1922: R.C. MAXWELL MERCER AUTOMOBILE CO. SIGN ALONG LAWRENCE ROAD

Here's a truly rural country road from 90 years ago. Perhaps a knowledgeable Lawrence visitor can pinpoint the location. I am completely unfamiliar with the Lawrence Road. However, the old vehicle traveling toward us is apparently on a dirt road. I wonder if our resident auto historian Ray Paskiewicz can identify that truck?

1922: THE MERCER AUTOMOBILE COMPANY

Here is a photo of Lawrence Road which would probably be impossible to locate today due to the many changes along that busy roadway. The Mercer Automobile Company was falling on hard times in the early 1920's and would soon go out of business. This photo is so clear one can see small stones along the roadway.

SJBill said...

If the address on the image is correct, the company was just after Darrah Lane on the left headed for Princeton. After our family left the Burg in the mid 60s, we lived very close to that location. We had no knowledge of the plant from the Old Timers that lived up the road. In the early 60s, outside of the residences, the land was all agricultural and woodlands. Today, that's real close to the Rider College campus. Wasn't the Mercer plant located near Whitehead Road - a more industrial setting?

Monday, December 26, 2011

Hi Bill: Yes, the Mercer factory was located across the street from the Thermoid plant on Whitehead Road. The Roller Bearing Company of America took it over in the late 1920's.

Tom Glover

1909: MERCER MOTOR CO. TO BUILD PLANCHE ENGINES FOR DIRIGIBLES

I learn something new every day, and this is a fact that I found buried deep in an old 1909 newspaper. It gives an insight to the early years of the Mercer Automobile Company and the involvement of the Roebling family.

1914: EDDIE PULLEN: AN AUTO RACING LEGEND

 

If you were to go through the newspapers from the golden age of the Mercer Automobile Company
during the early century, you would find many articles on the racing career of Eddie Pullen. Eddie's name became synonymous with the Mercer auto as he burned up many racetracks in America.

2009: MARK YOUR CALENDAR - ROEBLING MUSEUM

Many thanks to Ms. Patricia Millen of the Roebling Museum in Roebling N.J. for this heads up on a very interesting event relating to our own Mercer Automobile Company. Mr. Tim Kuser, an whose family along with the Roeblings, manufactured the legendary Mercer auto, will be the featured Mercer expert.
This is a very significant local historical event.

1913: NO CRANKING ON THE NEW MERCERS!

The Mercer Automobile Company's popularity was in its peak in 1913. The new self starter was a real hi tech innovation, and along with the racing success of the Mercer "Raceabout," hopes were running high that the success would continue. Unfortunately, and unknown to management at the time the future was bleak.

1916: THE NEW MERCER

Hamilton was also an industrial town back in the early part of the 20th century. However, any time a world famous company such as De Laval, Thermoid, Acme Rubber, and the Mercer Automobile Company were referred to in the press, they were always identified as being from Trenton, New Jersey. Here's an interesting graphic from the latter days of Mercer. Her lights were growing dim, and with a few short years, the company would be bought out and Mercer would cease to exist; but the legend remains! By the way, I received a phone call that some thief stole the historic marker that once stood in front of the location of the Mercer plant, and posted it on Ebay! History lovers, beware!

1914: BARNEY OLDFIELD'S MERCER IN THE VANDERBILT CUP RACE

Three or four years ago at the Kuser Mansion, The Mercer Automobile Company was winning racing trophies galore during the company's golden years of 1909 - 1914.

1909: A MERCER TAXI CAB

1988: TOM'S INTERPRETATION OF A MERCER TAXI

BACK IN THE EARLY 1980'S I WAS AN ART STUDENT AT JUANITA CROSBY'S BORDENTOWN ART STUDIO. MY INTEREST WAS PEN AND INK DRAWING. I GAVE MOST OF MY DRAWINGS AWAY. THE ABOVE SKETCH WAS MADE BACK THERE WHEN YOUNGER EYES WERE MUCH MORE ABLE TO DELINEATE THOSE VERY TINY PEN STROKES.

1914: EDDIE PULLEN'S MERCER "CIGAR CAR"

Throughout my many years of mining for local historical material, the Mercer Automobile Company was always listed as being in Trenton, New Jersey, with nary a hint that Hamilton Township was their home. As you read the caption in the above article, please replace "Trenton built" with "Hamilton built!"

1914: THIS IS TWO OF TWO FOR YOU, TIM KUSER!

THE MACHINIST STRIKE OVER AT THE MERCER PLANT STARTED TO SPREAD TO THE NEARBY DE LAVAL PLANT. THINGS GOT NASTY BACK THEN AS THE UNHAPPY WORKERS WENT ON STRIKE. THE ERNIE BUSH REFERRED TO LIVED ON GARFIELD AVENUE. I PURCHASED SOME MERCER PHOTOS FROM HIM MANY YEARS AGO. HE HAD SOME INTERESTING PHOTOS OF THE MERCER IN VARIOUS AREAS AS THEY WERE BEING ROAD TESTED IN THE HAMILTON AREA.

1909: The Formation of the Mercer Auto Co.

Hamilton Township's internationally famous Mercer Automobile Company was incorporated in 1909.

The Mercer, along with another Trenton area auto, William Sharp's "Sharp Arrow," made many racing headlines in the early part of the 20th century.