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Originally published April 15, 1989
For most of us, “The Surrey with the Fringe on Top” is a tune from “Oklahoma,” the hit musical of a few years ago. For Florence Morris of Iroquois Drive, though, it is a memory from her childhood.
Her father and grandfather manufactured surreys, carriages, buggies, express and farm wagons -- and even a few sulkies.
Her grandfather, Joseph Warren Kelly, started making wagons and carriages in 1880, in a two-story factory, at 122 Second St., south of Butler Street.
Kelly’s wife was the former Allce Owen, who, like her husband, was a member of an early Marietta family.
Their son, Owen Kelly, Morris’s father, grew up in the carriage business. After completing his schooling, he joined his father in the business, which was renamed J.W. Kelly & Son.
For several years, the business prospered, for the horseless carriage was a long time in the future.
The Kelly building stretched from the front sidewalk to the rear alley. It included manufacturing equipment plus trim and paint departments.
Wheels and other parts were made and assembled and canvas buggy tops trimmed and fitted. Once fancy stripes were added, the vehicle was ready for use.
Morris remembers watching buggies that had been assembled on the second floor being taken down an incline to the ground level.
The Kelly carriage works actually was a two-state operation. The owners had a Williamstown farm containing a saw mill and factory, where shafts and other wooden accessories were made for the Marietta plant.
Ed Hart, a master craftsman, was a painter at the buggy factory and specialized in applying stripes to give buggies the finishing touch, Morris remembered. She also remembered employees Percival Sanford and Al Jones.
The Kelly plant usually employed about 10 men and turned out about 400 vehicles per year. A buggy retailed for about $100.
“Nearly everyone in the county had a Kelly buggy,” Morris said.
Before Henry Ford’s Model-T arrived to put the brakes on the horse as the main means of overland transportation, Marietta had several wagon factories. One of the largest was Ohio Valley Wagon Co., begun by Philip Trapp.
It outgrew a plant building at Fourth and Church streets and moved into a much larger one in the then-new Norwood subdivision. The Ohio Valley plant could make 10,000 vehicles a year.
John Oesterle’s wagon plant on Wooster Street between Second and Third streets, specialized in delivery wagons, and made Marietta’s fire wagons.
Thomas C. Bay manufactured several kinds of horse-drawn vehicles at his 217 Second St. plant. Other wagon factories, large and small, came and went during the horse era.
After public fascination with the automobile cut deeply into the carriage business, J.W. Kelly & Son. diversified. The firm added a line of gasoline engines for oil well field work, sold John Deere farm equipment and sold some of the first gasoline-powered Maytag washers in Marietta. The business closed in 1927.
Morris has some bright childhood memories of more than just shiny new buggies.
The Kelly family home was at 223 Third St. The back yard adjoined the property of Marietta’s Union Depot, where as many as five passenger trains arrived and departed daily.
When the circus trains, such as those of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, came to Marietta, they parked practically in the Kelly family’s yard. Morris remembered how her father used to get her out of bed at 6 a.m. to watch the elephants and other strange-looking animals being unloaded for a parade to the fairgrounds.
She also remembered attending grade school in the old Putnam School buildings at Third and Scammel streets. First and second grades were in the one now housing Dudley’s Florist. Her teachers were Kathryn Sniffen and Grace Spooner. Third through sixth grades were in what is now Boley service station. There, her teachers were Stella Leonard, Kathryn Skipton. Charles Barrett and Elizabeth Neptune.
Ted Bauer was the editorial page editor of The Marietta Times until he retired in 1987, He wrote a popular weekly column for many years. Bauer died in October at 104. As a tribute to Bauer, The Times is reprinting several of his columns.