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| A look at the Lincoln Highway in Green River, Wyoming. Gregory R.C. Hasman collection |
The Lincoln Highway Association was established in 1913 to plan, promote, and sign the highway. It was dissolved in 1928 shortly after the establishment of the U.S. numbered system, but it was revived in 1992. Today it continues to be dedicated to promoting and preserving the road.
Getting started
Roads across the United States during the formative years of the 20th century were poor or nonexistent.
The Good Roads Movement, which began in the late 19th century, was active in parts of the country, but as pointed out in the Lincoln Highway Association's official history published in "The Lincoln Highway: The story of a crusade that made transportation history," the "country as a whole was by no means enamored of road improvement; city men opposed taxation for the purpose of building roads anywhere...farmers hadn't yet realized that it costs them 30 cents a ton to haul hay a mile over a poor road and only 15 cents over a good one; nobody took the motor truck seriously; nobody regarded operation of a motor car as anything but idle sport."
There were adventure seekers who hit the road and traveled cross-country in the 1900s such as Horatio Jackson, but for the most part, according to the LHA, roads were disconnected, graded at best and worse case scenario they "were little, if any, better than the backwoods byways of Colonial times." However, at the start of 1912, the community of interest between the automobile and improved roads "was becoming apparent."
The increase in demand for automobiles led to the realization that roads needed to be improved so industries can increase sales and residents could travel on better roads.
A cross-country idea
Entrepreneur Carl Fisher knew what the motor car manufacturers across the country were thinking "and as an enthusiastic motorist in his own right he knew what the automobile owners wanted," according to the LHA.
Fisher dreamed of changing that by helping put together a transcontinental highway, "a road that should be hard-surfaced" and capable of bearing traffic in all weather, "and that should be accurately signed through its length."
"A road across the United States; let's build it before we're too old to enjoy it," he said.
Initially he called it "The Coast-to Coast Rock Highway," that would run from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, California, but the question was, how was it going to be financed?
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| The start of the Lincoln Highway in Times Square, NYC. Gregory R.C. Hasman photo |
On Sept. 6, 1912, Fisher laid out his proposal before automotive leaders and asked for their support. He estimated that he needed $10 million "and this be proposed should be raised through contributions from automobile manufacturers, jobbers, dealers, producers of automobile accessories, and persons from whom these concerns brought supplies," according to the Lincoln Highway Association.
He wanted all contributions signed and the fund closed on Jan. 1, 1913, and for the road to be completed and ready to be drove on by May 1, 1915.
"Realizing that private citizens outside the motor industry would be interested in the road, and might be willing to assist in its development," Fisher suggested that an association be formed to sponsor it and that memberships be offered to the public in two categories, a $5 annual fee or dues of at least $100.
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| A Lincoln Highway Association membership form in the 1916 edition of The Complete Official Road Guide of The Lincoln Highway. Gregory R.C. Hasman collection |
When Waldon wired from Detroit that the Packard Company "voted enthusiastically" to join the movement and to "start the ball rolling in Detroit," the effect was "electric," according to the LHA.
Joy also made a statement in support of the project.
"If a transcontinental highway can be fathered by means of the Ocean-to-Ocean highway organization, the good roads improvement which will result within the next 10 years can hardly be conceived of in advance," he said. "Such highway improvement would benefit almost every person in the United States. We have investigated the proposition with great care and the directors unanimously enforced the project."
Goals
There were two objectives, arranging for the cement industry to cooperate in building the road and creating a group to sponsor an organization on behalf of the automotive industry.
A meeting was held on April 14, 1913, which consisted of Joy; Fisher; A.Y. Gowen, president of the Lehigh Portland Cement Company; A.R. Pardington, a veteran good roads advocate; A.L. Westgard, a highway "pathfinder" and photographer; Paul Deming, vice president of American State Bank; and Russell Alger, from Alger, Smith & Co. Deming and Alger were Detroit men who Joy had "great confidence" in.
Decisions that were reached would have Gowen, Deming, Fisher, Alger and Joy forming an organization that Joy would lead. The organization would be in a corporate form that was outlined in general terms; Pardington would go to Indianapolis and go over Fisher's records and prepare a statement showing what financial backing had been obtained for the road; the organization would be headquartered in Detroit; the group's name needed to embody the word "Lincoln;" and Pardington would be the association's chief administrative official.
