Alan Crawford

You may remember, sometime back, I wrote about the Sunderman Carburetor Company after discovering a photograph of the building on one of the glass plate negatives I came across. This past week, a buddy shared a photo of a horse carriage he has, which was manufactured by Montgomery Ward, according to the plate on it in 1905.

Imagine what an elegant means of transportation this was on a cool, summer evening with a mild breeze and a high stepping horse? Hearing the clippety-clop of the horseshoes on the cobblestone pavement as you drove about your neighborhood greeting your neighbors. This sure seems more relaxing than driving a smog spewing automobile with the radio blasting rock ‘n roll, hip hop, or just plain old rhythm and blues, with dark, tinted windows obscuring you from the world.

Back in the day, Newburgh had its own carriage maker, the Newburgh Carriage Company, which occupied the same building the Sunderman Carburetor Company did, at 9 – 11 Chambers Street, just a decade or so earlier, an earlier incarnation.

When I wrote the article on Sunderman, a great guy, Ray Kelly, sent over a photo of the Newburgh Carriage Company, which needs to be shared with everyone. If you haven’t, you need to attend some of his lectures! Well organized, informative, and simply a good time.

The Newburgh Carriage Company also did business at 117 – 119 Broadway. The enterprise was the concept of two brothers, Abram Dubois Fowler (b. December 1856; d. 12-02-1934) and Weygant Dubois Fowler (b. 09-15-1871; d. 03-15-1951). They were quite the entrepreneurs and adjusted their business and wares to the needs of the time.

Going back to the late 1800’s, they not only offered carriages and related paraphernalia, but also bicycles which were now becoming into vogue! In the winter, they offered sleighs and all the necessary gear to keep you warm on your ride to Grandma’s house.

When the era of horse drawn vehicles began to fade away, they converted their offerings to rubber tires for the new horseless carriages. Not only selling new tires, but also offering the tires traded in by other customers!

Though I wax on the practice of riding in a horse drawn wagon, they were not without peril as noted in the report of a fatality in the January 31st, 1946 issue of the Newburgh Courier near the Rossville Church. We’ve made significant strides in increasing the safety of what we’re riding in over the past two centuries, but you just can’t predict the unexpected.