From: dougfiles@juno.com (Douglas S. Files)
Sat, 1 Aug 1998 19:51:24 -0400 (EDT)

RATHBONE JOHN "R.J." HUNT (1846-1930)

     R.J. Hunt was born in 1846 in Romulus, Seneca Co., NY, the son of Henry Hunt (b. Abt. 1816 in Romulus,NY) and Caroline Louise Rathbone (b. 2 May 1808 in Lee, Berkshire Co., MA).  His mother Caroline Rathbone was descended from the Block Island Rathbones, as well as the Tobey, Wightman, Candee, Ellis and Bourne families of Massachusetts, about whom much has been written.  On 24 Dec. 1869, R. J. married Frances Odel Goodyear (b. 31 Dec. 1847, and descended from Stephen Goodyear, Deputy Governor of the New Haven Colony in the mid-1600's).

     R.J. was an insurance salesman and amateur inventor, who lived in Trumansburg, Tompkins Co., NY.  In his barn he constructed a telephone and a coal-burning engine for a boat.  Around the turn of the century, he began to work on a horseless carriage.  After more than a year of toil, he produced a running car with a two-cylinder engine.  His daughter Lucille Hunt (Bower) recalled later that he would take her and her friend for rides in the cemetery.  He motored there so as to avoid horses, which were very afraid of his contraption.

     The engine was cranked in the front and steered by a stick.  One time R.J. forgot to put the automobile in neutral when he cranked it.  The little motor started up and the car ran over him.  Fortunately, little harm was done.

     Soon after R.J.'s car began to terrorize the horses of Trumansburg, a second car appeared in town.  A young Englishman, Mr. Allingham, had bought a commercial vehicle.  When the local fair opened, a race was planned.  Both Allingham and Hunt had difficulty getting their cars to the fairgrounds, but finally they were both lined up in front of the grandstand.  When the word "GO" was given, both vehicles started, then sputtered and died.  The race ended with each driver pushing his auto around the track to the huge enjoyment of the audience.

     Henry Ford was working on his Model T at the same time that R.J. Hunt was experimenting with his vehicle.  At one point Hunt travelled to New York City to meet with Ford and discuss their inventions. 
      "What are you going to do with it?" Hunt asked Ford.  
     "Manufacture it," Ford replied.

     After several years of driving his own-make car with pride, R.J. was issued a license plate from the New York Secretary of State.  It read: "HUNT AUTOMOBILE #1".

Sources:

R. J. Hunt's Early Auto Homemade, Bulletin, DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York, vol. XII, No. 3, March 1964

Rathbone Genealogy, by John C. Cooley, 1898, Press of the Courier Job Print, Syracuse, NY


Submitted 8/98 by:
Douglas S. Files     DOUGFILES@JUNO.COM