some sort of public conveyance followed.

In New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania the great Conestoga wagon, broad-wheeled, and with huge canvas-covered body, was drawn over the rough roads by six or eight horses or oxen for the transportation of freight and passengers. This wagon was the prototype of the famous "prairie schooner," or emigrant wagon, of later times.

Government roads, called military roads, were built across the mountains of Virginia, connecting the East with the valley of the Ohio; also through the great forests of Maine to the town of Houlton on the New Brunswick frontier, and in many other parts of the country. They were for postal and military purposes. On all these were quickly established thriving stage lines, and the business grew very rapidly. Capital was freely invested in the varied interests directly and remotely connected with the innumerable lines which radiated from all the chief towns and cities in the country; and the investments paid good dividends.

The carriage-maker, the harness-maker, the horsebreeder, and the jolly old country tavern-keeper, with his good dinners, his well-stocked and wellpatronized bar, all seem to have been prosperous and happy in the good old slow-going time.

Stage-coaches and wagons were built in many places at the time I write of. Salem, Mass., was early in the field. Osgood Bradley, of Worcester, was a large builder; the Troy coach, of Troy, N .Y., was very famous in its day; but a little later, and still more famous, came the Concord coach, of Concord, N. H. The founder of the house of Abbott, Downing & Company, now the largest wagon-builders in New England, whose work is known throughout America as well as in South Africa and Australia, was Louis Downing, who moved to Concord from Salem, Mass., in 1815. There he began the manufacture of coaches and wagons; and after eighty years, this old house is still in the full tide of active business.

So great was the coaching business from 1810 to about 1845, that in addition to the builders hundreds of smaller shops derived their chief income from repairing and painting these fine old road coaches.

After the War of 1812, trade and commerce entered upon a new career of prosperity. The shipping merchants were piling up wealth; manufacturing, which had grown strong by the fact that the war had thrown us wholly on our own resources, was opening up new sources of wealth, and again stylish carriages for city use were in demand. Fine coaches and chariots, hung on C springs, and made grand with the hammer-cloth coachman's seat, were built in all the large cities. Boston had two wellequipped shops for this kind of work; New Haven and Bridgeport were active and growing; Newark, N. J., became celebrated for its fine productions, and New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wilmington, Del., were supplying their own wants, and sowing the seeds of greater development in later times.

About this time a considerable export trade grew up with the West Indies. The carriages shipped there were known as volantes, and were large twowheeled vehicles with immensely long shafts. The wheels were placed so far in the rear of the vehicle, in order to give greater freedom of access, that the shaft horse had a very large share of the weight upon his back. In addition to this, the overloaded beast carried the postilion, while the leader did most of the hauling. These carriages were shipped by the sugar and molasses merchants of the northern cities to the planters of the West Indies, in commercial exchange for their product, which was speedily converted into rum, then in great demand at home and abroad. Thus the carriage-maker played his part in the interchange of commodities, and trade flourished.

Farmers' wagons and carts had been made in every village in the country since the earliest time, but wagon-making as a great business began with the development of the Western States. First came the large emigrant wagon, and after that the lighter farm wagon, and, later still, wagons for the great overland current of emigration, which flowed like a mighty river from the East to the gold-fields of California. Happily for the emigrants, the wagon-makers of the West were equal to the occasion. Great factories quickly grew up, stimulated by this additional demand, and among the rest the great house of Studebaker Brothers, which had its origin as far back as 1813, now came to the front, reorganized and ready for business. This firm, now the largest wagon and carriage manufacturers in the world, was just in time to take a leading part in supplying the government with army wagons for the western regiments in the Civil War. It was due to the thorough equipment of the wagon-makers of the country that the armies of the North were better and more properly supplied with the means of transportation than any army in military history. Wagonbuilding is so vast in its proportions that when one visits such an establishment as that at South Bend, Indiana, he wonders where purchasers can be found for so many vehicles, a wagon being produced every ten minutes in this one factory.

The older men of the present generation of carriage-makers have witnessed a great change in the extent as well as in the method of manufacturing. In the early years of the century, business in the old carriage towns was done on what is called the "dicker" system. Woodworkers, blacksmiths, trimmers, and painters, each did business on his own account, and swapped parts, as they termed it, the final settlements being made in finished carriages. The dealer in materials also took carriages in payment. The workmen were paid with orders for goods, and money was almost unknown in all the various transactions. The old operators, who did business in this way, used to say that the plan was much safer than the cash system, there being fewer failures, and less danger of getting involved in debt.

