Written By Alice Gibb
When the “horseless carriage” appeared on the scene in theearly 1900s, it wasn’t greeted with enthusiasm by all rural residents. For one thing, the early cars were expensive – a Model C Ford, with a two-cylinder, ten-horsepower engine, cost $1,100. But the history of the automobile in Canada changed dramatically in 1904. That’s the year Gordon McGregor, co-owner of the Walkerville Wagon Works (now part of Windsor), made a deal with Henry Ford of Detroit. As McGregor said at the time, “There are men in Detroit who say every farmer will soon be using an automobile. I don’t see why we cannot build them here at the wagon factory.”
Ford ferried the engine parts for the cars across the Detroit River to the new Ford Motor of Canada plant. The wheels and car bodies were produced by 17 workers on the assembly line. By 1909, those Walkerville auto workers were producing the Model T, the trigger for a successful Canadian auto industry. Within five years, the Windsor plant was producing its own engines – and the price of Model Ts had dropped to $850. These cars boasted right- and left-hand drive and a faster 20-horsepower engine. By 1920, these cars cost only $300-$350.
The farmers’ wives of West Williams Township, however, feared for their lives as these motorized contraptions became common on rural roads. In 1908, West Williams council asked the Ontario government to ban “gasoline buggies” from the highways of the province for three days per week - Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Apparently the speed demons, which traveled as fast as 20 m.p.h., were throwing up dust; frightening the horses pulling buggies or farm equipment, and generally disturbing the peaceful countryside.
Council forwarded its petition to other councils all over Ontario. Rural school teachers were asked to circulate the petition in their immediate school sections. A copy of the West Williams petition, discovered in the London Township offices in 1933, bore over 90 names.
That petition was originally drafted by William Ronald, reeve of West Williams from 1907 to 1909, by Robert Wade and by township clerk William Dawson.
The petition read: “We hope the legislation will see the justice of prohibiting the use of our highways by automobiles and motor vehicleson stated days, so that we and our families may go to market, church and do other traveling without fear of jeopardizing their lives (the car drivers’) and our own.”
Perhaps needless to say, the Government of Ontario turned a deaf ear to entreaties to ban the new-fangled cars from the roads for three days every week. Ironic, perhaps, that a century later, Ford Motor of Canada plants around southwestern Ontario would be downsized or closed – although this had nothing to do with frightening the horses!
