** Some old car news from the 1949 Volin Advance weekly

While digging around yesterday for a photo of Pat Mckeever and family from back about 1972, I rediscovered a bag of photos etc that was about all I ended up with from my parent's farm home.  In it was a copy of the last weekly paper printed in Volin, SD.  The Volin Advance was later printed as a part of the Irene, SD paper. I scanned a few images from what is now really and truly a dead tree news source.

You might notice that the annual subscription rate was $2.00 and that the paper had been printed since August 26, 1909 and the "30" edition was published August 11, 1949.

A regular feature in the paper was news from past issues.  One of those stories was about the "rage" of local car trades back in 1912  It mentioned about 4 vehicles that I had never heard of before in the two-trade "rage" (news was scarce in Volin even after the paper folded).

You can dig through the story and will find mention of these vehicles: Flanders Runabout, Marion Roadster, Regal Auto, and a 35hp Cutting Car.  You might also notice the name of the farmer with 100 acres of 32 bushel wheat was E.S. Volin,  There are still a few "Volins" in South Dakota I think who share their name with a small town.

This morning, I did a Google search for these vehicles and turned up a few interesting links.

ConceptCarz Manufacturer's List

On that page can be found some photos of the Flanders, Marion, and Regal.

Flanders Automobiles

Regal Automobile

Marion Roadster

There was no mention or photos of the "Cutting Car" at that site, a bit of information turned up at Wikipedia on "Cutting Car"

Hope you find those interesting. You will note in light of today's problems for large manufacturers of vehicles and dealers that a lot of vehicle manufacturers have disappeared from the market as car manufacturers and dealers became much fewer and much less interesting. It appears now that both Chrysler and GM are aiming at making their dealerships as well as themselves "too big to let fail" so that in the future they can plead for rescue of both themselves and their dealerships in order to maintain the incredible salaries, golden parachutes, etc. that drive car prices sky high even as the manufacturers are failing.

I will dig some more info out of the old paper about SD college costs in a later post.

***Stay tuned for more from the dead tree sections of Dakota Today-- Doug Wiken

Comments

[Bernie Hunhoff]

I knew Marvin Fjordback, the editor of the Volin Advance. He was still running the Irene paper in the 1970s when I got into the newspaper business. He was a dapper, happy little guy who dug around to find whatever news there was to be found.

There were wonderful characters in the Volin/Irene community. I can't recall the name of the fellow who ran the grocery store in Volin in the 70s, but he dressed up every day like Marvin. He was known as a bit of a tightwad, but one day he surprised everyone by coming to happy hour at the Volin Bar with several rolls of sausage and some crackers. We all enjoyed the treat and when it was all gone he informed us that it was horse meat. Someone had ordered it and didn't like it so he was stuck with it. I didn't think it was so bad.

[Dan Frank]

The Volin Advance was published until the 1950s. All the newspapers are now in bound books in the Volin Town Hall.

The current Tri-County news in Irene still says Volin Advance in small print o the front page.

Glen Hanson was the last owner of the Volin store. It closed in the early 70s.

The Volin Times was another newspaper published from 1904 to 1908 if I remember correctly. These are also available but crumbling.

[[[ Note from Dakota Today: The issue I had was the last issue actually published in Volin. The paper printing was then moved to Irene. I would have guessed an owner or two followed Glen Hanson, but I do remember him. There was a Thorson grocery store for some years also, but it closed sooner. At one time, Volin had a J.T. Daugherty ? store which was something like a department store. One of my aunts had a Christmas or New Years or anniversary plate from that store. Not sure who ended up with that, but not me.

Harry Furrow ran a TV sales and repair in part of the old Daugherty store to the north of the Hanson grocery back when there were only CRTs and Black and White.

Thanks for the comment and info.... Doug Wiken ]]]].

[Fern Davis]

I just found this blog of May 19 about Volin. I grew up in the area, graduated from the highschool...and worked in the Jim Larsen store during summers of my college years. I remember well the characters living there then... Nels Pedersen, who never mastered the gears of his car and would drive into town from his farm in second gear. One could hear him coming from miles away. Albion Wright who took the mail down to the Galloping Goose (daily 5 pm train from Yankton to Sioux Falls) in his car at top speed, never looking right or left at the street intersections. We all knew to stay out of his way when he made the run. A sad Norwegian who walked around looking at the sky...we called him stargazer. Working in the Larsen store was great fun. It was a true general store. Groceries, clothing, gifts, tools, building supplies...you name it, the store carried it. Hardy Carlson was the editor of the Volin Advance when I was growing up. He was a great understated writer of local events. With tongue in cheek he wrote his chronicles and never failed to make me laugh. Thanks for bringing back the memories. Fern Bruget Davis

[[[Dakota Today Note: Thanks for the comment. I just remembered Jim Larsen name a few days ago. Albion Wright was reputed to have said during the depression, " I will vote Republican even if I have to get corn out of a crib to eat for breakfast." I will try to get a few more stories out of that issue. --- Doug Wiken ]]]