Need to learn about Barney Pollard's Collection

Hello all,

I am seeking any info about the Pollard collection and its auctions in the 70's. I have acquired a car that has BJ Pollard stamped into the Front frame rail.

Thanks,
Tom Laferriere
http://www.tomlaferriere.com

401.651.2295

 

Hi Tom, Barney Pollard had a huge collection of extremely rare cars for many years, and before his big auction in the mid '70s, probably around '76, part of his collection burned. As I recall, most of these were cars that were in an old wooden building alongside a railroad track. I think he lived in Michigan. He had some amazing stuff, although, some amazing stuff was also lost in that fire... Somewhere I have an article from OCW, that I ran across only a couple of months ago, that discusses the collection, as it was printed a few weeks prior to the auction. It could be a while before I run across it again, as I have an almost unmanageable amount of literature, books, etc., stored away, but if I come across it, I can scan you a copy. No promises that I'll ever find it for sure, but I do know it was a pretty interesting article....

BTW, you have a really neat website. Lots of interesting stuff for sale...

HTH,

Kevin

 

Tom, Barney Pollard was my grandfather and the collection of around 1000 cars was my playground as a kid. Know most of the cars,as I personally titled 700 of them. As to the fire we lost around 110 cars in that fire which was started by a spark from a locomotive which started a grass fire and then the building went. Lost some pretty rare cars in the fire, such as the only two Olivers ever built. Curious as to the stamping on the frame rail. Sounds like the work of my uncle. He used to have the welders weld in script on some of the tools and equipment "stolen from B J Pollard". Will give you a call-Jim

 

This is one of the most fascinating stories in the car collection history. He had to battle the government during the war to keep from having to scrap these rare and valuable cars that he had assembled over the years. I remember reading that he stored the cars hanging from hooks like sides of beef. Jimdillon you have quite a story that only you have the facts for.

 

It is a pretty fascinating story and my grandfather did work hard at keeping the government from destroying all of the cars. My grandfather started collecting in 1938 and kept them parked about his property where he parked his trucks. In flying recon missions around Detroit the government saw what my grandfather had as a treasure trove for materials. The government insisted he give up the cars for the war effort. My grandfather went to Washington in an attempt to make a deal with him. He bought tons of scrap (both steel and aluminum)that they had not discovered and the deal he made was to strip all of the tires and give them all of the scrap he had found and to give up one car a week that he had to deliver to the Ford Rouge plant. My grandfather and Henry Ford were not the best of friends (due to a couple of incidents but one story as he related to the Ford writer David Lewis) as my grandfather laid miles of roadbed for the railroad tracks at the rouge and Ford sent his associate Bennett to intimidate my grandfather into taking less. The problem is that my grandfather was the toughest man I have ever met and in some pretty colorful language I can only assume, he told Bennett to take a hike. Long story short my grandfather had many Fords in his collection and so he took over only Fords, one a week for a few weeks and then he stopped. Ford never turned him in as he figured my grandfather would only continue to bring Fords.

Then my grandfather decided he had better hide the cars from any more prying eyes so he sunk telephone poles into the ground and put 90 lb railroad rail from post to post and hung the cars from the rail with wire rope. Then he built walls around the buildings and so when you went in the buildings there were hundreds of cars hanging from their front bumpers. Crude but it saved a bunch of cars.

Growing up around those cars and all of the good times we had was a treat for a car nut such as myself. Better get to work-JIm

 

Hello Tom, Weclome to the HAMB! You'll like it here, find the thread about the New England Speed Society meet October 20,in Marion , Mass. Drag something up there. Any time you can get Jim Dillon talking it's a good time. I'd read about Barney tossing a Model T on top of the scrap loads, never knew it was ment to piss off Henry until now. Very cool way of making a point!

 

cool story.

 

It took some digging, but I finally found it... It wasn't where I thought it was. Anyway, see attachments.

Actually, there are two articles publised a few weeks apart.

Cool stuff, wish I coulda met him!








Hope you find this as interesting as I did...

Kevin

 

Forgive me for bringing up such an old topic.

Jim, your grandfather, and my great grandfather were from what I'm told, very close friends. My father, on more then a few occasions had been to see the collection with my great grandfather. Not only were there cars in the barns, but in the overgrown grass. One such car would be a chassis, a steering column, engine, and front axle... with a RR logo on it.... cars stacked 4x high end on end...

Jim, do any of these cars still reside with the family?

