John’s Mother
At the center of this photo is John’s mother, my great-great-grandmother, Christiana Lieber Lambert.
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 wealthy baker in New York, yet she was raised by a family named Mussellman in Pennsylvania. Her mother, Savina Ellen, married a second time to a Mr. Furst in Ohio and they had a son Levi, Christiana’s half brother.
Christiana married George Lambert in 1855 and had ten children, nine of whom lived long lives. She began her marriage as a farmer’s wife in central Ohio and had a front row seat to the dawning of the automobile industry. She lived to see her son John William accomplish his dream of automobile production. It is a safe bet that back at the turn of the last century, she was not only a passenger but also that she herself drove Mae’s gasoline automobile in Anderson, Indiana. She was 66 when she died in 1902. Her husband George Lambert died four years later. He was 80. They are buried together with their toddler daughter in Maplewood Cemetery, Anderson, Indiana.
In the accompanying photograph of Lambert women, on Christiana’s left is her daughter-in-law Minnie and on her other side, I believe is her daughter Emma. Mae, Christiana’s granddaughter and John’s daughter, is standing behind her and on Mae’s right I believe is Emma’s daughter Beryl. The other lady I’m not sure. The little boy is also pictured in the Muddy Road Race picture after John was victorious in a Chicago road race but I don’t know his connection; my guess is he is Beryl’s son.
Christiana Lieber Lambert is an American pioneer and the mother of the inventor of America’s First Car.
