Granville, 1886
Situated in the Berkshire foothills west of Springfield, Massachusetts, the town of Granville today is the kind of place you'd want to go to get away from it all. A slice of Norman Rockwell's America, a bit down at the heels like most out of the way New England towns these days, but green and beautiful on a tranquil summer day. A visitor driving down Main Road or stopping at the Country Store might get the pleasant feeling they're all tranquil days in Granville.
Harry Holcomb was born on February 26, 1886 in a much different Granville. Most of the tree-covered hills had long since been cleared to feed the local sawmills and to heat homes and businesses. Noble & Cooley, the largest local business, had already been using the fine local maple in their drum-making business for over three decades.
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| Noble & Cooley Civil War drum (Noble & Cooley Center for Historic Preservation, Water St., Granville, Ma.) |
The Civil War had taken a toll on some of the local families' ability to continue their farms, followed by the severe depression of 1873-1879. The powerful draw of office and factory work in cities had also taken hold and was stronger than ever by the 1880's. In other words Granville was not that different from many struggling rural New England towns of 1886.The days of the small family farm were numbered, especially for those who were poorly educated and couldn't afford to keep up with change.
Granville also had its share of the kind of Yankee ingenuity that helped drive the industrial revolution in cities like Springfield, Hartford and Bridgeport. In 1886 many of the citizens of Granville scraped together a living by farming (either their own farm or as farm labor), and working at Noble & Cooley making drums for 5 cents a day to supplement farm income. Husbands, wives and children worked there when and as their situation required. "Double income" wasn't a choice, it was usually a necessity.
Noble & Cooley was a good place to work, in a 19th century kind of way. It was respectable work and people were respected. The founders had come from Granville families and the factory provided much needed work for hundreds if not thousands of Granville residents over the years including the families of Harry's parents.
It was the kind of place where if a new building needed to be built, the male employees would just stop making drums for a while and build the new building, mixing the concrete by hand and getting the job done. It was the kind of place where a husband would work as a saw operator while his wife worked packing drumsticks, grabbing a handful of precisely 24 (the standard shipping number) so unfailingly that nobody ever needed to check her work.
Noble & Cooley still makes the world's best drums in the same building with the same equipment. Much of the space is shared with the Noble and Cooley Center For Historic Preservation, a museum dedicated to preserving the memory of the people, history and spirit that made America great.
The American dream in Granville was founded on belief in the power of solid, can-do determination and ingenuity. That was the world Harry Holcomb became part of during the cold New England February of 1886.
Lizzie, Willie and Harry
Harry Holcomb's father, William "Willie" Holcomb worked variously as a farmer, farm labor, and as a laborer in the drum factory. Harry's mother, Elizabeth "Lizzie" (Rowley) Holcomb experienced loss early in life when her father, Charles Rowley, died at Andersonville during the Civil War leaving her mother with 2 daughters under the age of 4. Lizzie's mother remarried, to Charles' brother William. By the age of 19 she was working as a dressmaker in the nearby bustling city (by comparison to Granville) of Westfield.
One wonders if as a young girl Harry's mother might have looked west from the porch of her mother and step-father's farm house past the graves of her grandparents in Northeast Cemetery to nearby Bad Luck Mountain, wondering what her father had been like, what he suffered at Andersonville, and wondering what luck the future might bring.
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| Granville at the turn of the century |
It was a world without safety nets. Life was a hard climb up a slippery slope and for those who fell it was from a hard life to a harder one. That was the American story, Granville-style. The family worked hard, went to church, played by the rules, and from all appearances found a straightforward, unselfish happiness in their lives and each other. What more could you ask for.
Harry Goes To School
Illiteracy was not uncommon in 1886 Granville. This was often among adult males, many of whom had left school to work the farms at a very young age while their fathers or brothers served in the Civil War. Many didn't return to school when or if their fathers and brothers came home. Others had fathers who died of various causes at a young age, so the sons simply didn't have the option of attending school. Daughters didn't fare much, if at all, better.
Harry's parents had enough education to read and write and made sure Harry and his younger siblings Walter and Velma received what education Granville offered, which by most accounts was quite good thanks to the support of the more well-to-do local community leaders who understood the importance of a good public education
Harry's schooling led him to high school in nearby Westfield where he and his cousin Ina took rooms at a boarding house near the school. According to employment records in the Noble & Cooley company archives, Harry worked at the drum factory as a teenager, alongside his father and uncles. He also worked in Westfield when he boarded there while attending high school.
"High school" education was often trade-specific but Harry's books reflected a well-rounded education ranging from Shakespeare to chemistry.
Soon after leaving school in 1905 Harry found himself working as a mechanic in Springfield at the Knox Automobile Company.
Big City Life
Harry's younger brother Walter also left Granville and moved to Springfield, starting with Knox around the same time as Harry. Whether one brother encouraged the other to join Knox is unknown but both worked in various manufacturing and testing capacities, with Walter progressing to a position in sales and Harry focusing on manufacturing, testing and racing. Walter would work at Knox until the company folded and was bought out in the 1920's.
