Things you see at a car show

[Merle Coggins]

Yesterday I attended a local car show. It was a beautiful day with a couple hundred vehicles present. I had one of 2 classic Dodge trucks. The other was a very nice 1940 (didn't get a picture)

Anyway, one of the most interesting vehicles there (to me anyway) was a 1915 Harding. I had never heard of it, but it had an interesting story that I thought I'd share. I took a photo of the story board but it was hard to get a good pic without sun glare. I'll transpose it here for easier reading;

 

1915 Harding Car

(Samuel Barstow Harding)

(My Great Great Grandfather's car)

 

Samuel designed and built 4 or 5 of these cars. He had a patent for the Safe Steer System. Cars from the early years had a problem that when the steering broke, the car would usually go off the road. Safe Steer corrected that so the car would stay going straight, unfortunately it also made it harder to steer. 

 

Eight years ago a Great Great Uncle had given me a box of family history. In that box were the original blue prints and bills related to the build of the cars. Until that time our family was unaware of the cars. I then started searching for these cars. I had some leads on the internet. I would inquire, but would get no responses. Then I ran across a YouTube video about the Harding car. I found a Bernick Distribution Company in St. Cloud Minnesota. I called and talked to the receptionists and told her I had a strange request. I was trying to find Roy Bernick because he had a 1915 Harding car in his car collection. I told her I was the Great Great Grandson of Samuel Harding that built the car. I could tell that she knew something but she forwarded my call to a Jason. I got his voicemail and left a message that I was trying to find Roy Bernick. 

 

Two weeks had passed and I hadn't heard anything. I thought I had hit another dead end. On my birthday our family was out of town and I received a voicemail from Roy Bernick. I called him back and talked to him about the Harding car. My dad and I finally went to Minnesota to see the Harding car in Roy's car collection. We eventually came to an agreement and I acquired the car. Though I was thrilled to acquire the car, Roy was as thrilled for me to get the car!

 

Tracing the car back through ownership I was able to determine that the car was my Great Great Grandfather Samuel's personal car. I have not found if there are any other cars left besides this one.

 

 

 

Edited June 27, 2022 by Merle Coggins

[TodFitch]

That is a wonderful story! Thank you for passing it along and thank you for the photos.

[sidevalvepete]

Agree with TodFitch. Thanks for posting. What a great story. You never know what is in our histories unless you show an interest and try and find out.

I suppose that the fact we are all interested in these old cars makes us predisposed to being like this anyway. Thanks again Merle.

[Merle Coggins]

How ‘bout that… I just made it in the picture. The club that hosted the car show posted this picture on their Facebook page. I just barely made it in. (Lower left corner) The afore mentioned ‘40 Dodge truck is front row to the right of center. And the Harding car shown above is in the 3rd row behind the ‘40 Dodge truck. 

There were more vehicles down to the left but I guess their fish-eye lens wouldn’t go that wide. 

 

[tom'sB2B]

Hey Merle 

That's an amazing story and the fact that you now own the car. Very cool!

Looking forward to hearing more about car and maybe seeing you drive it down the road.

 

 

 

[Merle Coggins]

7 hours ago, tom'sB2B said:

Hey Merle 

That's an amazing story and the fact that you now own the car. Very cool!

Looking forward to hearing more about car and maybe seeing you drive it down the road.

 

 

 

 

Tom,

I don't own that car. It's just something I saw at the car show. The story is from the current car owner. 

[tom'sB2B]

Ahh! Ah well. Still a good story ?

[Worden18]

Thanks for posting this Merle!?