From "Cincinnati Enquirer," October 6, 1901
Toward the end of 1951, a customer walked into the East Hills Plating Company in Bellevue, Kentucky, with a box full of old silver items for repair, replating and sale. Among the assorted objects, proprietor George Grainger spotted an impressive and substantial trophy cup of solid silver. It was engraved for presentation to one Emmet P. Gray by the Cincinnati Automobile Club. Mr. Grainger contacted the Automobile Club and Joseph R. Gardner, the current president, arranged to purchase the antique curio.
The next issue of the Auto Club’s magazine, Motour, carried an article about the cup and about the 1901 race at which it was presented. The article noted that almost nothing was known about the recipient of the cup. Curiously, one reader knew quite a bit about Emmet P. Gray, because Mr. Gray himself, now living in Bethel, Ohio, happened to come across that particular issue. He called the Auto Club, which arranged a ceremony to present again, more than fifty years later, the cup to its rightful owner.
How Mr. Gray originally won that silver cup is quite a tale. The Cincinnati Enquirer announced in August of 1901 that the newspaper would sponsor the city’s very first automobile race at the Oakley Park racetrack. In announcing the race, the newspaper acknowledged Cincinnati might not be ready for horseless carriages:
“Automobiles are new in this vicinity—they are more than that, they are a mystery to the masses. They don’t understand them, and when it is said they can travel faster than railroad locomotives, the people are incredulous.”
The Oakley Park track had recently been shut down amid charges of corruption and organized gambling. In 1901, the track was attempting a revival by featuring harness racing. That effort collapsed in 1904. The owners seemed to think automobile racing might help their image.
Image Courtesy of Cincinnati History Library and Archives
The Enquirer invited every automobile owner in Hamilton, Campbell, and Kenton counties to compete. Nine automobilists accepted the challenge, three driving gasoline-powered vehicles, and six steam machines.
The race was originally scheduled for late September, but heavy rains delayed the event until Saturday, October 5. At 1:00 p.m. that day more than a dozen automobile owners gathered at the Cincinnati Auto Club headquarters on Seventh Street. The fleet paraded through downtown, but not without incident. The Enquirer [October 6, 1901] reported:
“Just as Mr. and Mrs. Ferd Stenger, of 1233 Main street, were passing the Enquirer office in their automobile yesterday afternoon at 1:30 o’clock the machine took fire and a great blaze shot skyward. Mrs. Stenger threw herself over the dashboard and tumbled in a heap in the street. Aside from soiling her dress she was not injured. Her husband very cooly got out and the flame was extinguished.”
Having doused the fire, the convoy put-putted out Gilbert Avenue through Walnut Hills to Oakley. The first race of the day featured the gasoline-powered cars. Seth H. Leavenworth of Price Hill managed to get his 350-pound, 2.5 horsepower flivver out to Oakley but, once there, it would not start, so he was scratched.
The two remaining competitors were Charles Hanauer, president of the Hanauer Automobile Company, and Harry W. Sumner, an automotive engineer. Mr. Hanauer drove a two-seater runabout built by the Winton Motor Company out of Cleveland. Mr. Sumner drove a four-passenger vehicle of his own design, manufactured by the Lunkenheimer Valve Company.
Sumner’s Lunkenheimer rocketed out of the gate and never gave up the lead. Hanauer realized too late that the fuel mixture settings he calibrated for road travel were insufficient for racing, so his passenger, bartender Carl Baumann, hopped out to make an adjustment. According to the Enquirer:
“To the spectators who did not understand the operation it looked as though Mr. Baumann got out and pushed the automobile, and a good deal of merriment was indulged in over it.”
Meanwhile, Mr. Hamner in his Lunkenheimer labored under the delusion that the race was five miles long. Despite winning the race at the mile marker, he persisted in tootling along on the assumption that his opponent was still on his tail.
“As he came around the third time some men who were sent out to stop him stood in the center of the track frantically waving their arms and hats, but Mr. Sumner, thinking that they were cheering him on rode to the next post at full speed.”
That speed, by the way, was a tad over 25 miles per hour.
After an intermission featuring a championship trotting race, also circling the Oakley track at around 25 miles per hour, the steam-powered vehicles lined up. Emmet Gray was there with a 4.5 horsepower steamer manufactured by his own Cincinnati Automobile Company; auto mechanic Lewis B. Hunter piloted a locally produced auto from the Miller & Sons Carriage Company; Ferd Stenger hauled up in a peculiar machine he claimed was the first automobile ever built in Cincinnati; Chester N. Stevens, a clerk at a Front Street factory, manned a Connecticut-built Locomobile; and shoe manufacturer John Duttenhoffer completed the card.
Stenger leaped out ahead of the pack and was so far ahead it appeared that victory was certainly his but his machine, allegedly constructed in 1892, ran out of steam and was overtaken by the pack. Hunter and Gray vied for the lead until Hunter took a turn too tightly and bent a wheel, allowing Gray to claim the victory.
A third race pitted the winners of the first two contests against each other. In a mile-long heat, Emmet Gray left Harry Hamner in the dust. The day’s competitions closed with a five-mile marathon involving every vehicle, steam or gasoline.
This time, two locally produced gasoline machines took the honors. Harry Hamner’s Lunkenheimer came in first, followed by Lewis Hunter and the Miller Carriage vehicle. Hunter’s car caught fire twice. He stopped once to put it out but ignored a second conflagration and powered on.
“The fire delayed Hunter a good deal, and he was applauded by all for his pluck in sticking to the machine, when to all appearances in the eyes of the spectators it seemed to be about to explode or burn up. But Mr. Hunter, who thoroughly understands the operation of his machine, was quite equal to the emergency, and while running at very nearly full speed soon had the flames under control and finished second.”
Arriving in third place was Emmet Gray. Cheering him on was his business partner in the Cincinnati Automobile Company, Otto Armleder. Mr. Armleder was so taken with the silver trophy cup that he asked to borrow it to show off to some friends. The cup made quite an impression, apparently, and Mr. Armleder refused to return it, claiming it was company property. Mr. Gray sued to recover the cup but had other problems to deal with.
Despite Mr. Gray’s championship finish in the inaugural Cincinnati automobile race and despite the attention that victory brought to the Cincinnati Automobile Company, the bank financing the Armleder-Gray partnership called in its notes. The bank’s analysts determined only 500 families would ever be able to afford to buy an automobile, so there was no sense in continuing their investment.
From "Cincinnati Enquirer," February 17, 1952
Emmet Gray took his vision and several patents he had earned to Detroit, where he formed a very successful auto parts company that he managed until his retirement in 1944. Sadly, Mr. Gray was able to enjoy his long-lost silver trophy for a couple of months. He died in May 1952.
Harry Sumner, winner of the gasoline race, also found Cincinnati inhospitable to automobile investment. The Lunkenheimer company decided to stick to valves, so Mr. Sumner relocated to Seattle, where he enjoyed a career designing motors for ferries and ocean-going ships.
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