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Buggy Company
McReynolds Street, Carthage,
NC,
USA
Latitude & Longitude:
35° 21' 5.1768",
-79° 25' 18.8436"
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North Carolina State
Historical Marker |
Marker Text: "Thomas B. Tyson & W. T. Jones's factory produced horse-drawn vehicles sold across South, 1850s to 1920s. At peak made 3000 per year. Stood here." From humble origins in the Moore County seat of Carthage sprang a leading manufacturer of buggies and specialty horse-drawn vehicles in the pre-automobile era. Isaac Seawell and his two sons in 1850 began a small buggy repair shop. In 1856 Thomas B. Tyson, a local merchant, purchased the shop and soon employed W. T. Jones, a carriage painter. For most of the war years the business was shuttered and postwar distress hindered their footing. But, in the 1870s, Jones visited northern manufacturers and, on return, purchased machinery necessary to permit mass production. By 1876 output had risen to 600 buggies per year. Extension of railroads to Cameron, ten miles east, in 1878 and directly to Carthage in 1887 boosted the business.
In 1895 the proprietors exhibited at the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta the first rubber-tired buggy among their “eleven jobs, consisting of a midway trap, bellamy trap, English T cart, victoria phaeton, canopy top surrey, shell body cabriolet, two victorias, conpirockaway, and two buggies.” They took away a medal and gained regional exposure. At their peak of production in the mid-90s they prided themselves on their high standards, employed 100 workers, and produced 3,000 vehicles per year. In 1898 and 1906 they added a series of major brick buildings, among them a three-story structure said to be among the finest factory buildings in the state.
The proprietors built the town’s most ostentatious homes (these survive along with one of the plant structures). Tyson died in 1893 and Jones in 1910. Tyson’s grandson and namesake, Thomas B. Tyson II, ran the business until his death in 1924. That same year new owners sought to diversify the product line, shifting to truck bodies and furniture. But industry changes overtook the Carthage business. The last buggy was delivered in 1929. That buyer, Neil S. Blue of Raeford, indicated that he never wished to own an automobile. The plant was then abandoned but reopened briefly for the production of camouflage nets during World War II. Today the Carthage History Museum houses a buggy and memorabilia. The town hosts a Buggy Festival each spring.
References:
John G. Reilly, “Tyson and Jones Buggy Company: The History of a Southern Carriage Works,” North Carolina Historical Review (July 1969): 201-213
Thomas B. Tyson II, A Business Story: A Short History of the Establishment and Growth of the Vehicle Industry in Carthage, North Carolina, 1850-1914 (1914)
Tom Lee, “The Detroit of the South,” The State (May 1990): 11-12
Durham Morning Herald, July 31,1961
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Buggy Company Historical Marker Location Map, Carthage, North Carolina
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