How I found Gustav Jr
The Start
Soon after we pulled the car out of the barn my dad and I started the search for its history. First
We had Fred Roe come to the house and inspect the car. He was easily able to confirm that it was
the car he had photographed 66 years ago in Boston (kind of a forgone conclusion since the radiator said Schumacher).
Fred was very kind to give us his file on the car that he had compiled over the years. This file
contained the pictures posted on this website as well as correspondence that he had collected. Most
of the information in the file, as well as all the clues and rumors that we had pointed to the car
having been constructed somewhere in the Boston or Lowell Massachusetts area. We also had a number
of well known classic car experts as well as Stutz gurus (George Holman, Ed Minnie) come and inspect
the car and confirm our analysis (to be proven with pictures by the family later) that the car
was originally powered by a Stutz engine and not a Duesenberg engine.
A Day at the Boston Public Library
My dad and I spent a day at the Boston Public Library (1 hour drive in) in their archive room going through all the newspapers
from the fall of 1939. We were looking for the used car advertisment when the Schumacher was sitting
across from MIT. This ended up being a bigger task then we originally thought. First, Fred was not sure of
when in the fall he actually had seen the car. So that gave us a range of Sept through Nov. Second there were
a dozen newspaper's active at the time. My dad ended up getting sea-sick from the micro-fiche spinning.
We got nowhere after 5 hours.
I Sour on the Lowell Theory
Google has spoiled me and the idea of looking at page after page of newspaper was no longer appetizing. My dad
was urging that I go to the Lowell historical society and see what I could find about the Schumacher family there.
I figured I would see what I could find over the internet first. There happens to be quite a bit of geneology information
available over the internet for Lowell Mass. From 1910 to 1940 there were no Schumachers, born, married or deceased
with the exception of one older couple (both in their 50s) which married around 1912. I took this as a bad
sign of the Lowell connection. On top of that , the history
of the F. Schumacher fabric company seemed to indicate there were no Schumachers employed there after
1912. I was getting discouraged with the idea the car was built in Lowell.
Internet Call for Help
My next angle of attack was to create this website and blast a information wanted across all the poplular
car websites including PreWar Car , the AACA, Classic Car and Stutz boards
as well as the the H.A.M.B and some others. In the
AACA forum Bob Swanson asked if "the car was entered in the 1937 Vanderbilt Cup race as the Schumaker-Cusick
Special driven by Al Cusick?". I got many tips but this one ended up being the best. I did my best to
research this race on the internet where there really wasn't a lot of info. I bought Broke Yates book about the race
and was happy to find a picture of the Cusick-Schumacher Special. This car, although ford powered, shared the polished
aluminum construction of our car.
In the same thread with Bob, Bruce Wheeler suggested contacting the
Eastern Museum of Auto Racing (EMMR)
which I did asking for information on the Cusick-Schumacher Special. Joe Heisler promptly responded to me
with information that the car was built by Gustav Schumacher and had won $500.00 in the race. He told me he
would look for more info on Gustav Schumacher at get it to me when he found it.
Potential New York Connection
Another piece of information we had was the story that was
passed on to us by the last owner of the car. This piece of information ran counter to
everything
else we had and indicated that the car was constructed in New York as opposed to Boston or Lowell. In the end, this actually
was very helpful. This information combined with the lack of Lowell info push me in the New York direction. Now that I had a
Gustav Schumacher race car builder competing in the late 30s in NY seemed very promising.
New York Times
I'm no big fan of the New York Times. I will say this, their archive system is incredible. You can search
online every Times newspaper from 1888 to the present. When you find something ineresting, it is around 3 bucks
to view the whole article. I spent about 3 hours and 60 bucks one Saturday Night and found out that
Gustav Schumacher ran Schumacher Motor Services in Yonkers NY from sometime in the 20s to 1957 when he passed away.
His obituary noted he had a son Gustav Jr. which I figured would be anywhere from late 60s to 80s in age. There were
numerous other business issues realted to Schumacher Motor Services in the 30s but I was really looking for a mechanic's
lean on the Schumacher Special (as indicated by the NY builder rumor). I did not find it.
I got Lazy then Lucky
Thinking that Gustav Jr. might still be alive I did a Yahoo people search, and made the mistake of paying
for the detailed one. I'm still not sure how I did this but I ended up with a list of about 12 Gustav Schumachers
in the United States along with approx ages. I closer examination of the list would have revealed that one of them,
the Gustav Jr. I wanted accounted for at least 3 of those hits.
I figured I would start calling the ones that were close to New York. There were two in New Jersey but only one
seemed to fit the age profile. When I made the call and was politely told there was no relation to the Gustav Sr. I
was looking for I got deflated. At this point I should have simply called the next name on the list. It would have taken
me no more than 15 minutes to get down to the one that was pay-dirt. I forget why I got distracted (wife calling me?) but
I went away from the phone and a month passed without me making further phone calls.
In mid-January I got a email from Joe Heisler suggesting that I contact a Heidi Barnes as she had talked to Joe a few
years ago inquiring about her Grandfather. Joe did not have an email or phone but did have an address. Once again, being lazy
I waited about 3 weeks and then wrote a letter to Heidi, including a picture of the car and asking if Gustav Sr was a relation.
I mailed the letter on Saturday Feb 4th. On Tuesday the 7th I was sitting at a hockey rink watching my daughter's
practice when I got an email from Heidi (Treo's are wonderful) saying "Yes, Gustav Sr is my grandfather and he
constructed your car. My dad, Gustav Jr. will be contacting you soon". Further conversations with Gustav and Heidi
revealed that they had tons of photo and information about Gustav Sr - I was in shock.
One lesson I learned is to not stop the search until you have completely exhausted the avenue. It is easy to get discouraged.