Caswell County's First Automobile Dealership

 First Caswell County Automobile Dealership

Caswell County Quiz Answer. Earlier we asked: "What was the first authorized automobile dealership in Caswell County?"

Based upon our research, the answer is the Ford agency/dealership of John Abner Massey (1881-1956) established before WWI. He built the Yanceyville Motor Co. building on the Square in Yanceyville (see photograph). However, whether this building was associated with his Ford agency/dealership is not known. In the early years he would sell a Ford vehicle and take the purchaser to Raleigh to arrange delivery. The Ford "state agency" was located there.

Massey probably lost the Ford agency/dealership when A. B. Crowell (1880-1970) established Crowell Auto Co. around 1920, which was an authorized Ford dealership. This was in the building recently demolished that became Caswell Motor Co. when John Oliver (Johnny) Gunn (1892-1992) bought out Crowell in the mid-1930s. 

Massey eventually (1923) became a Willys-Knight agent/dealer. He had a vehicle on display in his Yanceyville Motor Co. building when he remodeled the front. However, when time came to remove the vehicle it was impossible without pulling down the front wall, which Massey did! The "display" vehicle had been in the building so long that the tires had rotted.

Photograph: John Abner Massey in front of his Yanceyville Motor Co. building on the east side of the Square in Yanceyville, NC. Seen behind the building to the right his the house he built for his family. Massey built many houses in and around Yanceyville. Courtesy Anne McGuire Harvey.