When the first automobiles came to the country

Effie Spruill Carpenter recalled the first time she saw a car drive through Dunwoody and told the story to her granddaughter Jane Anderson Autry.

The people of Dunwoody waited in yards and along the road, waving and clapping as the car drove by. Carpenter said the driver was a Mr. Vaughn from Roswell, and his drive through Dunwoody took place in the early 1900s.

Cliff P. Vaughn and Claud Groover opened the Roswell Motor Company in 1921, so Vaughn may have been advertising for the dealership. The company sold Fordson tractors, Lincoln and Ford cars. A Whippet dealership opened in Roswell in 1929 but was short lived due to the Great Depression. (“Roswell, A Pictorial History,” edited by Darlene Walsh)

According to the Digital Library of Georgia, White Star Automobile in Atlanta was the first Southern automobile manufacturer and began operations in 1909. The $1,500 car was advertised as “complete with top, magneto, and lamp equipment.” That same year, the company name was changed to Atlanta Car Company. The company filed for bankruptcy in 1911.

Benjamin Burdett and his son Arthur of Sandy Springs invested in the Hanson Motor Company in 1917 after the car was introduced at the Southeastern Automobile Show. The Hanson Six automobile was designed by Don Ferguson, who had worked with Studebaker and General Motors. Arthur Burdett was vice president of Hanson Motor Company.

The Burdett family built a twostory brick mansion in 1900 where Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church is today. Benjamin Burdett had already started a realty firm before getting into the car business. The Hanson Six sold well initially, but by the mid-1920s, large manufacturers were too much competition. The company closed in 1925. (“Atlanta and Environs, Vol. 2,” Franklin Garrett)

Tillie Hindman Womack recalled that Benjamin Burdette commuted from Sandy Springs to Atlanta in his Hanson Six. At the time, he was the only person driving a car in Sandy Springs. People still got around with horse-drawn carriages and wagons, so everyone was fascinated with the car. (Sandy Springs Gazette, 2017)

Elmer Womack, who lived where Georgia State University Dunwoody campus is today, was the proud owner of a 1925 Model T Ford that was sitting idle in the garage. When the Tucker Federal Savings and Loan interviewed him for their local newsletter in 1970, Womack told the story of an $800 cash offer he recently received for the old car. He turned down the offer because he was still thinking of trading the Model T for a newer car.

Fred Donaldson of Dunwoody remembers a 1928 model Chevrolet the family owned. One day the car started rolling down the driveway. As Donaldson tells it, “We were all sitting on the front porch one Sunday when the ’28 model Chevrolet came down the drive right by itself. My brother Fletcher ran and jumped in, stopped it right before it reached the railroad cut.”

Johnson W. (Dub) Brown grew up in Chamblee, graduating from Chamblee High School in 1941, the year the school burned. His family ran a dairy.

Brown later served as mayor of the city. His first car was a stripped-down Model T. Ford.

Gordon Wallace also had a stripped-down Model T, which he took with him to the University of Georgia. His father was postmaster of Chamblee for 18 years, ran a store with Charlie Warnock, and owned Wallace Construction Company.

In “Dunwoody Isn’t Bucolic Anymore,” Richard W. Titus recalls seeing Dunwoody school principal Elizabeth Davis driving a Henry J automobile from the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation. For two years, a version of the Henry J. was sold in the Sears-Roebuck catalog.

Award-winning author Valerie Biggerstaff is a longtime columnist for Appen Media and the Dunwoody Crier. She lives in Sandy Springs. You can email Valerie at pasttensega@gmail. com or visit her website at pasttensega.com.