FROM THE BACK OF THE BUS
By Jack Dacey

Wow, summer is finally off and running. If you have been unable to join here is a brief run down so far. We have had three successful cruise nights under our belt. You couldn’t order a better night than the first one. It was warm, clear and obviously by the turn out everyone was suffering from cabin fever. The second cruise was as well attended as the first. Even under the threat of rain the third cruise was better attended than you would expect. You would think it was a long winter or something. The Hot Rod Cafe is running like a well oiled machine thanks to the wonderful women of the Wheels of Time. It looks like we are into a very good year. Joe Dutcher and I awarded the South Eastern Voc Tech scholarships to the kids who won this year; Tom Grabau’s nephew was one of them. He is a polite quiet good looking kid, adopted is my guess. As part of the ceremony the presenters give a short speech. During Joe’s time at the mic he was making the point that graduating was a passage into adulthood. As I listened I couldn’t help thinking where he got his knowledge about the subject. It certainly wasn’t life experience because as long as I have known Joe he has been dead set against being an adult. Never the less it was a good speech and Joe did an excellent job….until the dedications. Now Joe’s job was to call out the names, the students came up on the stage, he shook their hand, and I presented them with the award and congratulations. The first student Joe called out was Steven who much to my surprise happened to be a Stephanie. How a mistake like that could have been made is beyond me. You can imagine my reaction. Here I am faced with a very embarrassed Joe and Stephanie instead of Steven. I did the only thing I could; I made it worse by making an old joke and assuring her a normal person could never make the same mistake. You can always count on me Joe.

There are a lot of great club events planned you don’t want to miss. This year offers more opportunity to drive your car than any other year I can remember. After all this is what it’s all about so don’t miss a trip. I would mention them here except the last time I did I mixed up a date and location and was corrected at the next meeting. They were typos. Typos are my trade mark, my signature so you can imagine how distracted I am.

I have done a couple of articles about automobile and motorcycle manufacturers in Massachusetts around the turn of the century. This one was discovered by Billy McMillan. Billy was told a car was manufactured in Abington between 1901 and 1907. There is limited information about the company on the internet but I did find enough to write about it here.

1905 Buffum Model K Touring

The Buffum was manufactured by H. H Buffum & Co at 123 Centre Ave (Rte 123) In Abington Massachusetts Spencer’s Pizza now occupies the site. The car was manufactured between 1901 and 1907. Brad Buffum from Oregon a descendant of the founder believes 78 cars were manufactured here. The only intact Buffum he knows of is on loan from a private owner to the Owls Head Transportation Museum.

Herbert H. Buffum a self taught machinist and inventor was born about 1861 in Maine. The first record I found was the 1870 Federal Census, Herbert 9 years old lived with his mother Mary and brother Albert 7, in Hopkinton New Hampshire. His mother Mary was widowed. In the 1860 Federal Census I did find Mary and her husband William living in New Hampshire a year before Herbert was born. Herbert’s brother Albert was born in 1863, so William Herbert’s father died after 1863. In 1894 Herbert built his first Buffum. He had moved from Hanover Mass to Abington. The car was built at the N. H. Buffum Machine Shop on Centre Ave Abington. Herbert started a shoe machinery business when he moved to Abington but his main interest was engines. He had a talent for improving mechanical devices and machinery. By 1900 Herbert formed H.H Buffum & Co. producing Buffum automobiles from 1901 to 1907.

By 1904 when small plants were manufacturing cars in Easton (Morse) and Brockton (Pickard) Buffum produced his first 8 cylinder car, 28 years before Henry Ford. It was a flat head V8 manufactured between 1904 and 1907. The company became known for this engine. The engine was ac crank start offered in a 3 seated runabout with a retractable steering wheel feature that sold for $2,500.00. Buffum also offered a Model K touring car and the Model F light car both with 4 cylinder engines. Buffum built at least one race car the Model G Greyhound. According to State records by 1905 there were 11,000 cars registered in Massachusetts, 68 of them were Buffum’s. Buffum filed his first patent when he was 22 years old. He also had patents on gasoline carburetors and worm gear steering in addition to other non auto related patents as well as other patents for shoe manufacturing machinery. Buffum & Co also manufactured motorboats, pulleys and according to Billy McMillan’s source, Buffum manufactured the taffy pulling machine at Nantasket beach.

Although a brilliant inventor he was a poor businessman. By 1910 Buffum sold the car company and moved to Laconia New Hampshire where he had a cottage on Weir Channel for a number of years. In Laconia he started a boat livery and marine machine shop business. By 1913 Buffum sold the Laconia Cycle car a miniature replica of the runabout. It carried 2 people rolled on bicycle wheels, weighed 400 pounds and got 40 miles to the gallon. In 1914 he developed a 12 cylinder race boat. Buffum also manufacturing an improved building fire sprinkler in 1918. Irwin Marine a well known marina in Laconia was purchased from Buffum in 1919 and shortly was billed as the largest boat garage in the world. The business was formally known as Green’s Marina when Buffum owned it. His health failing, Buffum moved to California in 1924 and died in 1930 in Oregon where his daughters and her family lived.

Thank you Billy for finding this Massachusetts car manufacturer.