Thankyou
Isaac Ireland (Great grandfather was Carl Smith~ Smitty)

Edit:
here's an article on the web featuring both of them...
http://info.detnews.com/redesign/history/story/historytemplate.cfm?id=33

 

Thought I would respond of the good that comes out of the HAMB. I was always a racing nut but after finding out my grandfather Barney Pollard had worked on racers when he worked in the experimental department at Packard in the teens I became obsessed with finding some remains of the racer he worked on. My grandfather died in 1981 and sadly nine months after he died I ended buying the remains of a Packard racer built in the experimental department and raced by Ralph DePalma. I had many questions I would like to ask him today. One car he had worked on was a Twin Six racer (one of two he said were built)which many "experts" said did not exist. One of the examples of this car was found in the jungle in South America and about 5 years ago was brought back to the US and restored. I have been fortunate to travel and enjoy the awards at numerous shows including Pebble Beach, Meadowbrook, Amelia Island and most recently at the Glenmoor Gathering last fall.

The neat thing is that my grandfather worked on this car and he had told me in a number of conversations that he and a friend in the Packard Experimental Department had worked on the car and had torn down the engine after one of the shakedown runs. That friend was Carl Smith. He told me Carl had been at the track when he heard some knocking in the bottom end. Much of the racing work was put on hold so that Packard could ramp up their efforts to build the Liberty aircraft engine to fight the Kaiser so these racecars were sadly put under wraps for the duration of the war. He told me Carl was very interested in race cars and also worked for Ralph Depalma as one of his pitman for the car when it was at Sheepshead Bay (Packard had a racing garage there and used the track somewhat frequently for their speed tests) and also possibly for Ralph in later venues. I always wondered who this Carl Smith was and low and behold I get this post. I have since talked to Carl Smith's great grandson, Isaac Ireland and he told me Carl was indeed into racing and is the last Smith to attempt to qualify at Indy in the early thirties. Isaac lives only a few miles from me and I will have him over to see the Packard racing motor that his great grandfather was very familiar with I am sure. He also has some photos which I can only hope will add some pieces to a forever growing puzzle.

Such is the power of the HAMB.

Here is a pic of the Packard racer (12 cylinder Twin Six) since restored after languishing in jungle of Paraquay for several decades.

Kevin, I am including some better pics of some of the cars after the fire that destroyed 110 cars

Tom, Sorry I have still not found all of the records that would help with your mystery of the Stanley. Hopefully when I least expect it I will trip over them.

Jim

 

I've been scouring around for some photos I know I have... but I think they are deep in storage right now. In any case, here are some that are too recent to help you out. I'm thinking that he didn't start taking photos until the LHA was formed. When I meet with you after Autorama, I'll hopefully have found more of what we're looking for.



Jim, I really enjoyed our conversation this evening, thanks for taking some time out to help a guy out Thanks to HAMB!

 

This place keeps amazing us all,when people with important histories are brought together! Wonderful photos ,thanks for sharing them.

 

Tom, I was searching thru some stuff trying to find something else and found this ad for one of my grandfather's auctions. Still can't find the official auction records yet but here is your car in the ad. See 1922 Stanley on the right. Will get you a better copy for your records when I get a moment. Take it easy Jim

 

Jim, It appears I have another car of your fathers.

 

I really doubt that a comprehensive list will ever be made. If anyone could come up with a halfway reasonable list, I suppose I could do it but then again I would be criticized that many of the years were not correct and my list missed this car and that car etc. I personally titled over 700 cars in the collection and honestly we missed the boat on a “few” of the actual years of the cars. I suppose I could come up with a list of around 900 or so (700+ titled cars plus the 110 burned cars plus around 100 restored cars and cars on loan to museums etc) but there would be some cars that fall through the cracks. My grandfather never had a list and I guess I know now why-too many other things to do and in the end it solves little. Just a bunch of cars, most of which were saved as a result of his efforts.


The AACA is currently running an ongoing article I wrote on the collection and there are four or five segments yet to run. The final segment will be some of the cars as they are today. It is amazing how many cars that many have considered “junk” to be quite stunning today. I receive numerous requests and emails regarding the cars and all to date have been legitimate. There are of course going to be some that claim their car was in the collection and there are a number of cars I cannot account for in my records. Not that big of a deal I suppose in the scheme of things.


As to Harrah I do not consider what is said to be negative. This is not the first, nor probably the last time someone would equate what was done as hanging cars like a side of beef. It was what it was. In one of the upcoming AAAC segments I refer to speaking to Bill Harrah after he bought several cars at auction. I remember as a young kid, a gentleman poking his head in the old wooden building (that later burned with slightly over 100 cars) and we in the restoration shop scoffed at this newcomer from Nevada who wanted to buy many of the cars. Of course that was a few years before Harrah was more of a household name in the more common old cars circles. Harrah was a real great car guy and so was my grandfather and they remained good friends until their passing.


