Cox Characters
Conclusions to Confusions

Part 5: Appendix 6

Dad's 1909 Overland
in an Oklahoma City parade
in 1948.

The original owner of this "horseless carriage" paid $1000 in gold for it in 1909. In 1944, Marvin W. Cox became the second owner of the beauty. He bought it from one of his wife's cousins, and kept it until 1950.

During the six years of Cox ownership, the car was used for publicity stunts for the Cox family grocery store and was a fixture in the annual 89'er Parade in Oklahoma City.

Then, in 1965, the Willys-Overland passed into the hands of Eugene W. Jones. Twenty years later, Jones published his account of the car's history. His article, "The Solid Gold Overland," appeared in the May-June 1985 issue of Antique Automobile (see below).

Also on this page, is correspondance from Mr. Jones on the subject of this fine automobile.

article from
Antique Automobile,
May-June 1985

This story began in 1909 when my Overland touring tonneau was built in Indianapolis, Indiana by the Willys-Overland Company. […]

My own role in the story began in the Texas Panhandle in July 1965. […] My wife and I drove to Borger and saw the Overland [in a showroom] With noses to the glass, we gazed at it like children looking through a bakery window. […] It was all black. The top was up and ragged. This and the 25-inch wheels with 34 x 4 ½ tires made it seem very tall. The black flat fenders stood out straight in front and back. The big brass radiator had no Overland nameplate, but the cap with a hinged lid was the unmistakable mark of the Overland. On top of the brass headlights was the Overland script. No sidelights were mounted on the brackets, and it was learned later that the original lights had been stolen. […]

Restoration, as far as it went on this first try, was completed about six months before we moved to San Angelo in December 1968. Each year thereafter in San Angelo, the Overland has [been in] the annual Homecoming parade. In 1975 the Overland led in the annual San Angelo Rodeo Parade with my brother, "Grandpa" Jones of the Grand Ole Opry and the "Hee Haw" television show, in the rear seat.

During the restoration period in Plainview we discovered an old license certificate stuck inside the leather pocket of one of the rear doors. To retrieve it, a portion of the leather had to be cut away. It proved, however, to be a treasure of information. On a 3 x 5 inch paper form was typed the name and address of the owner and the name, model, style, and horsepower of the car. Date of issuance was July 6, 1914; the license number issued was 4705; and the owner was J. V. Bollinger, R.F.D. 4, Fort Scott, Kansas. For some unexplainable reason, no immediate response was made to this important bit of information. Then in January 1978 I wrote to the Chamber of Commerce in Fort Scott and asked for the names of any Bollingers in the telephone directory. The Chamber responded with six names. I wrote to residents at each of these addresses and requested information on the family of J. V. Bollinger. A month later came a letter from his daughter, Mrs. Ruth M. Goodbody, who lived on the family farm and in the house that her father built in 1918. She included a 1909 photo of her father and his family in the Overland. Also included in the letter was a recent color photo of the old garage, still standing, that housed the Overland as long as it remained in the possession of the Bollinger family. She explained in a subsequent letter that her father bought the car in 1909 in Fort Scott and paid $1000 in gold for it. An older sister who remembered the purchase believed there was no bill of sale issued. The car remained with the family and on the farm until after her father's death.

Mrs. Goodbody stated that it was the second car owned in Bourbon County. Her father died in 1939 and the Overland was sold in the mid-1940s to her husband's cousin, Marvin Cox of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mr. Cox used it to advertise his grocery store. This accounted for the word's "Cox Grocery" painted on when I bought the car. Later I obtained a copy of transfer of title from Marvin Cox to S. H. Staten in 1950 and another transfer of title from S. H. State to E. D. Speegle in June 1965. So there has been a total of five owners of the Overland including the original and present owners.

In 1982 the Overland received its second restoration. […] Undercarriage, wheels, and body were painted "lipstick" red; fenders were repainted black. It now has only two colors instead of three. From all this history of one 1909 automobile, the most outstanding feature to me is the original payment in gold.

Below is the first letter from Mr. Jones to my father, Marvin W. Cox, concerning his 1909 Willys-Overland automobile. The answer to Mr. Jones's question is Velma Ann Goodbody died Sept. 16, 1981 and John Ellsworth Goodbody died July 4, 1983. Both were buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Fort Scott, Kansas.

This second letter from Eugene Jones was addressed not to my father, who had passed away, but to me, Ken Cox. Unlike the very neatly typed letter above, this one was handwritten. It appears here in type for readers' convenience. The Grandpa Jones that he refers to was the well-known star of the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. (The magazine article he sent is at the top of this web page.)

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