Seagrave Deliveries in North Carolina – 1906 to 1951

June 23, 2019
Here’s a posting about the entire painter’s log, added to my new digital history library: https://legeros.com/blog/seagrave-paint-log-1906-1951.

March 20, 2016
What do the pages of the painter’s log look like? Here’s an example:

And here’s a page that mentions Tarboro, North Carolina. Page 119, from 1933. The notation says something like “April 18th, Mr. Wolfe J. Fleming and C. Babcock went to Tarboro, N.C., came back April 29th, 1933.” Why did they travel? Was their trip related to the rigs on that page, or the earlier Tarboro rig? No idea.

March 18
Here’s a list of Seagrave apparatus deliveries in North Carolina, as transcribed from a copy of the Seagrave Master Painter’s Record, which recorded all trucks painted at their plant in Columbus, OH, from May 1906 to September 1940, plus four entries from September 1942, and from September 1943 to December 1951. (There were gaps during World War II.)

It constitutes the only known record of Seagrave serial numbers, which were job numbers used for its own internal manufacturing and cost record system. (And when apparatus was returned for repairs or repainting, the notes note, the apparatus received a new serial number.)

How complete is this list? First, we’re hoping for zero transcription errors. Did multiple passes, so crossing fingers there. What about deliveries not record in the painters log? Such as rigs produced for our state during World War II. We’ll see if readers have information about other trucks, or supplementary information worth noting.

Also, the first entry in the book in Gastonia’s wagon. Two-horse wagon. How many of these are horse-drawn rigs? Guessing the first couple, tops. Thirty-two rigs are listed. That’s far fewer than American LaFrance delivered during the same period. ALF was the predominant builder of motor fire engines in our state, during that time. Somewhere over 350 rigs.

Page	Code	City	Note	Number	Date	Color
2		Gastonia	2 horse wagon	1805	5/9/06
5	T	Tarboro		2273	1907
11	Auto T	Asheville		3198	1908
17	City T	Statesville		4849	9/10/10
22	CW	Asheville		6392	2/17/11	CP red 4891
22	CW	Asheville		6393	2/17/11	White
27	W	Smithfield		8763	6/6/13	SC PR 4891
29	T	Black Mountain		10146	12/2/13	4891
29	T	Tryon	Spelled “Tyron” in log	10145	12/3/13	4891
31	Auto CW	High Point		11176	6/6/14	white
32	City C T	Asheville		12044	11/6/14	CPR 4891
68	P	Charlotte		34045	5/5/23	CPR 4893
82	P	Hamlet		42115	12/16/25	CPR 4893
89	P	Smithfield		47725	3/31/27	DUCO 1623
93	Service T	New Bern		49750	10/22/27	DUCO 1623
103	P	Thomasville		57445	6/19/29	Battleship Gray
108	B P	Graham		60830	3/13/30	4893
110	B P	Rockingham		61955	6/25/30	4893
111	P	Tarboro	extra fancy	63420	9/24/30	Battleship Gray
121	P	Durham	No. 2	78225	11/18/34	5137
121	P	Durham	No. 5	78226	11/27/34	5137
121	P	Charlotte	repaint / repair	78255	12/15/34	5137
131	P	Pinehurst		88110	10/18/37	5137
132	P	Gastonia		88080	11/2/37	5157
137	Quad T	Wilmington		93140	2/13/39	5157
141	Ford P	Aberdeen		A4160	2/15/39	Spec bk [book]
150	Ford 500	St. Pauls		B9900	2/9/44	P & R____ Gold t____ [trim?]
153	80.750 pump	Carthage		C4080	2/16/45	Red
154	J1000 P	High Point		C4815	9/_/45	Red
177	66-750	Gastonia		E2525	8/15/49	Red
182	J-1000 CB[?]	Charlotte		E8260	4/18/50	Red
187	J-1000	Charlotte		F3055	5/10/51	Red