Wheaton Automobile Company

I apparently got a little bit ahead of myself.  I was putting a few things away tonight, and it had been gnawing at me that I had more photos of automobiles stashed in an album, but I just wasn't finding them.  I had been overlooking a completely separate album which I had assumed was all family photos.  It was full of photographs of automobiles.

Some of them are in pretty bad shape, and by 'them', I mean the photos.  There are some which are fair, and I'll just put up a little gallery here, instead of trying to comment too much.  I believe these are mostly Chalmers.  Here we go...

Unknown automobile.  Anyone?  (My new friends from The Old Motor recognize this as a Matheson Silent Six.  Thanks!)

The Hudson Motor Car Company.

Love this composition!  Not sure if this is still the Hudson company, though.

The Chalmers factory.

Century Tire Company?  The treads read "non skid".

Another auto manufacturer!

An early Hupmobile panel truck?  No date, but some of these license plates are 1913, so that's my guess. (From the comments below... "the hupmobile is a Model 32, 1911-1913.. (this model was made from 1911-14.. most of the 1913-14 had electric lites.. the pics is gas lites.))"

Go look at this 1940 Hupmobile.  Gorgeous.

This may be the Chalmers in which Ivan begins racing. We'll see this automobile in the next blog post as well.

Lot's more Chalmers coming up, but notice they all have different license plates.  I found a local newspaper archive that contained a huge amount of headlines about Van B. Wheaton in Amsterdam.  It does mention the photograpy business in 1898, but nothing about the automobile company.  From the amount of car factories in these photos and the wide range of automobiles, I'd say that he (or Ivan) was pretty certainly in the Auto sales business.  (This newspaper online was a fun find, since I knew nothing about Van's remarriage in 1920 to Ethyl Winters. It may explain some census records in the archives.  My sisters will find this interesting, or anyone involved in our family history.)

I could use some help on this automobile, not a clue.  (and again, David Greenlees and Mike Turner, at The Old Motor have this identified as a Lozier 72)

The album finishes with a few family photos, and I found this one particularly fun.  Fishing rods spread on the chairs, and the fish hung between.  I have another iconic family photo which is really amazing with this dog in it.  No information other than his photos, sadly.  Later... much later actually, we'll meet the mascot of Ivan's squadron in France, and I have a fabulous story from Ivan's letters to go with it.

-kpw