Page 5 Berthoud Weekly Surveyor April 10, 2014
A LOOK AT BERTHOUD
Berthoud’s unique ‘Kid Agent’ earned nation’s admiration
T
he new exhibit coming to the Little Thompson Valley Pioneer Museum provides perspectives on the experience of growing up in Berthoud. Perhaps the most notable person to spend his childhood in Then & Now Berthoud was Surveyor Floyd Clymer. Columnist Clymer came to Berthoud in 1899 when his father, Dr. Joseph Barnett “J.B.” Clymer, established a medical practice to compete with Dr. D.W. McCarty. Mark The Clymers French remained until 1910, but a few years earlier Floyd earned a national reputation as
the “Kid Agent.” That was because he operated an automobile sales agency and was only 11 years of age. In later years Clymer gained additional notoriety when he established a company that was one of America’s largest publishers of automotive literature. In 1944 Floyd Clymer used brochures and advertisements that he had collected over his lifetime to publish his first Historical Motor Scrapbook. The volume was filled with illustrations, photographs and assorted anecdotes about Clymer’s youthful days in Berthoud. In Historical Motor Scrapbook No. 1 Clymer remembered, “I was then [1906] 11 and Dad decided if I was ever going to get into business I had better start. He gave me a large room in the front of his office building. This room had originally been built for a dentist, but the town [Berthoud] was so small most dentists got hungry after a few weeks and went to more
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fertile fields. So I had the office originally used by dentists. A sign, “Berthoud Auto Co.” was placed on the window.” The Clymer home was located at the northwest corner of Fourth Street and Mountain Avenue (present-day Mi Cocina restaurant). Dr. Clymer’s office was located in a building — no longer standing — in the vicinity of the Home State Bank drive-through banking facility in the 500 block of Fourth Street. Clymer continued, “I would go to Denver with each buyer, usually with as many members of his family as the car would carry, and we drove home. On the way home I taught the new owner how to drive. All sales were for cash. They either had it or could borrow it at the bank. The local banker [John Bunyan] was quite a car enthusiast and he was not against a loan to a reliable man, even for the purchase of a car.” While Clymer began selling the Oldsmobile automobile, it was not long until he added the Reo and Maxwell to his line. He later noted, “Then the Reo came out with a twocylinder opposed, five-passenger model. We debated whether to stick with Reo or jump to a new unknown make, the just-out Maxwell. Maxwell had a shaft drive with a two-cylinder opposed engine in front — under the hood — and it cranked in front — and no chain to break — and it looked like a step in the right direction. Dad bought it, and with it we got the agency. In those days you bought a car and they threw in the agency. We still had Reo, and now both Maxwell and Reo agencies. “Maxwell served us well — then the new EMF ‘30’ built by Studebaker caught our eye. It had four cylinders, A memorial service for Lynn Strachan, of Berthoud, will be held from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 16 at the Berthoud Community Center. Please come and share your memories with the family.
a windshield and a top. But one thing they forgot to tell us in the sales talk was that the transmission on the rear axle was not so hot. I sold several E-M-F cars and they were quite good. My competitors referred to them as the ‘Easy-Marks-Favorite’ or ‘EveryMorning-Fixem.’ There were other names they called them too.” Advertisements that appeared in the July 1908 Berthoud Bulletin revealed that Clymer sold the 14-horsepower Maxwell Runabout for $875, the 20-horsepower Maxwell Tourer for $1,500, and the 28-horsepower Maxwell Roadster for $1,800. In 1906, Motor Field magazine anointed Clymer as the “Kid Agent.” The magazine noted, “Berthoud, Colorado, boasts of the youngest automobile agent in the United States, and that means the world. J.F. Clymer, 11 years old, who has sold 13 machines in two years, who represents the Reo, Maxwell and Cadillac cars, is the little hustler, and declares that he has ‘Teddy Roosevelt’s assurance’ that he is the youngest in the business. “Like all good dealers, Master Clymer keeps in touch with the trade through a subscription to Motor Field. He sends his favorite magazine a business-like announcement which reads as follows: ‘I will continue to do business during 1907 at my old office with Dr. J.B. Clymer, and can supply your wants in repair and supplies, and can save you money. Remember, I sell the famous Reo, the Maxwell and the Cadillac. See me for prices and terms. Yours truly, J.F. Clymer, the Kid Agent.’” Other stories and anecdotes about coming of age in Berthoud from 1900 to 1969 are currently being collected for use with the Growing up in Ber-
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Photo courtesy of Mark French
Floyd Clymer was 11 years of age when he gained fame as the nation’s youngest automobile salesman. He apparently capitalized on that notoriety by producing a postcard that pictured him as a toddler but identified him as the “Kid Agent.”
thoud exhibit. Before the exhibit ends its run next November, the stories will be compiled in a publication that will be made available to the public. If you have a memory that you would like to share, please contact the Pioneer Museum at 970-532-2147 for details.
School Marshal forum Monday By Surveyor staff
Thompson School District and the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office plan to partner in a new School Marshal program at district schools. The School Marshal program will provide dedicated law-enforcement presence and enhanced school security through utilizing reserve sheriff’s deputies, who will patrol the school areas and walk the campuses; both inside and outside the buildings, according to a press release. “The purpose of this program is to provide more security in schools for any incident that would challenge life or bodily injury,” said Sergeant Jeff Vanhook, agency coordinator for the School Marshal Program. “Our primary objective is to be a presence to deter the criminal element from entering these schools and harming the students, teachers, administrators or parents.” All reserve deputies go through a rigorous hiring process, the same required for all full-time patrol deputies. Each officer completes a 253-hour training through the sheriff’s office Reserve Academy program and also must complete an internal Field Training Officer program as well. The schools that will be aided in this program include Berthoud Elementary and Ivy Stockwell Elementary as well as Coyote Ridge Elementary, Cottonwood Plains Elementary, Big Thompson Elementary, and Carrie Martin Elementary in Loveland. The district will host a public informational forum on April 14 at Berthoud Elementary School from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The forums are to explain the program and to garner feedback from the community about the program. The program is slated to begin at school campuses later this month.