Women
Drivers
by Lynne Belluscio
It
dawned on me two weeks ago while I was taking a group of students
through the transportation exhibit that the Cadillac is 100 years
old this year. We probably should have done something to celebrate
its Centennial year but the opportunity escaped me.
It was donated to the Historical Society by the Kellogg family in
the 1940s, but I don’t think I ever knew who originally owned
it. Today when I came in, the “automobile” file was on
the table and I put it back, not taking the time to look in it.
Ruth Harvie came in. “Did you put the automobile file back?”
“Yep - didn’t know you were looking through it.”
So Ruth went back and pulled the file and then said, “I think
you need a copy of these notes.
It says that in 1908 Mrs. Cora Stanley Osborne bought a Cadillac
Runabout for $900.00. This is now in the possession of the LeRoy
Historical Society the gift of Richard S. Kellogg.”
(Now Ruth didn’t know I was interested in that information
and that I was going to write an article about the Cadillac, so
you can understand that we really believe in coincidence!”)
“Ruth, you solved my dilemma for the Pennysaver article this
week!”
It’s
also coincidental that when I chose a figure to be standing next
to the Cadillac in the exhibit, that I picked a drawing of a woman
dressed in her “duster”. I didn’t know at the time
that Mrs. Osborne was the car’s owner. Now we can tell people
that that is what Mrs. Cora Osborne might have looked like when
she took a drive in her runabout.
Women drivers were not an exception in the early years. The same
notes that Ruth found also listed Mrs. Fred Seyffer and Mrs.
Ernest Woodard as early female automobilists. Mrs. James
Barrows drove with her husband Jim sitting beside her. Mrs.
Stanley Pierson gave Mrs. Martha Tillou her first ride.
We checked the files to see what we had on Mrs. Osborne.
Her maiden name was Cora Stanley and she was from Pavilion.
According to the cemetery records, she was born in 1865 which means
she was forty three when she bought the car. She married Charles
H. Osborne on January 29, 1889. They lived at 88 West Main Street
and were members of the Methodist Church. She died in 1946. He died
in 1948 and they are buried in Machpelah Cemetery. His obituary
mentioned that “for many years he was engaged in the bee business.”
It must have been a fairly profitable business to allow Cora to
buy the Cadillac.
We’re not sure when the Osborne’s sold the car or how
it came to the Kellogs, but at least now we know who bought it and
it’s great to know that it was a woman.
Ruth also made a copy of a short clipping from the 1940 LeRoy Gazette
“The Dictionary for the Average Auto Driver” Amber Light:
something the other fellow is supposed to wait for, while you drive
through. Deluxe Model: a standard job with built-in vanity. Detour:
the longest, roughest distance between two points. Old Model: any
car on which the factory paint is dry. Parking Space: gap in the
line of cars along the curb, occupied by a drive entrance or fire
hydrant. Scenery: the green patch you occasionally see between billboards
(now that has changed). Trade-in Value: something the owner thinks
should increase, like wine, with age. Soft Shoulders: a good thing
to keep your wheels and your hand off while driving.
LE
ROY PENNYSAVER & NEWS - December 7, 2009
