Harry Coyle, James Coyle and Gladys Coyle in front of Windsor Hotel, Colborne

Description

Media Type

Image

Item Type

Photographs

Description

This image was scanned from the publication - How Firm a Foundation: A History of the Township of Cramahe and the Village of Colborne in Cramahe's Digital Archives (3bk), p.52. The caption reads: "The first car in Colborne, 1904, even rated a write-up in a newspaper of the day. It belonged to Harry Coyle holding his daughter, Gladys (later Mrs. Gertrude Fox). The people in the back are unknown. The car is in front of Windsor House, which was owned at that time by James Coyle. The car was purchased, even though the Coyles owned a livery stable, to transport passengers from the Grand Truck train station to the hotel."

Argyris, Eileen. How Firm a Foundation: A History of the Township of Cramahe and the Village of Colborne. Erin, Ontario: Boston Mills Press, 2000.

The following comment was submitted for this photograph (April 2015):
"This picture shows James Coyle behind the wheel of what is purported to be the first car in Colborne. The little girl is Gladys Coyle, his daughter. This puts the picture a bit later than 1900, as suggested by in the caption, because Gladys is clearly not 1 year old. I would guess the photo is more like 1903 or so. This is made more likely because, although I am by no means an antique auto expert, the car looks exactly (and I mean EXACTLY) like photos I have found of a 1903 Cadillac Touring Car. Cadillac didn’t exist in 1900. The caption also says that the man holding Gladys is Harry Coyle, and that the two people in the back seat are unknown. But I think the boy in the back is actually Harry Coyle, Gladys’s elder brother, age ca. 10. The man holding Gladys could be one of James’ brothers, who were 46, 41, 32, and 26 in 1903. It’s hard to tell, but by the apparent age of the man in the photo, I think I’d go for one of the latter two (John or David) if I had to guess. The man in the back seat has his face in the shadow, but somehow I get the impression that he is older. So perhaps one of the older Coyle brothers, or maybe even their father, Robert Coyle. Of course this is all supposition: these unknown people might not be Coyles at all."

Notes

Cramahe Archives does not hold the original item in its archives, but has a digital image.

Date of Original

1903-4

Subject(s)