Essex
1924 Essex Notes by John L Salisbury III
Anna M. Salisbury, the original owner of the 1924 Essex, was born in 1882 and died at 94 years of age in 1976. She was the daughter of John Vandemark and Ellen Stryker Salisbury. She had two older brothers, Frank Arthur and John Lewis Salisbury. The family lived their entire lives in Phelps. Anna is buried in Rest Haven Cemetery.
My Grandfather J.L. Salisbury and Great Uncle F.A. Salisbury bought the 1924 Essex Sedan for my Great Aunt Ann M. Salisbury in 1924. Aunt Anna told me that she was given the car in exchange for giving her brothers the horse she owned. The car cost about $1,000 plus $100 for the front bumper. It probably has been driven less than 30,000 miles. To my knowledge, the furthest the car was driven under AuntAnna’s ownership was from Phelps, NY to Geneva, NY.
Some of my memories of the car include the many times she would drive it out to Sunnyside Farm on Marbletown Road in Phelps. She would frequent the house for a family meal, particularly on Sundays after church. Salisbury family gatherings were special occasions with Uncle Leonard & Aunt Jane and their children Ellen, Margaret, Susan and Mark, Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice and their children Louise and Carolyn, and Uncle Art and Aunt Marion and their children Jim and Martha, and my father and mother, Barney and Louise Salisbury, and Phil, Paul, Betsey, Sally and me. Aunt Anna would sometimes show up for those occasions, crank up the Essex and give us all a ride around the circular drive aroundthe farm’s house. She would hand crank the car to get itstarted even though it had an electric starter. The problem was a couple of teeth on the fly wheel had broken off.
I am sure she also visited Maplewood farm where her brother Frank and his wife Winifred lived. Frank and Winifred adopted my Uncle Bob Salisbury, whose wife was my Aunt Lee. Their children were cousins Tom, David, twins Roberta and Linda, Ted and Laurel.
Aunt Anna was never married. She lived at 10 North Wayne Street where she housed the Essex in a garage with a dirt
floor. She also kept her gardening tools in the garage which meant there was little space to get into the car.
Aunt Anna served as a babysitter for many of the youth in the community. I do not recall her ever having any full-time job. I believe she was supported to some extent by my grandmother, grandfather and her brother Frank and his wife Winifred.
Ellen Stryker Salisbury, my great grandmother, lived with Aunt Anna sometime after her husband John Vandemark Salisbury died in 1925. Ellen Stryker Salisbury is the person who saved letters dating from 1825-1935, copies of which can be seen on a computer thumb drive donated to Phelps Community Historical Society (PCHS).
Diane, my wife, and I would periodically travel from Maine to visit family in Phelps during the period of 1966-1984 with our children Ann, Susan and Mark. During a number of those visits we would stop and visit with Aunt Anna. I expressed my interest about a number of items she had in her home, and told her that if she ever decided to sell any of the items we would be interested. The pump organ that is now in the Howe House Museum is one of those items.
The 1924 Essex was an item I was interested in buying. During one of the visits she told me several people had recently expressed interest in purchasing the car. My response to Aunt Anna at that time was that I would pay her $100 more than what any other party offered. A couple of years later she agreed to sell me the car for $600 after other parties had approached her.
The Essex was well maintained and serviced by “Red”Dennison who had a small service station in downtown Phelps next to Phelps Gas & Electric. My aunt would paint the car and tar the canvas roof every few years. As I have frequently said, “whether the car needed it or not”.
Aunt Anna stopped driving the car a few years before I purchased it in 1971. The reason was she had an accident and hit the Catholic priest, Father Simpson. He drove a fancy Chrysler car. The accident did no damage to the Essex which had a dual iron front bumper. It is my understanding theaccident just about totaled Father Simpson’s car. Being adevoted Presbyterian, Anna garaged the car and never drove it again.
To the best of my recollection, Diane’s father, Carl Ulmer,transported the car to Hallowell, Maine in 1971. We had an old 1800 barn where the car was initially stored until I purchased a small old Crosley Car dealership building that overlooked the Kennebec River for $2,000. The building was on the street below our 1800 brick colonial home on Second Street.
The Essex had annual outings in the Old Hallowell DayParade. It’s first outing was at the July, 1971 parade, whichoccurred a few days following the birth of our son Mark (John Vandemark). I took a large piece of cardboard and strapped itto the spare tire. The sign on it announced “It is a Boy - 10 1⁄2lbs. July 22, 1971”.
After owning the Essex a few years, I decided to see if I could locate a person who could replace the missing teeth on the flywheel. I located a shop teacher on the Litchfield road in Hallowell, whose name I do not recall. He thought he could do the job of welding several additional teeth back on the fly wheel. When I visited him several months later, he said the teeth had been replaced and asked me if he could have his shop class paint the car. He said the only charge would be for the paint. The shop class removed all of the hand brushed paint that my Aunt Anna had layered on over the years. The class did an excellent job removing the old paint and re- painting the car. One would swear it was the original paint.
