Buyer spent $650 on Marengo’s first car

With all of the present conversation about electric vehicles in our future, I recalled an article I read recently while scanning Iowa County newspapers from the early 1900s.

  Buy Photo

The original article appeared in the Marengo Republican of Oct. 17, 1929 but was reprinted in the Pioneer Republican of Nov. 19, 1959.

“A. R. “Chink” Brown claims distinction of having Marengo’s first automobile. It was an Eldredge which he purchased in 1903 for $650.

“Would you wish to guess how long it took Mr. Brown to drive it home from Cedar Rapids?

“Just three days!

“’It only ran about a third of the time,’ Chink explained, ‘and I never knew how it ran or what was the matter with it?’

“Brown recalled that his first car was a two-cylinder affair, with two seats. Anyone riding in the rear looked down the road to the rear and the front passengers looked forward.

“An oiler extended across the front and radiator pipes ran across in front of a low dashboard.

“Marengo’s first car had pneumatic tires and would travel about 30 miles an hour if it was ‘in the mood to travel at all.’

“The tall wheeled, solid rubber-tired cars came out a little later than these first models, Brown recalled. Their object was to cut down on tire trouble.

“When asked (in 1929) if he still had the old Eldredge, Brown said, ‘No, but I’d give anything if I’d kept that old car.’”

The Eldredge was manufactured from 1903 to 1906 and was the product of National Sewing Machine Company in Belvidere, Illinois. It was named for the President of the company.

The late Aubrey R. “Chink’ Brown” joined his brother Herbert C. ‘Bert’ Brown in operating a hardware business in Marengo in 1904. The business had been operating under the ownership of George Clements since 1897, and Herbert Brown first joined Clements in running the business in 1903.

In May of 1904, Herbert A. Brown, father of Chink and Bert, purchased the building from Clements and the business became Brown’s Hardware which was on the west side of Court Avenue between Washington and Hilton Streets for over 100 years.

As the Brown family had left the area, either by death or by relocation, the business was purchased by Mark and the late Jayne Swift. It continued to operate as Brown’s Hardware until a few years ago when a new building was erected along Western Avenue at the south edge of Marengo and renamed the Swift Home Center.

The former building along Court Avenue was renovated into new business spaces — housing Lizzie’s Cafe, the Cornerstone Apothecary, and the Back Porch Flowers and Gifts.