ClassicCar

hoggyrubber

i was at the library today poking around and read that the very first motoized ambulance/hearse in the city of springfield, mo was a 1916 hudson coach. looks like it was made by a company called ferguson. it was owned by the lohmeyer funeral home which is still going today! well the funeral home not the hudson. :)) funny thing i read if if you wanted a ride to the hospital you had to go in the hearse! oh how times have changed!

hoggyrubber

i will try to post a link of what i found.

http://www.springfieldhistorymuseum.org/archives/detail.php?AccessionNumber=2000-66&Q=hudson motor

hudsontech

Neat. I've seen other pictures from that era - there is a picture of a 1917 ambulance in the 1909-1919 Hudson Family of Cars Album that's in the online library. Click on Other H-E-T Literature at the top of the opening page.

I also have a copy of a picture of a 1947 stretched Hudson ambulance in my collection that I got from Carl Webers collection - one of these days I've got to get those albums online.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

hudsonsoul

I wonder if the funeral home has any old photos of the hearse in use?

Aaron D. IL

I would love to get my hands on the stretched Hudson ambulance or the airport taxi's that were made but odds are they didn't survive. Most commercial vehicles get destroyed after they no longer have a service life.

hudsontech

Way back in the '70s I came across a 6-door stretched Hudson in a junkyard near where I lived - as I recall it wasn't a step-down, maybe a 1938 or 1939. I do remember that it had wood facings on the doors and fenders. Sadly it was in rough shape. Again I'm not sure if it could even have been moved without falling apart. The late Larry Wellman showed it to me and if he didn't want it then it wasn't worth trying to save.

Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN

oldhudsons

former HET Treasurer, who lived in Ohio at the time, showed me a photo of a '42 C8 "stretch" airport limo - I remember he said it was pretty rusty. He later moved to upstate N.Y., went broke, sold everything to one Hal Denman of White Plains, N.Y. & I've always wondered about fate of that '42????????????? (that's how Hal got the X-161), but that's another story, LOL.

Aaron D. IL

I have dreams of having a collections of Hudson limos and long wheelbase sedans someday. I would love to know how you would stretch a '40's Hudson though with detailed pictures. I really have no idea how that would be accomplished since the bodies of those cars are curved and then there's and X-frame under those cars. Historic photos prove it has been done though. I assume you would need to start with 2 sedans. Perhaps Bentmetal could chime in on this one ??

hoggyrubber

just for grins and giggles i called the funeral home today to see if they had a picure of the hearse. they said they didn't, and actually their portion of the family had opperated the home since 1928, i think. they had close relatives, with the same name, that were in "the business". so it must have been one of them that operated the hearse. i think they either bought them out or the other family members went out of business. thay picture is neat. i think they have a better copy in the springfield greene county museum.

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