In addition to the Chevrolet dealership in last week’s column, Union was also privileged to have a Ford agency that remained until recent years.
In 1921, H. Grady Graham began his career as an automobile dealer when he first opened Grady Graham Motor Co., a Ford dealership, on Main Street in the former stand of Helms Garage. He moved to the Bailey building on the northeast corner of Bank and Horne Streets in 1922.
In 1925, J.M. and W.I. Cole bought the Ford dealership from Graham and named it Union Motor Co. Later that same year, King Bros. and Mayo from Philadelphia bought it. In 1931, it was still located in the Bailey building when it burned.
Then they moved their dealership to the Dr. Red Building at 204 Bank St. It was closed by 1933, and no Ford dealership remained in Union.
In 1940, R.L. Caraway moved to Union from Gulfport to open a Ford agency on south Bank Street. Having sold his Chevrolet dealership in 1941, J.T. Buntyn bought the Ford dealership from Caraway in 1942 and moved his new Union Motor Co. to the southwest corner of Bank and Main Streets, his former Chevrolet building. In 1946, B.B. Peebles was manager, and they were taking orders for cars because of the shortage.
In January 1948, Buntyn sold his Ford agency to B.J. Milling, who changed the name to Milling Motor Co. He immediately bought the lot at 212 Main Street between the Standard Service Station and the Union Theater to construct a new building. In the meantime, he continued to operate from Buntyn’s corner building. In Nov. 1951, the $40,000 brick building with 9,036 square feet under one roof was complete, and Milling Motor Company moved into its new home.
Milling kept his agency until April 1962, when he sold it to Marvin Shepard. Shepard quickly sold it to Swartzfager Ford of Meridian (Swartzfager and Dwayne Temple) in July 1962. They soon sold Union Motor Co. to Herbert Hancock in April 1963. Next, Dwayne Temple bought it outright in January 1964. Temple stayed in Union until he sold his business in October 1967 to Otis Nicholson Jr., who changed the name to Nicholson Ford.
Sonny Gray bought the Ford dealership from Nicholson in April 1971, and he then renamed it Gray Ford. He built a new showroom for new and used cars at 23432 on the Hwy. 15 Bypass in 1982. After Hawthorne Chevrolet at 105 Jackson Road closed in January 1987, Gray bought that building and moved his parts department and office there that same month. (Buddy White immediately bought the former Ford building at 212 Main St. for White’s Body Shop).
Next, Ted Marshall completed a two-year buyout from Gray in 1988, but he did not change the name to Marshall Ford until 1994. In 1990, Marshall finished the building begun by Gray on the bypass and moved the remainder of the Ford operation from the 105 Jackson Road building into it to have his entire business together. (In 1990, Bobby Huddleston bought the 105 Jackson Road building for his Spaceway offices).
In 2016, Marshall closed his business in Union and moved it to a new building in Philadelphia. This closure ended the Ford dealership in Union.
I received information from Kent Gardner, whose father Pat Gardner worked 45 years as a mechanic at the Ford dealership. He recalled that the Ford dealer only kept a few (6 or so) new cars but had detailed plastic model cars to show various models and colors. Many clients ordered cars to be built for their specs in Detroit, which then took several weeks for the cars to arrive. Kent got some of the plastic models when newer cars were introduced.
Other Ford employees were Ronald (Buddy) Gardner, R.L. Sessions, mechanics, and Larry Driskell, salesman. Do you remember others?
Here are this weeks other questions:
• Do you know shoe shine boys in the early barber shops?
• Who do you remember as carpenters or builders of recent years?
• If you grew up in the 1930-40s, what did you do for entertainment in Union?
If you have information, please contact me at 601-774-5564 or 109 Woodhaven Dr., Union 39365 or teresablount26@yahoo.com..
