History Knox
Mark Sebastian Jordan authors a History Knox column each Saturday morning for Knox Pages reflecting on the county's past.
DANVILLE — As we’ve explored in these pages in the past, Danville is actually a conglomeration of multiple communities: Danville, Rossville, and Buckeye City.
Rossville was absorbed into Buckeye City, leaving two adjoining towns separated by railroad tracks. Buckeye City wasn’t absorbed by Danville until 1924.
That tells us this fantastic picture from the Knox Time Collection is from 1924 or before, which the vintage automobiles confirm, suggesting late teens or early twenties.
There is an interesting gas pump of a design that I’ve never seen before. Most early pumps had fuel chambers up high so that the gas would create a little pressure as it descended into the car’s gas tank.
Perhaps this tank was an earlier design that was made before it was realized how much more effective a pump was that first lifted the gasoline up to a high tank.
The lettering on the gas pump tells us that it was for Red Crown gasoline, a brand that started in 1911.
The fact that Red Crown soon started designing their pumps (which, at first, did indeed have low tanks) with a decorative crown on top suggests that this pump is a very early one.
The garage could have doubled as a Standard Oil gas station at first (later to become Sohio for many years) and then a Red Crown when a portion of Standard Oil’s stations broke away and formed their own company in 1911.
Because of that and the pump style, I’d guess this photo dates from the teens and not the twenties.
The garage is clearly an authorized dealer of B. F. Goodrich tires, advertised on multiple signs. I believe the sign up high over the garage door advertises Studebaker Motor Cars.
I can make out “Racine” and a partly obscured sign about how far it is guaranteed for, suggesting it was either another brand of tire or perhaps a motor oil company. I can’t make out the sign on the far-right garage door.
The photo was submitted to Knox Time by Brian Durbin, and the people in the photo are identified as the Miller family, from left: Laura (holding baby Banbury), Willie, Johnny, Dale, and Philip.
Does anyone know more about this family and their business? Did Johnny lose an arm, or is his hand just tucked behind his back? Can anyone make out that small sign on the right garage door?
It’s a great photo from the early days of the automobile in Knox County.