Washington's Ford Dealership

For ninety years, a Ford automobile dealership existed in Washington. It followed the town's general trend, starting in the nerve center of the Square and venturing outward to the western frontier.

In May 1910, Peter Garber and his brother Emanuel opened a Ford auto dealership business on the southeast corner of the Square, in the area that is now a parking lot.  At that time, automobiles were not common, as in 1910, there was an average of approximately five cars for every 1,000 people in the United States.  Washington’s population was 1,530 in the 1910 U.S. Census. 

In 1912, Peter Garber and Al Gundy bought property on the south side of Peoria Street near the square. Today, the eastern half of Lindy’s Supermarket parking lot is located here. They purchased the land from Wilde Stormer.

William Smith quickly began work on the garage, which he constructed at a cost of $3,000. The garage opened that same year.

Originally known as the Peoria Street Garage, in 1915, Al Gundy left the partnership and was replaced by Ed Habecker, and it became the Garber & Habecker Garage.

In 1920, Habecker separated from the partnership to start his own dealership on Walnut Street, and for a short time, Peter Garber enlisted a new partner in Roy Kinsinger.

By 1924, Garber was on his own and became the Peter Garber Garage.  Business was good with the rise of the automobile’s popularity, and in 1930 Garber added three gasoline pumps to the front of the business.  There was also a name change: the Garber Motor Company.

These changes coincided with the addition of a silent partner, Henry Vogelsang, who had joined Garber as a salesman in 1924.

In 1938, Garber & Vogelsang added the Lincoln-Zephyr model to its Ford inventory, and in 1939, it added Mercury automobiles as well.

In 1940, at the age of 74, Peter Garber retired from the business.  Ralph Belsly purchased Garber’s interest and became Vogelsang’s partner, but the business remained the Garber Motor Company.

In 1958, Vogelsang and Belsly sold the dealership to Walz & Wieckhoff, a long-time dealership in Morton.  They appointed Emanuel “Solly” Ackerman to run the dealership, now to be called Colonial Ford.  The transfer took place on September 29, 1958.

Colonial Ford was cramped in its current location, and with the town's westward movement beginning, Colonial Ford felt the pull. In 1963, it opened a used car lot at 1224 Peoria Street, the current site of Dairy Queen, with eventual plans to move the entire dealership to the west end of the city.

On November 1, 1964, Buck Strode and Bill Walz purchased the dealership. They quickly demolished the building near the square and moved westward. The area on Peoria Street became a parking lot for a short time before Lindy’s constructed their grocery store.

Now named S&W Ford, in August 1965, the business contracted with Del Construction, who began work on their new facility at 1800 Washington Road across from Hillcrest Golf Course.  They held their grand opening on May 6 & 7, 1966.

In 1967, Strode took over the business alone, and it became Buck Strode Ford. One of Strode’s employees was a young salesman named Gary Uftring.

In 1969, John Bearce, a dealer in Wisconsin, purchased the dealership. Bearce was a showman. For the grand opening in July 1969, he brought in an Indy car driver and a Playboy Bunny.

Bearce’s tenure as a Ford dealer in Washington was successful by every measure. When his former employee Gary Uftring went off to build his own dealership, their combined “Car Wars” commercials were a yearly conversation piece. Bearce knew how to get people’s attention.

John Bearce moved his Ford dealership to East Peoria in 1992. He maintained a used car outlet at the site until the tornado destroyed it in 2013.