By a dentist.

First thing’s first, I have to thank the dentist’s grand-daughter, Judi Wilson, for originally sharing this story for me as well as the Warren County Historical Society for opening their archives up to me for many of the stories that run in this space, including this one.

Harry Eddy Barnhart was born on May 28, 1873, in Warren, the son of Franklin Barnhart and Mary Elizabeth Eddy.

Franklin Barnhart was one of the founders of Barnhart and Davis, originally a machine shop and foundry, according to an article by Judi Wilson originally published in the January 1998 version of Stepping Stones, the Warren County Historical Society’s publication.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Barnhart is buried along with his wife and several members of her family around this stone at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Pleasant Township.

“He graduated from the University of Buffalo School of Dentistry in 1896 and returned to Warren to practice,” the article states. “In 1897 he married Lida Catherine Betts, whose uncle was the founder of the Betts Machine Shop, and that year he built his first car on Pine Street at the home of his wife’s parents.”

More from the Warren County Historical Society:

“At that time, Warren… had never seen an automobile. There was talk of such an invention but nobody here had actually seen one or knew exactly how t his ‘horseless carriage worked – all, that is, except for Dr. Barnhart, who had recently returned to Warren after having seen several of these machines in his college days… We can only imagine what was stirring in his mind.

“He spent more and more time in the barn behind the house on Pine Street and the townspeople began to wonder what he was up to.”

They found out soon enough.

Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton Barnhart is buried along with his wife and several members of her family around this stone at Saint Joseph Cemetery in Pleasant Township.

From a former administrative assistant the WCHS, Tom Meyers, in the Stepping Stones article:

“It was a bright morning in 1898 or 1899. My great-grandfather had risen early and hitched up the horse ‘McKinley’ to the carriage and he and his five-year-old son, my grandfather, started to town for the day. They were driving the horse at a slow pace down Pennsylvania Avenue when my grandfather recalled that he heard an odd noise which he was not familiar with. Before he knew what was happening, his head hit the back of the seat of the carriage with a terrible bang, and he saw stars. When his wits came back and he saw what was going on, he still did not fully understand the situation. His head had been banged because the horse had suddenly reared, and he saw that his father had jumped up to the ground and was removing his suit coat.

“Great-great grandpa then placed the coat over ‘McKinley’s’ head, and the horse settled down a bit, but the strange noise grew closer. And then it was in sight – it was Dr. Barnhart sitting profoundly in his duster and goggles behind the wheel of a home-made automobile that really worked! It was the very first automobile in Warren and certainly the first one that my young grandfather had ever seen, and probably his father as well. I guess I should not say that Dr. Barnhart was ‘behind the wheel,’ because this steam-driven car had no steering wheel; it was steered with a crank made of bent pipe, and the vehicle would only hold two people at the most, very rough and crude by today’s standards, but certainly the work of a mechanical genius then.”

Meyers wrote that Barnhart “had built the car by himself in his barn, and had many of the local blacksmiths make parts for him. This automobile was not registered nor licensed – Warren would not have its first licensed auto until 1903-04 or five years later – and because of its smoke and noise and the bother it caused with local horses, Dr Barnhart was asked to keep it undercover.

“Seeing his genius, several local men talked (Barnhart) into making several more models of the vehicle, which were then sold or shipped away elsewhere; none of them stayed in Warren except this first model… Many people here remember Dr. Barnhart in his later years, but my grandfather… always recalled the doctor as he looked that day – a young man in goggles and duster trying out his new-fangled invention on the townspeople.”

Photo from the Warren Automobile Company catalog provided to the Times Observer The 1905 version of the Barnhart car.

That car – weighing 800 pounds, according to a caption with an original photo – included a 10 gallon capacity for water and gas, two speeds to move forward and one for reverse and was “capable of generating eight horsepower.”

According to the website american-automobiles.com, the Warren Automobile Company was organized in 1905.

“The Barnhart was a large double side entrance Touring Car with a 110-inch wheelbase. It was equipped with a four-cylinder engine rated at 44 horsepower. Special features included three-speed transmission, shaft drive, automatic control by which one or more cylinders could be cut out of service and 34×4 1/2 inch wheels and tires,” the website states.

Wilson gave a re-production copy of the 1905 catalog – preserved by a descendant in Arizona – to the Times Observer.

