North Ogden has been shaped by the invention of the automobile for over 100 years.
Automobiles have been shaping North Ogden for over 100 years and I’m sure everyone is ready for the expansion of the 2600 North intersection to ease the traffic congestion we experience today! Yes, vehicles brought astounding levels of traffic with them, but imagine if we were still commuting around at 10 – 15 miles per hour behind a trotting horse? Also, we wouldn’t have highways or nearly as many durable paved roads in cities without the invention of the automobile.
The 1919 Model T Ford was one of the first automobiles in North Ogden. Claude Ellis accounted that he courted his-wife-to-be in a horse drawn rubber-tired buggy for three years when there were only two automobiles in North Ogden.
These horseless carriages were unlike anything people had seen before. The automobile got the nickname “Tin Lizzy” because Lizzy was a common name for a horse and a horseless carriage was the most familiar thing the people could associate with it.
The people of North Ogden utilized the invention of the vehicle to push the economy forward. J. Parley Spackman had a mercantile store at 2596 North 400 East and he used this 1935 Ford to sell and deliver groceries, fabric, tobacco, hardware, and farming supplies. He also bartered by trading items farmers needed for produce and eggs. You can see his two digit phone number painted on the side of the car which was normal for the time since telephones were also a new gadget. You can read our story about early telephones in our July issue for some fun stories about what that was like!
Although Fords weren’t the first vehicles ever produced, they were the most common because of the efficiency in building them on an assembly line. One of North Ogden’s most prominent fruit growers, Charles Hall, owned a Jeep. He had over 100 acres of fruit farm and he surely used his it to get around all that land to pick and haul his fruit.
15 million of Ford’s Model T cars were produced from 1908-1927 with very few changes in design. On October 1, 1908 the first production of these vehicles were completed and the vehicles had a top speed of 45 mph. A vehicle sold for $825 in 1908 which is roughly equivalent to$22,000 today according to the data available at various inflation calculator websites.