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by Unknown from Reminice Magazine
from an Edison Cylinder Record circa 1909
Uncle Josh (Cal Stewart)
A 1909 Sears Roebuck Autobuggy
This vehicle above is a Sears Model K-2 Passenger Runabout. It was one of the more primitive early vehicles, closely resembling a horse drawn wagon. It had an under-floor, air cooled 2-cylinder engine, tiller steering, and large diameter wood spoke wheels.
The Sears was essentially a roadster passenger car and also was available as a two-seater tourer. It was usually ordered from the the Sears Roebuck catalog (catalog no. 21R333) and delivered as boxes of parts to be assembled by the buyer.
Here is a funny story from a 1909 Edison Cylinder Record as narrated by Cal Stewart (Uncle Josh) depicting his purchase of one of these contraptions.
Well Sir, I’ve gone and done it. Yesiree Bob, Nancy nagged at me until I bought an automobile from a mail order catalogue . It come one day last week and Nancy hadn’t been as tickled over anything since her crazy quilt took a prize at the country fair as she was over that joy wagon.
Well Sir, I felt it in my bones I’d make a fool of myself or soon would. So next day I unpacked all the boxes and put the durn thing together right there in the front yard. Then I filled it full of gasoline and got all ready to take Aunt Nancy, Jim Lawson and Ezry Hoskins out for a ride.
I got out the book of rules and the more I read it, the less I knew about the innards of that durn machine.
Jim said I had to turn the crank to wind it up and shoot it off. I turned that crank until my eyes stuck out but it wouldn’t budge. Nancy said the bobbin was wound too tight or else the shuttle was threaded wrong.
By that time all Punkin Centre was there and a-givin’ advice.
Lige Willit said I ought to talk kindly to it and offer it some oats. Hank Weaver said I ought to lead it around for a spell until it got to know me. Si Pettingale said maybe I hadn’t watered it yet. Deacon Whitherspoon wanted to offer a prayer.
Just then Jim Lawson said, “Don’t this plug go in somewhere?” Well, we found where it went and then, I grabbed a-hold of that crank again and it flew back and hit me on the shin. I sat right down in the yard to think it all over and Nancy said the language I used was just shameful.
I turned that crank again and that machine began to rear and snort. It took off and we grabbed a-holdt if it and got on board just as it whizzed by.
Well, it ran over Hank Weaver’s dog, tore a hole through Willit’s picket fence, knocked over Si Pettingale’s beehives, and kept right on a-goin’.
Well Sir, I worked every lever that machine had and every one of them made it go faster. Nancy was a-screamin’, Ezry Hoskins was a-prayin’ , It wouldn’t be right to say what Jim Lawson was a-doin’, but Nancy said it sounded like he was a-talkin’ to the Lord.
Just then we went through Abe Whitacker’s wheat field and set it on fire.
I managed to steer it out onto the turnpike road, but that didn’t help matters any, ‘cause it only hit the road once in a while. It tore down the toll-gate, ripped down one side of the covered bridge, started off through Gabe Fisher’s pasture, killed four sheep and a calf, then run into his haystack and blowed up!
All I’ve got to show for that joy ride is a broken leg, some rubber tired wheels, six lawsuits, and a mortgage on the farm.
Nancy said if we ever own another one we’ll have a regular engineer to run it.
I ain’t a-sayin’ much, but I’ve got a lingerin’ suspicion that from now on all my joy riding will be done with my horses in front of my old buckboard wagon......