August 1918, a group of friends gathers for a road trip…
A Chance to Breathe
Stories from a 1918 Road Trip
by James Gardner
August 1918, a group of friends gathers in Western Pennsylvania for a two-week camping road trip, but these were not ordinary friends—and this was no ordinary time.
A Chance to Breathe follows Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, and Harvey Firestone, along with a caravan of vehicles and a slew of helpers, on their thousand-mile journey through the heart of America a little over a century ago. Their unlikely and fascinating friendships are matched only by their individual stories. Traversing the countryside by car, the famous campers would be some of the first participants in what would later become a traditional summer staple known as The Great American Road Trip.
Having largely invented the modern world, these “vagabonds” were hoping, at least for a moment, to escape it. And who could blame them? Life in 1918 was exhausting. World War One raged in Europe while humanity braced for yet another wave of the Spanish Flu, which in the end, would prove to be more like a tsunami. Racing through America’s first frontier, the story of Appalachia and West Virginia are brought to light, as are the stories of the people and places encountered along the way. In the end, A Chance to Breathe is a story of friendship, adventure, and the indomitable human spirit.
“…a remarkable journey…an avalanche of information…[and] concise, thorough biographical sketches of the four main vagabonds.
—Akron Beacon Journal
“A seminal work of meticulous historical research and a genuine flair for narrative driven, informative, and entertaining storytelling…all the more impressive when considering it is author James Gardner’s debut as a published writer.”
—Midwest Book Review
The Vagabonds, Mill wheel at Lead Mine, West Virginia, 1918
[Photo: Courtesy of The Henry Ford Museum]
An Author’s Note
When I began this journey, my goal was to learn more about a 1918 camping trip taken by a group of famous friends. My first inclination, as a lawyer and amateur historian, was to research the trip to a point where I could make more sense of a box of documents collected from a university archive. That way I might be able to talk about it somewhat intelligently. You never know what might come up at a cocktail party. Perhaps, in retrospect, it was simply my attempt to continue something I had started with my father. Perhaps I could recapture a dialogue started years before when sharing time together at the office, or maybe I just needed a grand distraction. Whatever the reasoning, I immersed myself in all things 1918, particularly World War I and the Spanish Flu. I was curious about how Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and John Burroughs had become friends. Like many, I’m fascinated by stories of collected genius, whether it be painters and writers in Paris or Oxford, or John Adams, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson cloistered together in a room with instruction to write a declaration of independence. How does this happen? The camping trips, and the unlikely friendships between these four men, jut out like another branch of this curious historical phenomenon. Another more modern historical phenomenon is the need for someone, famous or not, to take time away from normal routines even in a crazy year like 1918. Exploration can always use, well, exploration.
Somewhere along the way, my personal research and travel, morphed into an idea for a book. The world can always use another book on a 1918 camping trip, right? Although the accounts in this book are meant to be historically accurate, it must be noted that they are also based in part on my own observations and experiences. Whether it be meandering the halls of an inn, gazing upon a display, or talking to a tour guide in a museum, much was personally learned by doing, seeing and listening. Retracing the 1918 trip turned out to be the greatest surprise, and, in the end, is a major part of this writing. It felt like the stories of the region and those encountered along the 1918 camping trip should find a role in this play. I hope they have.
Map rendering by Erin Mulligan
About James
James Gardner was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. He received his B.A. from The Ohio State University and his J.D. from Case Western Reserve University. A practicing lawyer for more than thirty years, Jim is an avid history buff and a vagabond at heart. Married, with two grown children, A Chance to Breathe is his first book.
I’d love to hear from you!
You can reach me at: Jim@GardnerLawWC.com