Heading: (Automobiles)
Author:
Title: Log-Book of a Motor Car ___ Owned by ___ Being a record of mileage, incidents, and cost of operation
Place Published: Hartford, Conn
Publisher:Aetna Life Insurance Company
Date Published: [1906]
Description:

[ii], 122 pp. Partially completed in pen and pencil. 21x11.5 cm (8¼x4½") original tan linen, title on front, Aetna logo on the rear, pencil present (original?). Second Edition.

Scarce manuscript log book, kept by a young woman as she traveled in her Stevens-Duryea automobile, mostly in Massachusetts and New York.

Manuscript log book titled; "The Log-Book of a Motor Car." A fantastic, original handwritten touring book kept by a 27 year old woman, ahead of her time for 1906, driving a Stevens-Duryea automobile. Logged are every mile, every town, every car break down, every hotel, every friend and passenger she took with her, as she traveled mostly throughout Massachusetts and New York, from April through July of 1906. An incredible car diary kept by a Miss Maud Murlless of Holyoke, Massachusetts, driving a Stevens-Durea car. Maud E. Murlless lived at 101 Chestnut St., Holyoke, Massachusetts, and the automobile was manufactured in Chicopee, Massachusetts, approximately 4½ miles distant. Maud writes that the car is No. "12019." The top of each page has categories for the owner of the car to make entries that include: From, To, Date, Towns Passed Through, Odometer Reading, Miles Between Towns, Time Of Day, Time Between Towns. etc. At the rear of the book are several handwritten manuscript pages where Maud gives her impressions on her tours, travel directions, back roads, state roads, bad roads, important memos, when the car broke down, where it broke down, if people were nice to them when they broke down, if the road was full of rocks or ruts, steep hills, where to turn left or right, etc.



Maud Murlless came from a noted Holyoke family. Her father and brother were both dentists. Her father Daniel had a patent on "Dental Dam Holder," and her brother Charles (a graduate of MIT), patented "Method Of And Apparatus For Back Filling." Her sister Eloise was a graduate of Smith College and married a civil engineer; a genius in his own right, Wallace Clyde Johnson. Eloise and Charles went just about everywhere with Maud. Often "mother and father" would take a ride with her too. She mentions road conditions, hotels they stayed at and the cost of each room, flat tires, broken fan belts, price of gasoline, mileage, the name of every town they passed through on their journeys, etc., and she includes a list of every passenger to whom she gave a ride, and usually where she took them. At one point the "Stevens Man" (Stevens-Duryea), had to help them when they had engine problems. Maud was born on April 18, 1879 as Edith Murlless and was 27 years old when she bought this car. She traveled from Holyoke to Westfield, Northampton, Amherst, Sunderland, South Deerfield, Deerfield, Dalton, Lebanon, Brainard, all in Massachusetts. On to New York to Albany, Londonville, Newtonville, Schenectady, Scotia, Fonda, London, Utica, New Hartford Oneida Castle, Syracuse, Port Byron, Palmyra, Rochester, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Allegheny, Newark Station, etc. Back to MA to Worcester, Shrewsbury, Lenox, Boston, Cambridge, Charleston Heights; Navy Yard; Revere Beach; etc. Dates range from April 28, 1906 to July 19, 1906. Maud kept excellent records and her notations would include "Mass state law is now 20 miles an hour in the country and 12 mph in the city; In Westfield 8 miles per hour; Gasoline man is Thos. Fredette, 30 Hamilton St., Holyoke; Car bucked some; Used 6 gal gasoline and 1 1/2 quarts of oil. Bought cigars for the men at the Stevens Works. May 20; Took a luncheon and ate it by the roadside. Dad ate all his deviled egg before he discovered the tissue paper was still on it; S. Deerfield dinner at Lathrop House, everything cold and burned; Went to a house with 100 year old wallpaper; Almost crashed a runaway ice wagon and just escaped by stopping machine quickly; Took Miss Oliver & Miss Carey back to Northampton in my auto - to Smith College; Steep Hill ! Stopped at farmhouse as fan belt broke; Yates Hotel in Utica, American Plan - fine, paid $2.50 for father. Tire blew out and bought four new ones. Dad blew out fourth one; Stuck, found cylinder burst; Stuck, porcelain split on spark plug; Tire blew up again; Stopped at Utica in the garage. 60 cents for oil and labor, 80 cents for gas; Four gallons of cylinder oil," etc.

Lightly worn; near fine.