By and by the small operators with their little shops went the way of all old-time things, and wellorganized factories succeeded them. Then a multitude of inventions in machinery were eagerly taken up and utilized. Larger and larger grew the factories, more and more perfect the machinery, until the present time, when the limit of quick methods and cheap production seems to be well-nigh reached. But the end is not yet.

Much the larger number of carriages built in the great factories where machinery is employed are built in duplicate by the million, and are sold to the million at exceedingly low prices. Of course, there are many qualities among the vast variety of vehicles built by the new processes, and many grades of stock enter into their composition. As in all other manufactures, the price is a very fair indication of quality. One might think that in the rush for low prices of both builders and buyers all really good work would be superseded by low grades, and that the tendency would be steadily downward in quality; but such is not the fact. Fine work — I may say superb work, that which taxes the highest skill and care of the best designers and mechanics — is still in great demand, and will probably continue to be for all time.

There are many builders of high-grade work widely known by the public, of whom I should be glad to speak, and who are distinguished for their excellent productions; but I will name only one, easily the first in this or any other country — Brewster & Company of New York. A visit to this great establishment — of which all American carriagebuilders are justly proud — will show the appreciative observer to how high a degree of perfection, beauty, and completeness modern carriage-building has attained.

In 1872 the leading carriage-makers of the country formed an association called the "Carriage Builders' National Association." The good that this organization has accomplished by means of its annual conventions can scarcely be estimated. All trades which have similar associations know the value of good fellowship and good feeling among competitors instead of the old-time jealous antagonism. Very early in the history of the association the decay of the useful old apprenticeship system was recognized; and as a substitute for this past method of training workmen a fund was raised by subscription for a technical school, to be established in New York City, to teach the science of carriage drafting and construction. This school has been a great success. Under able teachers a large number of talented young men have graduated, well equipped to take charge of the constructive department in our factories. Thus scientifically trained foremen and whirling machinery now very largely take the place of the skilled workmen who formerly occupied our benches, each working by his own methods, carefully guarded, in which there was more of the rule of thumb than of science.

It is fortunate for the graduate of the technical school when, in addition to the knowledge gained in the course of his studies, he has the inborn faculty of producing new and beautiful forms; that keen sense of fair proportions and graceful lines which is the necessary qualification of a designer. Few things fashioned by human skill are more beautiful than a fine carriage; none but a true artist in his line is fit to determine its form, and none but an expert mechanic, painstaking and honest, is fit to supervise its construction. The light-weight carriages now required, the tremendous strain and rough usage which they must undergo without a sign of weakness, require the most carefully selected stock and the most watchful care in all the details of mechanical arrangement.

The volume of business done by all the carriagemakers in the country is clearly shown by the last census report, from which the following figures are taken:

AMERICAN CARRIAGE AND WAGON TRADE.

Number of establishments 4i57l

Number of workmen employed 62,594

Number of all other employees 56,525

Officers, firm-members, and clerks 6,069

Capital employed $93,455,257

Miscellaneous expenses .. 5,495,271

Wages of workmen 34,687,827

Wages of other employees 28,972,401

Wages of officers, firm-members, and clerks .... 5,715,426

Value of all products 102,680,341

Cost of materials 46,022,769

Value of road carts 6,074,173

Value of buggies 27,345,540

Other light carriages 13,109,982

Broughams, coaches, Victorias, etc 4,279,738

Other heavy carriages 2,973,898

Light and heavy spring wagons, etc. 12,640,339

Farm wagons and carts 14,146,700

Repairing 18,610,366

It will be seen from the above figures that the value of buggies manufactured was double that of any other style of carriage or wagon, and more than one fourth of the total product.

That the volume of business done in the carriage trade at the present time is fully equal to the wants of the community is evident from the exceedingly sharp competition among builders and dealers. The business, however, will certainly continue to grow as fast as the increased capacity of the purchasing class can be made to absorb the increased product.

Given that prosperity which our country and her beneficent institutions insure us, if wisdom rules, a continued advance will be made, a wider and wider market will be open to us, greater novelties will be forthcoming to tempt the lovers of new things, greater perfection will be attained, and a greater number of our hard-working fraternity will find good employment with satisfactory returns.

Chauncey Thomas

© 2012 Mark Theobald - Coachbuilt.com

© 2004-2012 Coachbuilt.com, Inc.|books|disclaimer|index|privacy