September 12
Historic Mexican War Car Took a Bit of a Licking, but Keeps on Ticking: Sept. 27 Antique Car Show in Ben Wheeler
View Images of the Event
BEN WHEELER, Texas – One of the first three cars ever used in U.S. combat operations will be the star attraction September 27 at Ben Wheeler Arts & Historic Foundation’s “spotlight on history” event called Four Legends, One Car.
Gen. John J. “Blackjack” Pershing rode in the 1915 Dodge Brothers touring car as he led 12,000 U.S. troops into Mexico in 1916 in a futile search for the revolutionary Pancho Villa; drivers Lt. Eddie Rickenbacker and Lt. George Patton went on to military fame themselves.
During the event, military re-enactors will portray Pershing, Rickenbacker, and Patton, joined by the Brazos Banditos troupe and special guests from as far away as San Antonio and Mexico. The Banditos self-describe themselves as dirty, mean, good-for-nothing gunslingers and lovely but naughty lady rustlers who “have the fuse to set off power kegs full of laughs” with gun-spinning action, bullwhip cracking, and tall tales.
The historic, four-door black convertible owned by retired oilman Jack Thomas of Mountain View, Arkansas, and coming to East Texas for the first time, highlights a 7.5-mile caravan from downtown Edom west along Hwy. 279 to downtown Ben Wheeler, where all of the cars will be on display from 2-5 p.m. The event will include other antique military vehicles, the Texas Doughboys, big-band music, concessions, and more.
Thomas found the touring car literally in pieces in an old machine shop in 1996, where it had been for more than 75 years. Nobody is sure how the touring car ended up in the shop. “This car was completely disassembled and piled up in a corner of an old machine shop. That pile of parts was not moved until I got them,” Thomas said. “I worked six-day weeks accumulating more than 5,000 hours of mechanical body and paint work over five years. The only thing I didn’t do myself was the upholstery, but the original horsehair padding was put back in.”
The Dodge Brothers touring car has traveled all over the United States for special events and antique car shows, although it’s most often on display a couple of times a week in a restaurant parking lot in MountainView where Thomas shows it off to visitors and sells copies of his self-published book.
Ben Wheeler Development Company (BWDC), which is sponsoring the September 27 event, is renovating a building to eventually house an antique car and motorcycle museum near downtown.
BWDC’s Brooks Gremmels is returning the southern Van Zandt County community to the way it looked in 1935 and to bring new businesses, cultural attractions, and a new attitude to the area. The project will take at least three years – probably longer – to recapture the old-fashioned atmosphere with an even longer timeline for some projects. In a community with a thousand or so nearby residents, there will be music venues, new restaurants, new shops, a fully restored downtown park complete with gazebos, and more.
Ben Wheeler, named for the first man to carry mail into Van Zandt County, thrived during the late 1800s and early 1900s as families arrived in horse-drawn wagons, rode horses, or walked to visit, get mail, buy supplies, and sell or trade goods at one of the several general stores. The community included churches, barbers, blacksmiths, tailors, saddle and shoe shop, several gins and mills, a bank, the Berry Resort Hotel, boarding houses, a movie theater, lumber yard, a garage with gas pumps eventually, cafes, a school, and even a college at one time called the Alamo Institute. Ben Wheeler shrank after World War II as many people left for large cities to find work. For more information, call Ben Wheeler Development Company at 903.833.1070
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