After the meeting Pardington and Fisher "hurried back" to Indianapolis to compile the statement and prepare certificates to be awarded members of the highway association that was being formed.
"Indirectly, this caused Mr. Pardington considerable difficulty, because he found it almost impossible to get Mr. Fisher and Mr. Joy to agree finally upon the name it was to bear," according to the LHA. "The meeting had decided on 'Lincoln' but not on the exact manner of its use."
Naming the route
The route would have several proposed names.
Fisher's friend Elbert Hubbard suggested one to be "The American Road," but it was overruled. Hubbard did come out in favor of "Lincoln Memorial Highway;" however, that name belonged to the Lincoln Memorial Road Association, organized by Executive Secretary Leslie T. McCleary. The group wanted to build a Lincoln Memorial Road from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, to Washington, D.C., but Congress ruined the plans. McCleary then said he would gladly relinquish the name to the new highway organization, according to the LHA.
Guiding details
During Joy and Pardington's communication with one another regarding the form and detail of the prospectus and an audit of subscriptions to the group that was already made, Gowen wrote to Packard and it appeared the cement industry would be willing to contribute cement on the same basis as the motor car manufacturers contributed: A third of 1 percent of annual gross for three years, or 2.35 million barrels of cement or about $3 million, according to the LHA.
As for the audit, made by Marwick, Mitchell, Peat & Co., it showed there were actual subscriptions that totaled about $2.32 million.
"There were additional indefinite subscriptions which Mr. Fisher estimated would yield $366,700, and 56 subscriptions in which the amount was given simply as a third of a percent of the subscribers' gross business annually for three years, the amount of which the auditors declined to appraise. Mr. Pardington estimated them however, at approximately $4 million," the LHA stated. "The showing was highly satisfactory, especially as many of those whose subscriptions were for indefinite amounts were the largest concerns in the automotive world.
"The organizing group settled down at once to put the Lincoln Highway Association into active being."
Joy acting as chairman signed the prospectus and agreed to serve as president of the association. Deming, Alger and Gowen agreed to serve on the executive committee that would govern the new body and Fisher announced that Seiberling would be willing to serve in the association. Pardington would become secretary and vice president.
The group officially came to be known as the Lincoln Highway Association on July, 1, 1913, with its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. Its purpose was "To procure the establishment from the Atlantic to the Pacific, open to lawful traffic of all description without toll charges: such highway to be known, in memory of Abraham Lincoln, as 'The Lincoln Highway.'"
One of the reasons for the name change, according to the July 2, 1913, Brooklyn Eagle, was because across the country there had been various coast to coast highways planned.
"It is hoped that these organizations will cooperate and help in the development of the Lincoln Highway Association so that all may eventually be organized into a concrete and efficient whole," the Eagle reported. "Wherever it is at all possible the roads that have been properly built will be made a part of the Lincoln Highway."
The Lincoln Highway Association's first act was to refuse an alliance with the National Highways Association, a group that sought the federal government's assistance in building and maintaining interstate highway across the country. The LHA refused because "their aim was to procure the construction of one road only, and to enlarge their activities would dissipate their energies," according to the LHA.
The 1920 edition of National Magazine offered high praise to the creators of the association.
"The guiding principles of the Lincoln Highway founders was not that the Lincoln Way was the only important highway which should be established in America, by any means, but merely that by reason of its appealing importance it should be built first, thus providing an 'object lesson' road which would lead to the wise location of other main artery routes and the building of all of them as fast as the ways and means could be provided."
The next steps were to promote the road and establish a route.
Sources:
1. (1919, November). Building an Ocean-to-Ocean Highway: The Lincoln Highway dream of 1913 "A continuous connecting improved highway from the Atlantic to the Pacific" now an almost accomplished fact, National Magazine, (XLVIII), p.455.
2. (1935). The Lincoln Highway Association: The story of a crusade that made transportation history, New York, NY: Dodd, Mead & Company.
3. (1916). The Complete Official Road Guide of The Lincoln Highway Association, Detroit, MI: The Lincoln Highway Association.
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