So far, we only have two photographs of the car then owned by Michael Fleck. This first photo was supplied to us by John Fleck of Chesterfield, MO., the grandson of Michael. The photograph shows John’s uncle, William “Bill” Fleck driving the car with his wife, Mayme seated immediately behind him. The location is the corner of Third Avenue and Main Street in Hobart, Indiana during the Fourth of July Parade in 1915. We don’t know who the other two mostly hidden passengers are. One passenger could easily be Clare Fleck who would later inherit the car from her father Michael. Someday it would be great to be in the Hobart parade with the car restored.
Corner of 3rd Street & Main Street, Hobart, Indiana – July 4, 1915
The car is decorated for the parade and is difficult to see what is under the bunting. Nevertheless, you can see that the car is big, has right hand drive. The corner has changed a bit in the 100 intervening years.
NE corner of 3rd & Main, Hobart, Indiana in 2014
The second photo taken the same day was found in 2014, by Clarence Davis at the Hobart Historical Society museum, mounted on a display panel.
A second photo of our Michigan car found by Clarence Davis at the Hobart History museum.
The second photo was presumably taken by the same photographer, Fred Rose, who became Mayor of Hobart a few years later. Rose also served as a Hobart volunteer fireman with Michael Fleck as shown on our How We Became Custodians of the Michigan blog entry. The photo is a bit less blurry, but the bunting and decorations obscure the details of the car. Note the teddy bear siting on the improvised “cow catcher” between the headlights. Was this a nod to Teddy Roosevelt?
