Ed Dammiarell’s first car - a Pontiac. Wilbert Drummond in back seat.

she and her husband drove it to the Island. They then returned to their home by train. Driving a car that distance in those days would have been quite an undertaking. Some roads were little more than trails and service stations were still a thing of the future. However, some grocery stores sold gas and oil. Tires and spare parts would have had to be carried in the car; otherwise a driver risked long road delays if something broke down. The Willys-Overlands must have been good cars because Cal Reeves owned three before switching to a “Light Six” McLaughlan in 1924 and, in 1927, to a closed top McLaughlan-Buick. Stewart Burns was the third person in Lower Freetown to own a car, a Model T Ford.

In Upper Freetown the first car was owned by Austin Scales, who started growing potatoes there in 1921. At that time he owned a two-seat Chevrolet which he had purchased second hand in 1918. In his business records Mr. Scales notes that this car cost him $600.00 and that the original price had been $725.00.

It appears that the first car in South Freetown was owned by Ed Dammarell followed closely by Sam Drummond. While we know that Ed’s first car was a Pontiac and Sam’s was a Star, it is not known the exact year of each. Although Gladys (Drummond) Wright says she cannot remember the year her father got the car she vividly remembers her first automobile drive. It was in 1918 . . . her sister Eva and Eva’s fiance, Willard Stetson, hired Phillip Monaghan from Kinkora to drive them to Summerside to be married.

Gasoline powered farm machinery came to the area in the 19205. R. Darrach Moase is credited with owning the first half-ton truck in Freetown. Credit for one of the first tractors goes, again, to Austin Scales. By 1923, he owned several farms and a potato warehouse in Freetown and in 1924, purchased a Fordson tractor for $400.00 to work the farms. It is also interesting to note from the same records that in 1918 gasoline cost .42¢ a gal. and that by 1925 the price had dropped to .37 1/2 ° a gal. In terms of the dollar value at that

time, gasoline by comparison today is a real bargain. Submitted by Stuart Drummond

1930 Durant, owned by John W. Lewis. His son George on running board.

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