by Harmon Jolley
posted February 6, 2005
) Photo by Harmon Jolley D.S. Etheridge Ford-Lincoln. Click to enlarge. |
On Christmas Eve, 1893, Henry placed an experimental engine over the kitchen sink, and enlisted his wife, Clara, to drip gasoline into the machine. The engine started up, which sent Mrs. Ford scurrying to open windows. In 1896, when his first horseless carriage was ready to be driven out of the shed, he had to knock a hole in the wall to allow it to clear the doorway. In 1903, shortly after his first Model A became available in Detroit, he was sued for patent infringement; the case was finally decided in Henry’s favor in 1911. His models progressed through some other letters of the alphabet before his Model T – the “Tin Lizzie” – was introduced in 1908.
In the spring of 1908, Henry Ford had sent catalogs to dealers and others interested in selling his Model T automobile. Down in Chattanooga, it’s possible that Cherry Street photographer and picture framer David Stokely Etheridge had seen promotional material for the new car. In 1909, Mr. Etheridge became exclusive agent for Ford cars at his business at 10 West Sixth Street. He was the first Ford dealer south of the Ohio River.
During Mr. Etheridge’s initial years in business, automobiles were still considered a novelty, and were owned primarily by wealthy gentlemen who drove them as a hobby. However, both the affordability of the Model T and D. S. Etheridge’s marketing skills helped to change that. When a Ford driven by local dentist R. C. Graham was able to ascend Lookout Mountain, the general public started to see where the car could take them in the future.
After car sales had accelerated, D. S. Etheridge moved in 1916 to a new facility at 401-403 Broad Street. Like many Americans, the automobile helped Mr. Etheridge to put distance between his residence and his place of work. The 1920 city directory listed his address as being in the new Ferger Place subdivision. He later moved even farther away to Chattanooga Valley.
Though the car was becoming entrenched, the purveyors of old forms of transportation weren’t giving up. The May 1, 1920 Chattanooga Times ran an advertisement for National Bicycle week – “It is one of the most healthful forms of exercise. Ride a bicycle to work and save time and money.” An automobile-based business countered with an advertisement for a sight-seeing trip that made a loop of Signal Mountain (descending the “W” Road), Lookout Mountain, Fort Oglethorpe, and Chickamauga Battlefield.
In 1925, D. S. Etheridge moved again, this time to a site on the west side of the 300 block of Market Street. By then, the Etheridge products include Ford cars, trucks, Fordson tractors, and Lincolns. He also ran a full-service garage, as well as a gas station with the classic “gravity-flow” pumps. His elaborate new Lincoln dealership was designed by architect Louis Bell, and featured buff tile, white terra cotta, and a green-tiled roof. There were medallions that displayed an “L” for Lincoln. Ford had acquired the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922.
The Fords were relegated to a more modest warehouse-type of building next door. Henry Ford had continued to offer his Model T, even while the competition was offering innovative new models that had electric starters. Two years after the opening of Stokely Etheridge’s new place, Henry Ford at last discontinued the Model T in favor of a new Model A.
After the stock market crash of 1929, automobile sales everywhere plummeted. . In the 1930’s, D. S. Etheridge ran an advertisement of used cars for “$25 and up.” Conditions favored fixing up old cars by any means possible, including baling wire. I recall that my father said that he would buy old Model T’s for as little as $5.00, fix them up, and sell them at a modest profit. With his automobile company bleeding red ink, Henry Ford went back to his design laboratory for a new product, which turned out to be the highly successful V-8 engine. In the May 8, 1937 edition of the Chattanooga Free Press, an advertisement in the “Where to Go, What to Do in Chattanooga This Weekend” section said that one could “Go Anywhere Any Time in a Ford V-8.”
Entering the 1940’s, D. S. Etheridge found a new pursuit as Hamilton County Manager from 1941 to 1942. By then, he was selling boats, outboard motors, and house trailers in addition to cars. In 1941, he sold his dealership to Furlow-Cate. Forrest Cate, Sr. had been a sales executive with Mr. Etheridge. Many Chattanoogans remember Forrest Cate Jr., who ran a successful Ford dealership even after he became blind as a result of diabetes. His son has car businesses in Dunlap and Whitwell, TN and LaFayette, GA.
The Lincoln representation in Chattanooga moved in 1940 to the Lawrence brothers – Paul, Harry, Joe, and Etheridge “Pep” – who were nephews of Mr. Etheridge. They were soon joined by another nephew, Stokely Doster. Today, Lawrence-Doster Lincoln-Mercury continues in business on West M. L. King Boulevard.
The buildings which once housed the showrooms of D. S. Etheridge are also still standing in downtown Chattanooga. The 401 Broad Street address housed a Works Progress Administration office (1940), Radio Sales Corporation (1950), Lawrence-Doster (1960), Clemons-Wheeler Furniture (1970), and Lookout Sporting Goods (1980). In recent years, it was the home of the International Towing and Recovery Museum before it moved to South Broad Street. The building is currently a work in progress that will become an expanded location of the Chattanooga Regional History Museum.
The former D. S. Etheridge Lincoln showroom/garage in the 300-block of Market Street was, for many years, the home of Newton Chevrolet. After Newton relocated to its present facility at Riverfront Parkway, the building was the address of Chattanooga Cable Television. When the Chattanooga Lifestyle Center erected its new facilities on that block, the exterior walls of the Lincoln dealership were carefully preserved and incorporated into the design.
David Stokely Etheridge thus left quite an automotive legacy in Chattanooga. Mr. Etheridge, along with the Burk Brothers, the Forstners, and many others, were Chattanooga entrepreneurs who marketed the new mode of transportation, one that changed how we moved about in the 20th Century and today.
If you have memories of David Stokely Etheridge and his Ford/Lincoln business, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@signaldata.net.
) Photo by Harmon Jolley This auto showroom at Fourth and Broad was the home of the towing museum and is now a display area for the Regional History Museum. |
| Dining Out | Business | Movies | Focus | About Us |
| Church | Living Well | Memories | Outdoors | Real Estate | Student Scene | Travel |
