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Is anyone out there familiar with St. Joseph in 1947? Specifically I am looking for information on a D.W. Potter whose address I have is Rt. 2, Box 271. There were a few copies to "The Herald-Press" newspapers from August and September of 1947 in the trunk of my recently acquired 1947 Custom Super Clipper with this name on the address labels. It may be that these newspapers have been in the car since it was new, and Potter may be the original owner of the car. Also, Clark Motor Sales, 110 Main St., advertised itself for Packard Sales & Service. It may be that the car was delivered by this dealer. It would be nice to track down the first owner and delivering dealer after all of these years. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I guess the name of the selling dealer isn't filled out on the patent (VN) plate? Unfortunate if that is so, it's so gratifying to be able to piece together the history of our cars.

O_D, the dealer's name is stamped on the '37's VN plate, but there is no place for it on the '47's plate. I do have history of the car back to the '80s, and there is a direct connection to my father. It would be so satisfying to find the first owner and delivering dealer. I hope this search is more successful than trying to get Civil War military information on my paternal grandfather. As an aside, did you work with a Robert Cutler? We were high school classmates. Just wondering as I believe you worked at Olin, as did he.

Yes, I did retire from Olin Corporation and I do remember a Bob Cutler; as I recall he was in the auditing department and I had occasion to work with him on audits for export licensing. He probably wasn't the only Cutler there though.

I find it curious than your Patent Plate has no place for the selling dealer as based on what I've seen even the very early 22nd series (1948) had it, same plate as 1942 or atleast similar, but it was replaced fairly soon with a new plate with space for color and trim, eliminating dealer and date. But I've seen dozens of 47s with the dealer information on the plate. Another anomoly for we Packard lovers to ponder over a nice single malt.

I hope you can reconstruct the car's prior history, I've managed to do it on both my Packards and it it adds a bit to the joy of ownership, almost gives you the sense of being a caretaker in addition to an owner. I guess you've already tried w/o success at searching your state DMV? How about PAC's roster-keeper for that series of cars? My Packard dealer listing from just prewar shows about 55 Packard outlets in Michigan, but none in St. Joseph.

One other comment you made was interesting, that of finding service history on Civil War vets. I've got a friend who is a very serious geneology student, and he easily found information on his relatives in that war, and told me how much easier it was to find that info than on WW II vets. If you're curious how he searched, send me a PM and I'll ask him for some details.

Enclosing a photo of a patent plate from an early 1948 Custom 8 sedan.

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John There should be room on the data plate for the dealer. My two '47's each have the dealer name stamped on them. One way I found out who the original owner of my Super Clipper was to write a letter to the local paper in the town where I bought the car asking if anyone had any information about owners of the car as I knew who the second owner was and included his name.. An 85 year old woman phoned me who was the sister of the 2nd owner and she knew the name of the original owner and also sent me photos of the car when her brother (2nd owner) bought the car in 1955 and also a bio and photo of her long departed brother. I still haven't found any relations of the original owners yet. Another source of info is the old city directories (Henderson's up here in Canada) which lists businesses and also the addresses and occupations of person listed in them. It is nice to know a cars history. I sometimes have a feeling when I am working on the car that the previous owners are looking over my shoulder making sure I take good care of their "baby".
If St Joseph has a paper that might be the place to start.
I have a discharge paper for a Civil War veteran that has been in my family possession for at least 75 years. I had no idea who the person was or whether or not a relation but I posted the info on a Civil war site and in a few days someone sent me a history of the unit he served with and particulars about his age and where he enlisted etc. so maybe a posting on a Civil war site might yield some sources. Now for a dram of Mccallan's before bed time.

Don't know if this will be of any assistance to you, but below is a list of Packard's Michigan dealers; not sure of the date of publication but I believe it is just pre-war.

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O_D and Clipper47, I'll take another look at the VN plate. It will not be the first time that I have been mistaken. All of your suggestions are appreciated. I got the Clark Motor Sales information from a classified ad in one of the newspapers left in the car. O_D, curious that the list of dealerships stops at the "O" lettered cities. I can also check with the local historical association, and see if they have anything like a city directory listing from the time.

My grandfather was a veteran of the CSA, and fought and was wounded at Chickamauga. The Confederate records are scarce and incomplete, making the research task more difficult. My brother and I visited the battle ground site a few years ago, and were most impressed with the monuments and statues. Anyway, I'll not use any more bandwidth on this subject.

Oops, sorry about that, I forgot page 2. If your patent plate doesn't have a space for the selling dealer and date, I'd suspect a bogus plate has been affixed and the original gone who knows where, so please update us on this when you have a second look.

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O_D, I just checked the VN plate, and indeed there is a place for the dealer's name and city. Only the date is stamped. The plate has been polished so the spaces for these two entries were not obvious. I believe it to be a valid and original plate. Thanks for the page two. What is the date of the dealer listing?

Thanks for the reply on Bob Cutler.

Often wrong, but never confused.

JW, It may be a long shot but if you know a police officer he may be able to get his forensic unit to try and resurrect the dealer name if it was ever stamped. I have had firearms with serial numbers filed off that were retrieved in this way.
Confederate records would be much more difficult to locate than Union ones I imagine. Over the past 40 years I have had the privilege to visit most of the major battlefields of the Civil War and they are indeed impressive. It is hard to believe that what is now serene parklands were so full of such terrible and deadly conflict not so long ago. The National Parks Service does a wonderful job in maintaining and interpreting for visitors these hallowed grounds.