Fayette County Visited by Texas ‘T’ Party

The Model Ts parked in front of the Bandy buildings in Plum. Photos courtesy of Arnold Romberg The above photograph shows a Model T which may interest Fayette County natives. This car was bought new in La Grange in 1921 by Ernst Romberg, who lived most of his life on the Romberg farm near O’Quinn. It was driven from the farm into La Grange along 609 most Saturdays. (It was said that Ernst could read the courthouse clock from the river bridge.) The car lived on the farm until 1952 when it was inherited by Ernst’s nephew Fred Romberg who lived in Houston. It was driven to Houston along Highway 71 and 90. Fred’s boys Arnold, Tom, and Jim learned to operate it on a vacant lot next to their house in West University. They renewed the finish (black, of course) with hardware store paint and brushes. Tom now keeps the car at his place in Austin, and maintains it very well. The photo shows him and his wife Peggy in the car at Plum.

Ninety-five splendid Ford Model T cars attended the 45th Texas “T” Party touring event in Hallettsville for five days last week. Their daily tours included visits to J&J Saddlery in Cuero, the DeWitt County Courthouse, the Spoetzel Brewery in Shiner, Yoakum, the Mengele Hatchery in Hallettsville and an airport fly-in with 70 planes.

The Austin-based Club makes several multi-day tours in central Texas each year, and they have visited Fayette County before. On Friday they came to La Grange and Plum.

This year’s visit to Fayette County began with a fuel stop in La Grange followed by a drive out to Plum. A delicious barbeque lunch was served in their parish hall by members of St. Peter and Paul Lutheran Church. The sight of their parking lot overflowing with beautiful antique cars mostly over 90 years old was matched by the pleasure of hearing all those smooth running motors pulling out for the next stop.

It was less than a mile into down town Plum, where the cars all lined up in front of the buildings housing the collection of antique and vintage cars – mostly beautifully restored – of Annette and Michael Bandy. Annette served the visitors with a number of delicious desserts.

The Ford Motor Company built its first motor car in 1903. The Model T was in production from October 1908 until May 1927. During this long run a total of about 15 million cars were built of this model, each with the same four-cylinder in-line engine and unique three pedal transmission. The right hand pedal operates the two-wheel rear brakes. The center pedal puts the car into reverse. The left hand pedal runs the car in low gear when completely depressed, and in high gear when all the way up. The hand brake lever is activated to hold this pedal in the half-way neutral position.

During its long run a number of improvements were introduced, most notably an electric starter in 1919. Before that all Model Ts were hand-started, using a crank engaging the crank shaft through a hole at the bottom front of the radiator.