At the center of this photo is the mother of the inventor of America’s first gasoline-powered car, my great-great-grandmother, Christiana Lieber Lambert. b.1836. Her husband called her Anna. Only a few fascinating words are given to Anna’s background in family history and they are mysterious. Her father was a tailor and his father was a […]
In 1960, after seventy years of media controversy, the editor of Antique Automobile magazine declared once and for all that John Lambert built America’s First Car. One reason John did not step up to claim his primary accomplishment at the time was the brouhaha of the media debate. The press covered the arguments among a […]
Being the son of a famous rich man is not an easy path in life, but my grandfather Ray, John Lambert’s only son, followed the family tradition of entrepreneurship. He was a firsthand participant to the birth and early development of the American automotive industry. He was a toddler when he rode in America’s first […]
My dad owned his own manufacturing company in southwest Ohio. Over the years they made a variety of products including lawn sweepers, snow throwers and garden carts. He acquired his two models of his grandfather’s automobiles and used them to promote his products. I remember the 1910 model being on display in the Dayton airport. […]
John and Minnie with their two children, my grandfather Alvin Ray called Ray and his older sister Ethel Mae called Mae. John married the petite Mary Frances Kelley, aptly called Minnie, when they were both 25 and together they had two children. They were married 64 years and together entertained automotive pioneering giants like Ran […]
Hans “Honas” Wagner is a baseball legend. He drove a Lambert car (Model H) and wrote a testimonial to my ancestors in Anderson, Indiana that they used in promotional literature, along with dozens of other letters from satisfied Lambert owners. “Your Model H car…as a hill climber is a wonder,” he wrote. “As you know I […]
Click through to see an intimate view of the transmission that earned John Lambert the nationwide title Father of the Gradual Transmission. With the second photograph you will find yourself looking up from under the car, to see the spinning disks in place. Double click each photo for an enlargement. You are seeing John’s amazing […]
This story comes out of the year 2000. I went to a professional conference and by that I mean a social work educational seminar, and ran into a fellow social worker whose name I recognized, with whom I had had numerous professional phone conversations but had never met in person. By noon of this daylong […]
This award-winning 1909 Lambert was authentically and lovingly restored by Jack Lambert of Buffalo, New York, and is the inspiration for the 1960 Antique Automobile article naming John Lambert as inventor of America's first gasoline car.
In the banner photo to the left, you can see a 1969 marquee for Lambert Days in Ohio City, Ohio, the hometown of America's first automobile. Lambert Days is every third week in July. Next year 2017 will be the 50th year for this popular festival which includes a parade on Sunday.
This 1909 Lambert car is on display in the James F. Dicke Transportation Center at Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio.
Thank you, Drew Dull and 2 East 8th Productions, LLC for this excellent production. http://www.2east8th.com
http://www.hometownstations.com/story/32464218/lambert-days-in-ohio-city Lambert Days in Ohio City Posted: Jul 17, 2016 3:45 PM EST By Sam Shriver, Multimedia Video Journalist Ohio City’s automotive past is remembered this weekend with the 49th annual Lambert Days celebration. There was a car show at their community park on the north side of the village. John Lambert had a part […]
Urbana Daily Citizen, July 6, 2016
John Lambert was the third of ten children; he was born Janaury 29, 1860 on a farm near Mechanicsburg, Ohio. He had aunts and uncles and cousins in the area as well. He lived there until he was 16 at which time he moved with his family to Hillgrove, Darke County, Ohio and lived there […]
John William Lambert Was My Great Grandfather by Carol Jean Lambert
The latest issue of Horseless Carriage Gazette, Vol. 78, No. 2, March-April 2016 has my two page article with four pages of photographs. The Horseless Carriage Club of America’s official publication, the Horseless Carriage Gazette. If you are interested in receiving a copy of this issue or subscribing to HCG, call Sharon Gooding at 626-287-4222 […]