The passion of the two collectors was pretty much the same but the depths of their wallets was vastly different. Both collections were very cool in their own right.-Jim

 

Jim

I grew up in the Horseless Carriage Club, my dad joined in 1946. In 1959 my family traveled to Michigan and we spent some time there with Lenard Davis.
While there, we visted your Grandfather's place. Even though I was only seven at the time, I clearly remember your grandfather showing us around, and seeing all those cars standing on end in the buildings !!!!
I had some really great times growing up in the old car hobby !

Pete Eastwood

 

Pete, the place was pretty cool-I just took it for granted at the time. I have not heard the name Leonard Davis in awhile. He was a pretty good restorer and knew old cars for sure.-Jim

 

The articles in AACA have been fascinating. I wish I could have seen the collection in person...but I wasn't born until 1979 haha..... Thank you so much for writing these articles Jim!!!!

 

And THAT collection is a whole nother story in its amazing self......
http://www.europeancarweb.com/museums/0205ec_schlumpf_collection/

video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NToQooI8h00

 

Is the series available online with a membership at all?[/QUOTE]

I am not sure if the AACA has an online service with the article. Segment 7 of the article has just gone to press for their publication, Antique Automobile. I have thought of putting something on the HAMB but some may consider portions off topic.

Here are a few pictures of the cars on end and then one pic of some cars coming into the collection, either late forties or early fifties-I thought late forties but the tractor may tell the real date. Funny thing is the present owner identified his car that he bought from the collection as the Cadillac on the top of the carrier. There is writing on the bodywork (advertisement) and when I blew up the pic it can be clearly seen, which matches the pics he sent me. It is now restored as are many from the collection.

There are a few interesting stories on car collections (as well as Bugattis) for sure-Take care-Jim

 

Jim, your series in The Antique Automobile should get a few new members in AACA, it sure is a great read, wish I'd had the chance to see the collection. I really enjoy the replies and side trips some of the HAMB members have taken us on. So many great collections were put together by people with a true love and passion for the cars. I got to see the Lindley Bothwell collection back in the 1970's, wonder if the family still has most of the cars? Bob

 

Bob, I wish I could re-visit the collection myself. I took it way too much for granted. If there was a way for me to kick myself in the behind and have it be of some benefit I would. I not only would have taken more pictures and asked more questions but I would have chosen some cars that I now see selling for some pretty good prices. With a bit more forethought I believe I could be spending more leisurely time playing with cars instead of working to afford them-Jim

 

Thanks for the Bothwell link CobraBarn! This is the one car I'd really love to own, the Ira Vail 1919 INDY 500 Hudson. Bill Harrah bought it from the Bothwell collection, and it then sold at one of his auctions for around $25,000. It spent most of its life in Philadelphia, owned and raced by H.D. Carpenter, and driven on the streets. Bob

 

Met Mr. Pollard not long after I had joined the National Museums of Canada in 1973. The visit to his property was surreal... cars, a locomotive, and neat stuff everywhere. Well rember looking in the buildings and seeing the cars hanging from the rafters. I had been authorized by the Museum of Science & Technology (Dr. Baird back then) to offer up to $2,000,000 for the collection. Mr. Pollard, well into his 90s, smiled at me... Needless to say I did not get the cars but still have a great memory of the visit.

 

Did a fair bit of research into James Melton, Dr. Sam Scher, Briggs Cunningham, Henry Austin Clark Jr., Bill Harrah, and others when I was at the Seal Cove Auto Museum... We had cars from all of them in the collection that Richard Paine had amassed over the years.

 

Wow, what a thread. Thanks for bringing this one back!

 

Once again I am in possession of a BP car, a 1913 Oldsmobile Defender. I would love the opportunity to see some pictures of my particular car, as it definitely was one of the cars hanging from the girders.

 

Nice car Ton, good to see you back on the HAMB, sorry I missed you at Hershey. Bob

 

Tom I have no specific memory of your Olds. One of my favorite Oldsmobile was the Olds Limited which was in the restoration shop quite a bit but never finished. It has since undergone a fabulous restoration. The other Olds I remember and drove was the Olds Autocrat that Dick Neller bought. There were so many cars hanging that their identities seemed to run together, some I remember, most were just other cars, sadly. Probably my favorite hanging cars were the several towncars that hung in the building to the west of the airplane building. With the light shining in through crevices it made it kind of an eerie sight.

HHH you can PM me and/or if you want to read up on the collection I wrote a 10 part article on my grandfather and the collection for the AACA quarterly magazine, a couple of years ago.

 

First time read for me....I'm dumbfounded to say the least. Tim