A family picture, taken of a relative standing in front of his delivery truck. My best estimate is that it’s around 1910.
Someone suggested it was a Ford, which may well be true.
I can’t ID the auto, but I had no idea Buster Brown made bread. I thought they only made shoes.
Look at these pics of Ford Model T delivery trucks
There were not a lot of options in 1911. So, it was probably a customized Model T (given that it was a business vehicle).
My WAG is a 1912 Chase Model D.
The Ford T’s have a curved roof over the C-cab door, which Mama Zappa’s photo doesn’t; it has the same straight roof as the Chase. The front window could have been a special order modification.
The Chase Motor Truck Company was based in Syracuse, New York between 1907 and 1919, specialising in delivery trucks and farm tractors. Trucks were bought in “group lots.”
According to Wikipedia, “By 1912…Some of the buyers that year were, Wm. J. Lemp Company who ordered a two-ton Model J, S & W Bauman department store and a third “repeat” order from the Dillman Baking Company as well as several “well-known” manufacturing concerns.”
It seems Chase also supplied delivery vehicles to Coca-Cola and Pepsi.
So yeah. I’d run with a Chase.
Wrong arc-line for the roof.
Thanks! Yes, it looks more like the Chase truck than anything else I’ve found online - not an exact match but pretty close (might be a different model year, for example). The timing looks reasonable as well - my WAG for the photo was from 1900-1915.
That’s the only way I’d ever heard the name as well. Did some googling the other day and apparently Buster Brown was a cartoon character that was introduced in 1902 (thereby putting a minimum date on the photo of 1903 or so). The name appears to have been licensed to a number of bakeries. The earliest reference I could find to that is for 1907.
My mother never mentioned the name, so it may have fallen into disuse by the 1930s or so.
Look at the difference between the Ford and the Chase fenders. If I had to guess, I’d guess Ford with the lower roof profile. If you look at the color pics, the roof is made from wood, so could be bent in almost any way desired. I’m guessing that the fenders are from a metal, so the car companies are going to tend toward using the same fenders on all models.