“The Barnhart Gasoline Touring Car is built on lines developed by the best foreign makers after several years of consistent experiment. In design, materials and workmanship the Barnhart is fully equal to the finest imported cars but is better adapted to American conditions, with its ample clearance, interchangeable parts, and standard tires, which means so much to the automobile tourist in the United States,” the introduction of the catalog contents. “Our car is not a copy of any make but contains many special and original features, which do not add to the complication of the machinery, but which tend towards reducing the expense of operation. Throughout the car, there is nothing that is either freakish or experimental.”

Dr. Harry Eddy Barnhart.

The catalog includes catchy selling points:

¯ B…beautiful side entrance tonneau, having 110-inch wheelbase.

¯ A…automatic control of one, two, three or four cylinders.

¯ R…ides as smoothly as a parlor car.

¯ N…othing left to be perfected by the purchaser.

Photos from Find A Grave with permission Dr. Harry Eddy Barnhart riding the first version of the Barnhart car.

¯ H…as four cylinders, 5×6, copper jacketed.

¯ A…mount of baggage room not equaled by any car on the American market.

¯ R…emoval valves and valve seats for both inlet and exhaust.

¯ T…hree years ahead of them all, and the price is $3,000.

“In designing the body the designer has looked forward to the comfort and convenience of the tourist. There is no other car made with as luxurious appointments as the Barnhart. Having a 110-inch wheelbase makes it a car suitable for the American Humpty-dumpty roads. The back seat being 65 inches across the top does not necessitate any inconvenience in the manner of roominess for three. The tonneau being double side entrance with 23-inch doors, makes it most convenient for entering and leaving the car.”

The catalog addressed the three cylinders and claimed “automatic control.”

And fuel economy.

“In speaking of automatic control of the cylinders of a four-cylinder automobile, it may appear to some as a freakish idea… This automatic control has been the subject and study of our designer for the past three years and has now reached a point of perfection. We can with this attachment decrease the actual gasoline consumption by about one-half. This has been proven on the roads up hill and down, and running alongside cars with the same horsepower and half the load, covered the same distance with almost one-half less gasoline consumption. This is the only place in the Barnhart where cheapness figures as merit.”

An Inspection Department was reported to evaluate every piece of the vehicle as well as “sent out on the road in charge of an experienced driver, who operated several hundred miles under ordinary conditions.”

“The motor consists of four cylinders, 5×6, and develops in nine hundred revolutions

By 1905, his original eight horsepower was up to 44.4.

“Dr. H.E. Barnhart, the inventor of this car, is a practical machinist, having finished his time as an apprentice at the works of Struthers, Wells & Company, Warren, Pa., in the year 1893,” the catalog states. “In 1895 he built an automobile, which was the first one operated in Warren. In 1902 he built a four-cylinder car, which embodied many improvements over his first experiment. Mr. Barnhart has made a careful study of all the automobiles now upon the market and he is inventive (sic) and original in his ideas he has been able to produce a machine which possesses several new and important features.”

The Warren Times-Mirror reported in 1952 – after Barnhart’s death in 1940 – his wife’s recollection of that first car.

“His widow, Mrs. Lida Betts Barnhart, 100 East Wayne Street, recalled today that her husband constructed his car in the barn of her late father, C.D. Betts, and that she not only rode the car but also drove it, She remembers the first day Dr. Barnhard drove his machine out of Pine Street and up into the business section, how crowds gathered and everyone marveled at the invention, and then, the car has no brakes, Dr. Barnhart brought it to a halt against the old Wallace Livery Stable, then at 246 Water Street (Pennsylvania Ave W.), two doors east of the Struthers Hotel at the corner of Liberty Street.”

According to the Warren County Historical Society, Barnhart left Warren – and his dental practice – for two years to work at the Bellefontaine Automobile Company in Bellefontaine, Ohio.

That firm had designed an air-cooled and a water-cooled model. The 1907 catalog lists Barnhart as “Designer and Engineer.”

After Barnhart’s death, the Times-Mirror wrote that “the death of H.E. Barnhart removes not only one of the few remaining veteran dentists in the community, but a citizen whose life was closely associated with the development of the automobile as a means of conveyance. It will be recalled that he assembled the first ‘horseless carriage’ ever to traverse the streets of Warren.”