THE ADVENT OF THE AUTOMOBILE

Although there were horseless carriages on P.E.I. as early as 1866 when Father Belcourt brought a steam powered vehicle to Rustico, it wasn’t until 1904 that the first privately owned prototype of the modern car, a two-cylinder Ford, was brought to the Island by Mr. T.B. Grady and Mr. Frank MacMillan of Summerside.

According to Neil Matheson, Provincial Farm editor, by the year 1907 there were at least five privately owned cars travelling Island roads. These vehicles so upset and frightened horses and their owners that in 1908 a law was passed prohibiting the use of the automobile on any public street or highway.

Prince Edward Island was pretty much alone in all of North America in banning the automobile. There was a lot of public debate both for and against the use of the automobile with letters to the paper saying the car was “only a fad for either rich people or fools” or a “tool of the devil”, etc. By 1913 the legislature relented somewhat and passed the Automobile Act which permitted cars to operate on certain public roads for three days a week. They could not run on Tuesday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday.

Some indication ofjust how popular the car was becoming and how quickly it was gaining a foothold in everyday life can be seen by looking at the following motor vehicle registrations. Although these are American statistics and Canada would be somewhat behind, it shows how phenominal the growth in car ownership was. In 1912 there were 1,033,096 vehicles registered in the US. In 1921 there were 10,449,785 which was almost a tenfold increase in only nine years.

Obviously the Government of RBI. and others who were against the automobile could not fight forever the growing popularity ofthe car. As a result, another automobile act was passed in 1918 which permitted cars to operate on all Island roads seven days a week. In those days, and until 1924, cars drove on the left

hand side ofthe road. This all changed on May 1st, 1924, when the road rule shifted, directing all vehicles to drive on the right hand side.

The first cars in Freetown were owned by Scott J ardine and Calvin (Cal) Reeves, both residents of Lower Freetown. In August of 1917, Cal Reeves purchased a new Open Top Willys-Overland from Brace MacKay Ltd. in Summerside. Also, around the same time, Scott J ardine became the owner of a 1917 Dodge. According to Alfred Reeves, it is open to debate as to who got his car first. Suffice to say, they both arrived around the same time and would indicate that these farmers in Lower Freetown had a considerable head start in “being modern”. Scott Jardine had a sister in the United States who purchased the car for him there, and

1924 Ford < driven by Ed Bearisto and owned by Ralph S. Burns.

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