Franklin
County Highway Chronicle Chapter IX:
Auto
Age Arrives, Ohio Highway Department Established
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1899 Winton
commemorative post card
The Auto Age
began in Franklin County in September 1899 when businessman Campbell T.
Chittenden bought the region’s first “horseless carriage” from the Winton
Motor Carriage Company in Cleveland. The $1,000 vehicle was fueled by common
stove gas and could reach a maximum speed of 18 m.p.h.
Two months
later, inventor Perry Okey built the first automobile in Columbus and
"motored" around the county to much acclaim.
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Automobile club 1903
race program
In 1903, 16
horseless carriage owners joined together to form the Columbus Automobile Club,
and more than 10,000 spectators gathered at the Columbus Driving Park to witness
daredevil Barney Oldfield break the automobile speed record by hitting 60 mph.
To help meet
the challenges of growing automobile travel, the legislature established the
Ohio Highway Department in 1905 and Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles in 1906.
The highway
department initially designated county surveyors to be their representatives in
identifying and repairing roadway problems. They also oversaw the distribution
of state funding derived from registration fees, first collected in 1908, and
the two-cent per gallon gas tax initiated in 1925.
By 1930, there
were 107,000 automobiles registered in Franklin County that accentuated the need
for dramatically improved travel. At the time, there were still 183 miles of
earthen roads and 386 miles of macadam roads that were dusty rut filled
thoroughfares that often turned to mud.
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