Breeze in her bonnet
Tuesday is the 100th anniversary of a landmark travel feat in American history: It was the beginning of a journey that marked the first time a woman crossed America behind the wheel of a car.
A century ago, it was thought that driving a car required manly virtues, including sound judgment and thoughtful decision-making -- sort of like voting.
More than a decade before women got the right to vote, Alice Huyler Ramsey proved to the world that a woman had the necessary virtues, driving from New York to San Francisco. At a 1908 rally on Long Island, a Maxwell Automotive company executive had called the 21-year-old Vassar graduate and New Jersey homemaker “the greatest natural woman driver I’ve ever seen.” He wanted to know whether Ramsey would like to drive the company’s new 30-horsepower, four-cylinder Maxwell across the country to prove that the car could make it and that a female motorist could do it. This open-air touring car seated four and could reach a top speed of 40 mph.
She would. And did. It took 59 days, a dozen flat tires and multiple mechanical breakdowns, but Ramsey’s journey -- shared with three passengers, not one a man, two of them her sisters-in-law and none of them able to drive -- would later make her the first woman inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame, now in Dearborn, Mich. The Automobile Assn. of America (today’s AAA) chose her in 1960 as the “woman motorist of the century.”
In 1961, Ramsey published a short autobiography called “Veil, Duster and Tire Iron.” The book was republished in 2005 under the title “Alice’s Drive” and includes a detailed annotation of her route as if the journey were made through modern America.
Ramsey’s 3,800-mile transcontinental trek can be parsed in two, , halved by the Mississippi River. East of it, smooth going; west of it, a struggle.
In 1909, only 155,000 of 80 million Americans owned cars. Most of the vehicles were in the East, along with the good roads, comfortable lodgings and other amenities of early 20th century travel.
As a result, the expedition’s first half was something of a social outing, with Ramsey impatient to make progress but bogged down by Maxwell’s promotional meet-and-greets and the locals in each town eager to gawk at and talk to the pioneering women.
The adventurous Ramsey seemed disinterested in this part of the excursion. On Day 2, for instance, she noted, “We drove north past the handsome estates at Hyde Park and of John Jacob Astor near Rhinebeck, N.Y. . . . and continued with little in the way of diversion.” In fact, she bypassed the Rhinebeck Hotel, which dated to 1766 and was a place where George Washington actually did sleep.
Things changed dramatically once the group arrived in Iowa. “We were doing quite well until we entered Mechanicsville. . . . A sudden torrent descended upon us. We made quickly for the first shelter we could find . . . a livery stable. There were several buggies standing around, horses still hitched to them. To say the animals were astonished to be joined by a horseless carriage from which came the noise of a pulsating engine is putting it mildly!”
After two hours, the party dashed through the downpour to a nearby restaurant where Ramsey sat down at a vintage piano to entertain some “country lads” as she “tossed off a couple light numbers.” (This, by the way, was in one of the few buildings Ramsey visited that is thought to be still standing: It’s now Bubba’s Sports Bar & Grill, 211 1st St. in Mechanicsville, in eastern Iowa.)
Iowa and Nebraska early that summer were a muddy misery, the gravel-less cart paths churned to muck. Tires went flat and the Maxwell was mired so often the engine overheated. Ramsey loved it. “This was the route which later became the Lincoln Highway -- I almost feel as if I was the ‘Mother’ of it!” she wrote. “And believe me, the labor pangs prior to its birth were terrific!”
Wyoming, Utah and Nevada were more forgiving; the roads were rough to nonexistent, but the weather was better. Although fording rivers led to broken axles and 4-foot-deep gullies occasionally needed conquering, the crew had time to enjoy the scenery. Seeing the Devil’s Slide natural rock monument southeast of Ogden, Utah, Ramsey turned tourist: “Quite a sight! So all-by-itself, and so stupendous.”
The closest to a euphoric moment came not in San Francisco at the culmination of the trip when Ramsey was presented roses, but as she entered California south of Lake Tahoe, heading down the Sierra slopes to Placerville.
“Majestic sugar pines, Douglas firs and redwoods lined our road on both sides. What a land! What mountains! What blue skies and clear, sparkling water! Our hearts leapt within us. None of us had ever seen the like -- and we loved it.”
With that introduction to the state and her lifelong passion for the road, it feels appropriate that she settled here on the cusp of the 1950s as California was becoming the car culture capital of the world.
Ramsey died in Covina in 1983 in her mid-90s. . She in essence offered her epitaph during an interview 17 years earlier when asked about her life: “I’m probably happiest,” she said, “when I’m holding a wheel.”
--
--
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Ride along on the page in 1909 and online in 2009
“Alice’s Drive,” an annotated 2005 edition of Alice Huyler Ramsey’s 1961 autobiography including an account of her 1909 trip, originally published as “Veil, Duster and Tire Iron,” can be ordered online at www.patricepress.com. Click on the “Antique Automobiles” link. Paperback: $19.95 plus shipping and handling, payable by check, Visa or MasterCard.
--
To commemorate Ramsey’s cross-country drive, Emily Anderson of Seattle will retrace the route in a 1909 Maxwell rebuilt by her father, Richard Anderson. The trip is to begin Tuesday. To track the journey, go to www.aliceramsey.org and click on the map marked “Follow Along.”
