News: Greenwood  (First Autos in Greenwood - 1914)

Contact: comstock@stateline-isp.com

Surnames: Stabnow, Eaton, Honeywell, Begley, Brown, McIntyre, Hartson, Van Vohris, Varney, Andrews

----Source: Scrapbook of Agnes (Bizjak) Wehrmann (Special to The Sentinel)(1950’s)

The first cars in the community 50 years ago cost only $600 each. The six 1914 Metz automobiles were delivered by the railroad on one freight car.

“They came cheaper by the half dozen,” explained Harold W. Stabnow, one of five rural mail carriers who bought the cars. He still lives in Greenwood.

The community first had mail delivery in 1855 when a stage coach brought mail from Black River Falls, through Neillsville, to Greenwood. Before that time mail was occasionally taken from Sparta to travelers who came to Greenwood on foot, on horseback, or with a yoke of oxen.

From 1857 to 1871 mail was handled by Elijah and Frederick Eaton, S.C. Honeywell and W.H. Begley, without salary or appointment. B.F. Brown was appointed the first postmaster of Greenwood in 1873.

Stabnow said the Metz cars were chain drive “which helped them get through the snow, mud and sand.”

Picture text: The first automobiles in Greenwood (Clark County) were lined up in front of the post office in the summer of 1914. The six Metz cars, ordered by the five Greenwood rural mail carriers and Doctor McIntyre, were delivered in a carload lot by rail. Cars and their owners (from left) were Dr. McIntyre, W.G. Hartson, Harold W. Stabnow, George Van Vohris, Charles Varney and Frank Andrews. Stabnow is still living.