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| Main Street, Springfield, Mass. Library of Congress photo |
Springfield was nicknamed "The City of Progress" for good reason. In addition to being Knox headquarters it was the home of Indian motorcycles, Stevens-Duryea automobiles, and Springfield Armory which manufactured most of the small arms used by Union troops during the Civil War. It was also a manufacturing location for many other companies including Goodyear. By 1920 it became the home of the only Rolls-Royce plant outside of England and later in the 1920's home of Granville Brothers (no connection to the town of Granville) aircraft company, builder of the famous Gee Bee racing planes. 
Later in the 20th century Springfield would slide into the same decline as most mid-size New England former manufacturing centers but the Springfield of 1905 was an unstoppable beacon of hope thanks to a combination of technology, practical New England ingenuity, and a work force driven by a deeply instilled work ethic.
It was a work ethic and drive that came from the American farm experience as well as the late 19th century immigrant experience. Work was the American solution to all problems. Companies needed workers, people needed work, work created buying power, buying power created more work. Everything was changing fast and whether it's the latest technology today or a family's first car, phone or electric lights back then, the only way to keep up is to work and spend. The rest of the story is more than history- it is America and the world today.
Some accounts say Walter was at Knox when the company started. Given that the company started in 1900 and Walter was born in early 1889 that's extremely unlikely. What is known is that both brothers were working at Knox by 1906 in the kind of jobs that paid simple expenses like room and board and positioned them for opportunities that didn't exist back in Granville. These were the tough manufacturing jobs families used as a springboard to build the middle class a generation or two later.
The Racing Bug
When and how the racing bug bit Harry is impossible to say. Blazier and Rollings' short book about mechanicians provides an account from mechanician Ray Stearns describing what that moment was like for Stearns:
"Three other boys and I rode out to the Speedway, entered the grounds on the east side and climbed a tree on the backstretch. We were not far from the track and could see all of turn 2 and then I heard it. Coming around, warming up was a White car with a four cylinder Duesenberg engine. The other boys I was with were not bothered by this, but my heart was beating as if I had run a 100 yard race. I said this is wonderful and beautiful to my friends and some day I am going to do this. I promise you."
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| "Racers at Speed", 1917, oil on canvas, William Harnden Foster |
1908 was a good year for Knox racing. Billy Bourque had campaigned the 38 HP direct drive (drive shaft connecting to differential) Knox Model O, successfully demonstrating the car's speed, strength and dependability with numerous strong finishes. Al Denison campaigned the bigger, chain drive 48 HP Model M race car with comparable success. Private owner/operators were also attracted to Knox cars and as Knox entered 1909 their ads made a point of featuring the 1908 successes in races, hill climbs, endurance runs and tours.
For unknown reasons Lynch appears to have opted out of the 1909 racing season. He participated in the New York to Boston Endurance Run in March 1909 but there is no indication he was involved in competition for Knox after that.
And so opportunity knocked on Harry Holcomb's door. As a tester for Knox Harry had been involved in training other drivers, including people who were purchasing their first car. Some accounts tell the story of Knox testers and race drivers tearing up the local country roads and you have to think, "Why wouldn't they? Wouldn't you?" Testing duties seem to have included the occasional hill climb competition or stint as a replacement driver. Fred Belcher is a good example of how mechanicians could transition to driver, and Harry is believed to have competed as a hill climb driver, possibly testing the big Model M (nicknamed the "Knox Giant") that was being prepared by Knox for Joan Cuneo.
Was it the money? No. Most mechanicians and even drivers in 1909 were company employees. The "superstar" system was just beginning to emerge with names like Oldfield, Robertson, DePalma and others becoming household names. Billy Bourque was right up there with them; when the press touted the "big names" coming to the 1909 Crown Point races, Billy's picture was at the top of the page with [Berman's and Chevrolet's?]. The reality was that the excitement and glamour of racing provided an abundant supply of raw talent, far in excess of the high mortality rate for the profession.
Early 1909
In April 1909 Harry wrote home to his mother Lizzie that he had been conducting driver training at Stafford Springs and encountered his "old boss" who had offered him a job. Who he was referring to is unknown; it could have been an old boss at Knox, or someone before he started at Knox. Sometimes history's unanswered questions are more intriguing than the answers.
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| Page 1 of Harry's April 11, 1909 letter, in which he describes his "busy season" as a tester and driving instructor at Knox. |
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| Harry comments on his role as tester, which was combined with training responsibilities for new drivers, presumably Knox customers buying their first car or needing orientation with the Knox. This was an era when driving was relatively complex. Owners also needed to be familiar with a broad range of maintenance jobs. As builders of high-end cars it makes sense that Knox would have a thorough owner orientation program. |
Whoever the "old boss" was and whatever the job was, Harry apparently declined. Perhaps the prospect of replacing Lynch and going racing with Billy Bourque and the Knox team had already taken hold of his thoughts. Perhaps he was already hoping to progress from mechanician to driver.
Once the racing bug bites it's hard to shake. It would be many years before Steve McQueen's character in the 1971 movie "Le Mans" would express racing's hold with such blunt eloquence:
"Racing is life. Anything that happens before, or after, is just waiting."
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| "Meeting of the Monsters," 1906, gouache on board, Walter Appleton Clark |
For the continuation of Harry Holcomb's racing story go to: "Indianapolis 1909"
