Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society

Portals to the Past by David W. Jackson

1899 and Now…Electric Cars ‘Up to Date’

I wanted a hydrogen-powered car when shopping for a new automobile 12 years ago. Who wouldn’t choose water vapor as exhaust over carbon dioxide? I had to settle for a combustion engine since there were no other easy options “way back then.”

Following my Grandfather’s advice, I’ve taken care of my 1995 Saturn by keeping the oil changed and other preventive maintenance schedules. With 145K miles, I anticipate needing an “up-to-date” model sooner than later.

Now I’m holding out for a plug-in hybrid-electric (PHEV) flex-fuel option that gets 100+ miles per gallon (see www.Google.org project, www.RechargeIT.org).

This exciting opportunity sparked a time when the very first automobile appeared on Kansas City streets—an Edison machine using storage battery electricity that would run 30 miles before needing to be recharged—in 1899!

The Kansas City Star reported on November 13, 1899, “The Automobile is Here.” A separate, lengthier article that day described Fire Department Chief Hale’s investigation into acquiring the first automobile fire wagon ever made in the United States from Chicago’s Fire Extinguisher Company.

The next day, a short news item declared, “Kansas City is so accustomed to up-to-date things that the horseless delivery wagon which appeared on the streets yesterday created no surprise and attracted little attention.”

Within a week, the situation was markedly different! The one and only automobile in use in Kansas City, driven by A. D. Boyer, an electrician with the West Bottom meatpackers Swift & Company, “filled every requirement,” reported The Star:

“An automobile has been in operation on the streets of Kansas City for a week and is apparently a success. It has not balked at steep hills, run away, backed over the curbing, nor has it caused the horses attached to other vehicles to shy. On the contrary, the horseless wagon which the Swift Packing Company has in use in this city for the purpose of advertising, taking orders and making small deliveries, behaves in a manner becoming a well directed conveyance. Rolling along silently and dodging street cars, wagons, and pedestrians, it attracts as much attention today as it did a week ago when it made its first appearance.

“The machine is operated by a single lever that regulates the power from the storage battery, applies and releases the brake, and directs the motion forward or backward. It does not require full power to run on level streets. When a grade is encountered, additional power is applied and the speed is not diminished. No trouble is experienced in crossing and re-crossing street car tracks.”

Noiseless, electric “horseless” cabs had been in use in Chicago and New York earlier in the year, according to syndicated reports. Autos were being used for sport in Paris. And, industries as far as Sante Fe were boasting uses for the new contraption.

In May 1899, The Electric Vehicle Transportation Company for Missouri was incorporated as one of 17 companies incorporated by the Whitney-Elkins-Widener Syndicate to operate automobiles in different states.

Then, in June, the prediction was made that “it probably will not be long before automobiles will be seen on the streets of Kansas City.” Forest Hill Cemetery Company’s President, Homer Reed, announced plans to contract with Eastern manufactures of automobiles for several of the vehicles to run passengers between the terminus of the Troost Avenue cable line and the cemetery. His attempt soon failed after manufacturers balked, fearing the auto couldn’t handle the precipitous slopes of our “mountainous town.” Maurice Hughes donated his written personal recollections of the area’s first automobiles: “I was skating on roller skates to school…and maybe every two or three weeks I would see one of those electric cars…. So, I had to be on the alert to keep out of the way of the cars. There were many horse and buggies but the horses wore iron shoes and you could here them. But, the electric autos did not make much noise.”

Thankfully, Swift & Co. right here in “river city” had the progressive foresight of experimenting with the modern invention.

As I drive down the road today, I’m hoping some daring local firm will provide me with the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own one Kansas City’s first plug-in hybrid-electric (PHEV) flex-fuel “horseless carriages.”

David W. Jackson is archivist for the nonprofit Jackson County (Mo.) Historical Society’s Archives and Research Library at 112 W. Lexington Ave. Suite 103, Independence, MO, 64050. Explore deeper into local history topics like those presented in this column through the Jackson County Historical Society JOURNAL, a scholarly periodical delivered to Society members twice annually. For more information, or to donate historical materials, visit www.jchs.org, call (816) 252-7454, or e-mail info@jchs.org.

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