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Autos Were Scarce
Milestones Vol 19 No 3 Fall 1994

"There were exactly twenty-two automobiles registered in Beaver County in 1902," said Beaver Falls Councilman Harry Crowl. The motorist riveted his metal registration numbers onto apiece of leather and then tied this onto his machine.

"There were no gasoline stations in those days, so when you wanted to take a ride you hired [hastened] to the nearest drug store and were lucky if you got a quart," Crowl said. "The clothes cleaners could sometimes supply up to five gallons, at nine cents a gallon. John Thonfily supplied five to ten gallons of gasoline, dropping it off at private garages. He was so pestered by motorists who ran short during Sunday drives that he stayed away frorn his own homet o avoid them."