1926 honeymoon road trip ends in booming Akron

Don Vickers stands in front of a car that may have been the one that he and Hazel Pierce took their honeymoon road trip. The car is from the mid-1920s, but it is difficult to tell the make, model and year from this photo. If you know what kind of car it is, please leave a comment.

NOTE: This post is the sixth and final in a series of excerpts from the road trip diary Hazel Pierce kept on her honeymoon with husband Don Vickers in 1926. Along with the excerpts are some observations and comments from this blogger.

After leaving Mammoth Cave in Kentucky "...we saw many beautiful apple orchards. We passed one large army camp which was Camp Knox. We passed through Louisville, Kentucky, which is a very large town. We crossed the Ohio River and it is beautiful. We saw a cement plant and a flour mill. 

"We spent the night [in] Edingburgh, Ind., with an old lady. We were only a short piece from Indianapolis. Friday we left Indiana and went into Ohio. 

"That day we had our first tire trouble. Had two flats, but it only took a short time to fix them. That night we stayed at the West Jefferson. 

"Saturday after taking a good many detours we arrived in Akron about four o’clock. We enjoyed our honeymoon trip very much, just had the time of our lives."

Don and Hazel ended their honeymoon in Akron, where they would live and Don would work for

Downton Akron, Ohio, in the 1920s.
 Courtesy Northeastern Pennsylvania Photo Collection

General Tire and Rubber Company.

When the couple arrived, Akron had just completed an economic boom that made it the fastest growing city in the United States. General Tire, Goodrich, Firestone and Goodyear built headquarters in the city. Other industries made everything from fishing tackle to farming equipment. Between 1910-1920, the population increased 202%. Almost a third of the population were immigrants.

The Vickers eventually left Akron for the Alabama farming community of Faunsdale. There they owned and managed a 600-acre farm specializing in cattle. The move from the bustling big city to a quiet farm ran counter to the population shift taking place in America. You can't help but wonder about the motivations that led to the Vickers' decision to return to a rural lifestyle.

 

Did your ancestors take a vacation that illustrates a national trend of the time?

Mammoth Cave river tour, National Park Service

NOTE: This post is the fifth in a series of excerpts from the road trip diary Hazel Pierce kept on her honeymoon trip with husband Don Vickers in 1926. Along with the excerpts are some observations and comments from this blogger.

After Hazel Pierce and her husband Don Vickers left Alabama, they drove through the Tennessee cities of Columbia, Nashville and Gallatin. In her diary, Hazel noted “pretty fields of wheat, rye and tobacco, also some lovely apple orchards.”

Hazel and Don left Tennessee and stopped at a Kentucky cave that had become a national attraction: Mammoth Cave.

“This is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. We first went into the office and a man showed us a blue print and explained to us about the cave. He sent a guide with us and carried a gas light and gave use one. They had the Delco lights part of the way.

“This cave was quite a mystery. There was different formations that resembled flags, bacon, turkey, Niagara Falls and many other things. There was one room called the radio room and they have the radio in there sometimes. There was some parts where the ceiling would be as smooth as could be and other parts very rough.

“We went down 250 feet below the ground and walked about 2½ miles. There was (Echo) river down in there and the guide took us for a boat ride. One place we passed through was very small and this was called ‘Fat Man’s Misery.’ This was a very interesting trip. We were about 2 ½ hours on this trip.

“We were given souvenirs at the office and the guide showed us a little girl which was petrified. She was found in the cave and it is believed she was captured by the Indians and rather than endure their torture she sacrificed her life. We went a short piece from the place where Floyd Collins was trapped in the cave We drove on to Cave City and spent the night at the Dixie Hotel."

According to Dave Tabler’s Appalachian History blog, Kentucky’s Mammoth Cave is the country’s

oldest touring cave. Formal guided tours started in 1816. The cave remained in private ownership until 1941

Book on Amazon.com

and grew into a prime tourist attraction. Because Mammoth showed how profitable cave tourism could be, it spawned a number of rivals in the 1920s, the dawn of the automobile vacation era.

In 1925, Kentucky farmer Floyd Collins became trapped in Sand Cave while searching for a cave entrance on the road from Cave City to Mammoth. The effort to free Collins drew attention and reporters from around the country. Reporters set up headquarters in Hotel Dixie, the same place Hazel and Don spent one of their nights on their honeymoon road trip.

Did your ancestors take a vacation that illustrates a national trend of the time?

The next post will be the final excerpt from Hazel's honeymoon road trip diary.

1926 road trip honeymoon: on to Birmingham and Decatur

Birmingham, Alabama, skyline

NOTE: This post is the fourth in a series of excerpts from the road trip diary Hazel Pierce kept on her honeymoon trip with husband Don Vickers in 1926. Along with the excerpts are some observations and comments from this blogger.
 

"We left Montgomery early. At the edge of this town we crossed the Alabama River. We passed through several progressive little towns and saw some good looking farms. All the trees are budding out and the scenery is very beautiful. 

"We stopped over in Birmingham to see our brother-in-law, Mr. Laney. We drove around to see the city and it is a beautiful place. 

"After leaving this city we drove through some mountainous county. The roads were just fine and the

scenery beautiful. We passed by some coal miners . . . There was several mines on the road. In a few places

Birmingham coal miners
Library of Congress photo
LC-DIG-ppmsca-15602

the roads were under construction and they used large machines for this work. 

"We crossed the Black [Warrior] River and the Tennessee River. The latter is very large and a ferry is used to carry the cars across. About six or eight are carried across at one time. 

"Just before arriving there we passed through Albany and Decatur, which are called “The Twin Cities.” These were pretty places in North Alabama. 

"The trees are just beginning to bud out and the dogwood to bloom.

Black Warrior River
Courtesy Alabama Travel

Spring is much later coming here than at home. We stopped by one pretty little log cabin which was newly built and bought some chocolate candy. It was fine. The cabin was the prettiest I had seen in a long time."

Again Hazel does not make note of their route from Montgomery to Birmingham and then on to Decatur. But it again it seem likely that they traveled along the most direct road, U.S. 31.

Albany, Alabama, was also known as New Decatur. A year after Hazel and Don passed through Albany, Decatur annexed it and the separate town ceased to exist.

Birmingham today is still home to coal mining and large steelmakers, but they no longer play the role in the city’s economy that they once did. Modern Birmingham is better known for its medical and research centers and national construction and engineering firms.