One day when I was reading the Kennebec Journal, I unexpectedly came across the obituary of the shop teacher. A couple of months after his death I decided to contact his wife to locate the car. She said it was in his shop and I was welcome to come and get it. I told her I owed her some money for the flywheel repairs, and at a minimum, the cost of the paint. She insisted she would not take any money and appreciated having me come to take the car.
In 1984 I took a new position in New Haven, Connecticut, and purchased a home in Cheshire, Connecticut. The move from Hallowell, Maine to Connecticut took place in 1985. After the moving van completed loading our household belongings ,the driver said there was room for the Essex and asked whether I wanted to have him take the car. Needless to say, I took him up on the offer.
1997 is the year Diane and I moved back to Maine. Rather than move the Essex back to Maine, we decided to donate the Essex to the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, NY. At that time, the Phelps Historical Society did not own the
Howe House and had no place to store the automobile. Unfortunately the Northeast Classic Car Museum did not take proper care of the car. Bonnie and Bill Shroh, ofSchoharie, NY, were at the museum one day with Bill’s dad, Raeburn. Bill’s dad was talking about Essex cars with amember of the museum. He told him there was an Essex in the storage room in the back. Bill & his dad went to look at it and Raeburn ended up buying it. The Essex was then passed on to Bill who has a collection of several Essex cars, and he got the 1924 Essex running again. Somehow I learned that Bill had the Essex and called to ask him if he would bring the car to Phelps for the Sauerkraut Festival. He generously did
so in 2013.
At the time I spoke with Bill in 2013, I asked him if he ever sold the Essex would he give me first refusal. Some events happen for unforeseen but fortuitous reasons. I re-posted a Facebook memory about the Essex which one of my Phelps friends viewed. I commented that if I could buy the Essex back, I would be glad to give it to the Phelps Community Historical Society. That elicited an apparent discussion among the Trustees of PCHS and an e-mail from Diane Goodman,PCHS Director. She suggested that “it would be a most generous endeavor if the Essex does come home to Phelps”.The rest is history. The Essex has found a new home at the Howe House across the street from where it was originally garaged at 10 North Wayne Street.
Anna M. Salisbury, the original owner of the 1924 Essex, was born in 1882 and died at 94 years of age in 1976. She was the daughter of John Vandemark and Ellen Stryker Salisbury. She had two older brothers, Frank Arthur and John Lewis Salisbury. The family lived their entire lives in Phelps. Anna is buried in Rest Haven Cemetery.
My Grandfather J.L. Salisbury and Great Uncle F.A. Salisbury bought the 1924 Essex Sedan for my Great Aunt Ann M. Salisbury in 1924. Aunt Anna told me that she was given the car in exchange for giving her brothers the horse she owned. The car cost about $1,000 plus $100 for the front bumper. It probably has been driven less than 30,000 miles. To my knowledge, the furthest the car was driven under AuntAnna’s ownership was from Phelps, NY to Geneva, NY.
Some of my memories of the car include the many times she would drive it out to Sunnyside Farm on Marbletown Road in Phelps. She would frequent the house for a family meal, particularly on Sundays after church. Salisbury family gatherings were special occasions with Uncle Leonard & Aunt Jane and their children Ellen, Margaret, Susan and Mark, Uncle Frank and Aunt Alice and their children Louise and Carolyn, and Uncle Art and Aunt Marion and their children Jim and Martha, and my father and mother, Barney and Louise Salisbury, and Phil, Paul, Betsey, Sally and me. Aunt Anna would sometimes show up for those occasions, crank up the Essex and give us all a ride around the circular drive aroundthe farm’s house. She would hand crank the car to get itstarted even though it had an electric starter. The problem was a couple of teeth on the fly wheel had broken off.
I am sure she also visited Maplewood farm where her brother Frank and his wife Winifred lived. Frank and Winifred adopted my Uncle Bob Salisbury, whose wife was my Aunt Lee. Their children were cousins Tom, David, twins Roberta and Linda, Ted and Laurel.
Aunt Anna was never married. She lived at 10 North Wayne Street where she housed the Essex in a garage with a dirt
floor. She also kept her gardening tools in the garage which meant there was little space to get into the car.
Aunt Anna served as a babysitter for many of the youth in the community. I do not recall her ever having any full-time job. I believe she was supported to some extent by my grandmother, grandfather and her brother Frank and his wife Winifred.
