Fathers and Sons and Motorcars
Dr. Clarence Hemingway with his Ford Model T “Tin Lizzie”
By Eric Kammerer
The automobiles of Dr. Clarence Hemingway and his son, Ernest Hemingway, symbolize their contrasting personalities and changing times. Dr. Hemingway’s practical Ford Model T reflected his Victorian sensibilities as he skeptically transitioned from horse-drawn to horseless carriages, while Ernest’s sporty Ford Model A runabout embodied the high living and modern spirit of the 1920s. The men's Fords reveal not only a generational shift but also the innate traits and shared passions that connected father and son.
In the first photo, Dr. Clarence Hemingway stands stolidly, his doctor's bag clasped in his right hand, his left hand resting on his Ford Model T, (nicknamed Tin Lizzie) gazing up the street, as if he's just arrived to tend to a sick patient. In the second photo, his son, Ernest Hemingway, sprawls knee-to-knee with a young woman (Frances Thorne, future Mrs. Bill Horne) on the running board of his Ford Model A, relaxed and grinning rakishly.
A New Car to Meet New Conditions
Ernest Hemingway with Frances "Bunny" Thorne sitting on his Ford Model A
Dr. Hemingway and his son both drove Ford automobiles. The difference in their cars reflects the difference in the men. Dr. Hemingway's car harkened back to carriages of the Victorian era with its lantern-like headlights and wood spoke wheels. Ernest Hemingway's Model A was a sporty roadster with a showy yellow paint job.[1] The Model A succeeded the Model T to provide transportation in a faster, more complex world. As Henry Ford wrote, "We have built a new car to meet new conditions."[2]
According to his daughter Marcelline, Dr. Hemingway was a reluctant convert to motoring. He told his wife he was skeptical of the car, as it lacked his horse's ability to find the way home when he drowsed off at the reins after a long night of tending the sick.[3] Finally, the doctor purchased a 1913 Model T Touring car, despite its lack of self-driving capability.[4]
Up in Michigan
Ernest and his father shared a great adventure together in the doctor’s Model T. In 1917, Dr. Hemingway, Mrs. Hemingway, Ernest and his younger brother Leicester drove their car from Oak Park, Illinois to their vacation home in Walloon Lake, Michigan. An easy six-hour drive today, the trip then required a six-day expedition. En route, the family camped in the woods, shoved tree branches under the wheels for traction and occasionally got out to push the vehicle up the steepest hills. Apparently, Dr. Hemingway had enough motoring for one trip, as he sent the Model T home on a steamship, the family's traditional means of travel to Michigan.
Like Father, Like Son
Despite the different styles of their Fords, the father/son likeness showed in their driving. Both Clarence and Ernest were noted to be terrors behind the wheel. Marcelline said of her father, who would take his hands off the wheel to point out sites of interest, "We were sometimes nervous wrecks as he drove." During a road trip in 1928, close friend Bill Horne grew agitated at Ernest's hell-bent-for-leather style, recalling "As we snaked around hair-pin turns with steep drop-offs, I kept saying. “Look out, Ernie!”[5]
Another similarity is how Clarence and Ernest both carefully tracked the miles they travelled. Marcelline Hemingway relates the doctor recorded the journey to their summer home at exactly 487 miles in his diary. According to author Darla Worden, eleven years later, on his first trip to Wyoming in his yellow roadster, “Ernest recorded mileage each day—340, 380, 320. He liked to keep lists and record things, like how many fish he caught and game he shot.”[6]
Eric Kammerer is a volunteer docent at the Ernest Hemingway Birthplace Museum. He is a writer from the western suburbs of Chicago.
[1] Egolf, Jamie and Kelley, Chavawn (2018) Ernest Hemingway in Wyoming. In Wyohistory.org Encyclopedia. Publisher: https://Wyohistory.org/.
[2] Ford Motor Company (1927). The New Ford Car [Press Release]. Retrieved at https://mafca.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/121322%20The%20New%20Ford%201927.jpg
[3] Sanford, M. Hemingway (1962). At the Hemingways: a family portrait. [1st ed.] Boston: Little, Brown.
[4] Deriving model years for Model Ts is challenging due to the factory making ongoing changes. The 1913 date is derived from an online discussion with Model T experts, based on two photographs of Dr. Hemingway’s car. https://www.reddit.com/r/ModelT/comments/1wghckn/comment/p9ud4su/?context=3
[5] Corzine, D. (2019, February 19). Friends for life: An alum’s recollections of Hemingway. Princeton Alumni Weekly. https://paw.princeton.edu/article/friends-life-alums-recollections-hemingway
[6] Worden, D. (2021, October 31). SunLit Special: “Cockeyed Happy” reveals Hemingway’s Wyoming chapters. The Colorado Sun. https://coloradosun.com/2021/10/31/sunlit-cockeyed-crazy-darla-worden/