Obscure American history trivia

Dearborn, MI.

 

Having run out of guesses (or interest) .... it's Oklahoma City, July 16, 1935. I thought some journalists who had spent some time in the Sooner State might get it quickly because the story has a newspaper angle -- the prototype model was designed by Oklahoma City News editor/publisher Carlton Magee.

Magee was a colorful character. An Iowa native, he moved to New Mexico after he got married and founded what later became the Albuquerque Tribune, where he had a role in uncovering the Teapot Dome scandal (Harding's secretary of the interior, Albert Fall, was a New Mexican).

Later, according to Wikipedia, a local judge who Magee had accused of corruption confronted him in a hotel lobby and knocked him down. Magee drew a pistol and, firing wildly, missed the judge but struck and killed a bystander. He was acquitted of manslaughter but left town for Oklahoma City, where he went on to run the City News and join the local chamber of commerce.

As a member of the chamber's traffic committee, Magee took on the task of addressing downtown merchants' complaints that motorists were cutting into their carriage trade by leaving their cars parked in front of their businesses all day. He sponsored a contest at the University of Oklahoma to design a coin-operated timer that could regulate parking, but went on to design his own model, which he patented before enlisting a couple of professors at the Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College (Oklahoma State) to refine it.

Downtown merchants loved the meters, a lot of motorists hated them, and they generated enough revenue that other cities wanted to install them too. The Magee-Hale Co. began manufacting them under the Park-O-Meter brand. The company, now known as POM Inc., is manufacturing parking meters to this day.

The Henry Ford Museum has a Park-O-Meter from 1958 in its collection. https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/171377/

BTW Wikipedia says that under an earlier concept patented in 1928, the parking meter would be powered by an electrical cord running from the parked vehicle's battery. That idea never gained traction.

Edit: I forgot to add, according to Wikipedia, Magee is credited for coining the motto of the Scripps chain: "Give light, and the people will find their own way."

 

"Give layoffs, and the people will be forced to find their own way."

 

Ya, he had a lot of faith in the people.

 

Which prominent figure in American history was referred to as "a damned old goggle-eyed snapping turtle" who was "irritable, petulant and dyspeptic" and "a man universally despised" by his contemporaries.

 

John Tyler?

 

No, but a very good guess.

Hint: This person was not a President. But he did live in the 19th century and became a prominent figure in American history almost by accident.

 

Thomas Edison?

 

General Meade

 

Yes, George Gordon Meade. Promoted from the commander of the army's V Corps to the leader of the Army of the Potomac about a week before Gettysburg. Lincoln and Halleck offered the job to numerous others, who all turned it down. Meade wasn't given that choice.

Won the battle, then turtled and failed to pursue the Rebels, perhaps prolonging the war. He remained the commander of the Army of the Potomac for the remainder of the war, but Grant made all the command decisions starting in the spring of 1864 and Meade was not even present at Appomattox.

 

I love Civil War trivia. Here's one. Thomas Jefferson's grandson was wounded at Vicksburg while fighting for the Union. Who was he?

 

Don't know, but maybe my third great grandfather shot him.