Franchise History: 1916 Through 1955 (Five Ownership Changes in 40 Years)

The sale of Victor Shumard’s Ford Agency to Charles Wilson marked the beginning of what would grow into an economically challenging and tumultuous time for the Franchise, and it would ultimately exchange ownership five instances over the next forty years (Beller, 71). The relationship between Shumard and Wilson is not well documented. Wilson is known to have operated an automobile business in Milford, OH during the 1920s, until selling his automotive building located at 208 Mill Street in Milford in 1932 to Delano Chevrolet Company (“Milford”, 19). Prior to purchasing the 208 property from Wilson, Delano Chevrolet was operating from a property at 308 Main Street in Milford that it was renting from the original founder of the Milford Chevrolet Agency, who was none other than Victor’s elder brother, E.C. Shumard (Critchell, 121). 208 Mill Street, the site of present-day Little Miami Brewing Company, is immediately across from Shumard’s original Milford Ford Agency building, and immediately adjacent to Shumard’s property at 220 Mill Street where he later relocated the Ford Agency in the 1920s. Based on their operating of neighboring businesses in the same automotive industry in the small community of Milford, Shumard and Wilson clearly had a deep familiarity and professional relationship with one another, although the exact nature and full extent of their relationship as partial business partners, renter and landlord, or direct competitors is not certain.

After finalizing the purchase of the Loveland Ford Agency’s land and facility from Victor Shumard in 1923, Wilson only waited three years before passing the Agency mantle to newcomers Harry Sears and Roy Snell, who were already advertising as the operators of the Loveland Ford Agency by April of 1926 (Rhoda, 54). Wilson served 9 years as the Loveland Ford Agency operator while tenant to Shumard, 10 years as the Agency operator while owning his Agency’s land and building, and 14 years as landlord to other operators of the Agency. With substantial business interest in Milford, Wilson plausibly – like Shumard – simply preferred to collect passive income from his business interests with limited attention to dedicate across companies.

The brief ownership of the Loveland Ford Agency by Harry Sears and Roy Snell is similarly not well documented, although the little information that is available indicates a story that ended with financial hardship due to macroeconomic forces outside their control. Their Ford Agency, marketed as “S & S Auto” as early as April of 1926 in The Loveland Herald, enjoyed many well documented newspaper advertisements during 1926 and 1927 that abruptly ended in 1928 (Rhoda, 54). In 1928 and 1929, Sears began aggressively advertising under a Loveland Chrysler Agency associated with his name alone, without reference to his Ford Agency business partner; the discontinuance of the S&S Auto advertising followed by the independent advertising under a competitor make Agency might suggest the two suffered a rift, or perhaps Roy Snell disengaged for unrelated reasons. Loveland Mortgage records document that Roy Snell cancelled a sizable mortgage held by Loveland Mutual Bank in May of 1929, which could suggest that he divested in the Ford Agency partnership or that he potentially relocated from Loveland altogether (“Mortgages Canceled”, 21). Although unverified, had Snell divested in May of 1929, he could not have chosen a better time to exit the retail automotive industry. The Great Depression struck the United States later that year in October when “The Great Crash” on October 24, 1929 – i.e., “Black Thursday” – witnessed the largest sell-off of shares on Wall Street in a single day in US History. Charles Wilson is documented as resuming operation of the Loveland Ford Agency in 1929, but the exact timing that year is unknown (Beller, 71). Based on the timing of the Stock Market Crash, one could reasonably conjecture that Charles Wilson was forced back into operating the Ford Agency as the landlord of the property after his tenants’ retail operation was abandoned; the almost immediate emergence of soup kitchens, bread lines, and food lines following The Great Crash undoubtedly conflicted with the business model of selling the most expensive item families would ever purchase aside from their home. Little is known of what path Snell pursued after his venture with S&S Auto failed. Shortly after The Great Crash, Sears went on to operate a towing company with at least one “wrecker” as a “garage owner” in 1934 (“Policemen”, 22). He then went on to serve as the Loveland Fire Chief for over ten years; at the time of his death in 1950, he also had at some point reestablished a repair garage by the name of “Sears Garage” (“Rites”, 40).

Presumably as a reluctant Ford Agency operator once again, now in the midst of arguably the worst possible time in all of US History to sell automobiles, Wilson eventually found a new Ford Agency champion and tenant in 1933 with George Fenton Howard (Beller, 71). On January 1, 1933, Charles Wilson entered into a five-year lease with George F. Howard, with monthly rent set at $125 and an option to purchase for $12,500 (“Loveland”, 19). The terms of the agreement between Wilson and Howard were presumably negotiated during late 1932, which was also the year Wilson was selling his automotive operation in Milford to Delano Chevrolet; both actions to step back from daily operations of his businesses suggest Wilson was ready to step away from the car business. Howard would provide the most stable consecutive operation of the Ford Agency during the “Five Ownership Changes in 40 Years” period, serving at the helm for over twenty years. Operating under the business name “Howard Auto Sales Company,” Howard established a strong reputation as an automotive tradesman and was very active in the industry across numerous organizations; his involvement in multiple events he helped organize at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan to promote Ford and Lincoln products is well documented in The Cincinnati Enquirer through the 1930s and 1940s. Wilson as landlord was presumably pleased with Howard’s operation of the Ford Agency: on January 1, 1937, Charles Wilson and his wife Nannie H. Wilson entered into a five-year lease with George F. Howard, with monthly rent set at $125 and an option to purchase for $12,500 (“Loveland”, 21). Howard later executed the option with Charles and Nannie H. Wilson and purchased the Loveland Ford Agency founding property and building in 1944 (“Loveland”, 17). In 1944, Howard became the first Ford Agency operator to serve as his own landlord in over two decades, when Charles Wilson had finalized the property purchase from the Agency founder Victor Shumard. Howard undoubtedly weathered many challenges during World War II, when both the labor supply and customer demand went through many periods of uncertainty. Howard was issued a draft card in 1942, being considered a “young man” at the age of 39, although whether he was actually enlisted or deployed is not certain; the execution of the land option in 1944 would suggest that he was most likely granted a business exemption. In 1956 – two years after his only child and daughter Betty Howard wed and moved to Fort Lauderdale, FL (“Betty Howard”, 14) – Howard at the age 54 decided to finally sell his Ford Agency and turn the chapter to the next franchise owner for several decades: Russ Warner.