Ellen Stryker Salisbury, my great grandmother, lived with Aunt Anna sometime after her husband John Vandemark Salisbury died in 1925. Ellen Stryker Salisbury is the person who saved letters dating from 1825-1935, copies of which can be seen on a computer thumb drive donated to Phelps Community Historical Society (PCHS).
Diane, my wife, and I would periodically travel from Maine to visit family in Phelps during the period of 1966-1984 with our children Ann, Susan and Mark. During a number of those visits we would stop and visit with Aunt Anna. I expressed my interest about a number of items she had in her home, and told her that if she ever decided to sell any of the items we would be interested. The pump organ that is now in the Howe House Museum is one of those items.
The 1924 Essex was an item I was interested in buying. During one of the visits she told me several people had recently expressed interest in purchasing the car. My response to Aunt Anna at that time was that I would pay her $100 more than what any other party offered. A couple of years later she agreed to sell me the car for $600 after other parties had approached her.
The Essex was well maintained and serviced by “Red”Dennison who had a small service station in downtown Phelps next to Phelps Gas & Electric. My aunt would paint the car and tar the canvas roof every few years. As I have frequently said, “whether the car needed it or not”.
Aunt Anna stopped driving the car a few years before I purchased it in 1971. The reason was she had an accident and hit the Catholic priest, Father Simpson. He drove a fancy Chrysler car. The accident did no damage to the Essex which had a dual iron front bumper. It is my understanding theaccident just about totaled Father Simpson’s car. Being adevoted Presbyterian, Anna garaged the car and never drove it again.
To the best of my recollection, Diane’s father, Carl Ulmer,transported the car to Hallowell, Maine in 1971. We had an old 1800 barn where the car was initially stored until I purchased a small old Crosley Car dealership building that overlooked the Kennebec River for $2,000. The building was on the street below our 1800 brick colonial home on Second Street.
The Essex had annual outings in the Old Hallowell DayParade. It’s first outing was at the July, 1971 parade, whichoccurred a few days following the birth of our son Mark (John Vandemark). I took a large piece of cardboard and strapped itto the spare tire. The sign on it announced “It is a Boy - 10 1⁄2lbs. July 22, 1971”.
After owning the Essex a few years, I decided to see if I could locate a person who could replace the missing teeth on the flywheel. I located a shop teacher on the Litchfield road in Hallowell, whose name I do not recall. He thought he could do the job of welding several additional teeth back on the fly wheel. When I visited him several months later, he said the teeth had been replaced and asked me if he could have his shop class paint the car. He said the only charge would be for the paint. The shop class removed all of the hand brushed paint that my Aunt Anna had layered on over the years. The class did an excellent job removing the old paint and re- painting the car. One would swear it was the original paint.
One day when I was reading the Kennebec Journal, I unexpectedly came across the obituary of the shop teacher. A couple of months after his death I decided to contact his wife to locate the car. She said it was in his shop and I was welcome to come and get it. I told her I owed her some money for the flywheel repairs, and at a minimum, the cost of the paint. She insisted she would not take any money and appreciated having me come to take the car.
In 1984 I took a new position in New Haven, Connecticut, and purchased a home in Cheshire, Connecticut. The move from Hallowell, Maine to Connecticut took place in 1985. After the moving van completed loading our household belongings ,the driver said there was room for the Essex and asked whether I wanted to have him take the car. Needless to say, I took him up on the offer.
1997 is the year Diane and I moved back to Maine. Rather than move the Essex back to Maine, we decided to donate the Essex to the Northeast Classic Car Museum in Norwich, NY. At that time, the Phelps Historical Society did not own the
Howe House and had no place to store the automobile. Unfortunately the Northeast Classic Car Museum did not take proper care of the car. Bonnie and Bill Shroh, ofSchoharie, NY, were at the museum one day with Bill’s dad, Raeburn. Bill’s dad was talking about Essex cars with amember of the museum. He told him there was an Essex in the storage room in the back. Bill & his dad went to look at it and Raeburn ended up buying it. The Essex was then passed on to Bill who has a collection of several Essex cars, and he got the 1924 Essex running again. Somehow I learned that Bill had the Essex and called to ask him if he would bring the car to Phelps for the Sauerkraut Festival. He generously did
so in 2013.
At the time I spoke with Bill in 2013, I asked him if he ever sold the Essex would he give me first refusal. Some events happen for unforeseen but fortuitous reasons. I re-posted a Facebook memory about the Essex which one of my Phelps friends viewed. I commented that if I could buy the Essex back, I would be glad to give it to the Phelps Community Historical Society. That elicited an apparent discussion among the Trustees of PCHS and an e-mail from Diane Goodman,PCHS Director. She suggested that “it would be a most generous endeavor if the Essex does come home to Phelps”.The rest is history. The Essex has found a new home at the Howe House across the street from where it was originally garaged at 10 North Wayne Street.
