Theodore H. “Ted” Schwendener

1894 – 1922

 

Ted Schwendener was born July 30, 1894 at Enterprise, Kansas.  He was a son of Henry Schwendener (1869-1941) his wife, Dora (Herman) Schwendener (1867-1928).  Ted grew to manhood in Center Township in Dickinson County, Kansas.  By 1912, he had taken a job in Wichita, Kansas taking care of a car collection owned by Thaddeus L. “Thad” Hoffman (1881-1933).  Hoffman had known Schwendener since childhood and had grown up to become a banker and president of the Midwest Battery & Supply Company in Wichita.

 

In May of 1917, Ted Schwendener entered a mileage contest at Enterprise in his father’s Maxwell.  The contestants had to drive as far as they could on one gallon of gasoline.  Schwendener was declared the winner by covering 31.3 miles on his allotted gallon.

 

By June of 1917, he was working as a machinist at the J. B. Ehrsam Manufacturing Company at Enterprise.

 

In August of 1917, Schwendener secured a civilian job at Fort Riley, Kansas driving a truck for the quartermaster’s department.

 

By January of 1918, he was working as a mechanic at the R. A. Dalton garage in Enterprise.

 

In May of 1918, he took a job as a rural mail carrier for the U. S. Post Office Department at Enterprise.  He was replaced in March of 1919 when it was learned that he had failed to take the required test to be appointed to that position.

 

Schwendener partnered with John Ernest Wall and the pair immediately began remodeling the old “airdrome” building in Enterprise to house their new City Garage.  As soon as the building was finished, Schwendener became one of the founding members of the Enterprise City Band with their first organizational meeting being held in the new City Garage.  The band soon grew to include 18 local musicians of all ages.

 

Schwendener was married to Miss Rubina Thome of Woodbine, Kansas on November 30, 1919 in Woodbine.  Rubina’s recently-widowed father, Fredrick Wilhelm “Fred” Thome (1863-1956), moved with his daughter to Enterprise where he purchased property to have a new home built.  The home was to be the property of Ted and Rubina Schwendener and, Fred would make his home there with them.

 

In December of 1920, Schwendener and John Wall acquired the dealership for new Ford automobiles to be housed in their City Garage.  In August of 1921, the Standard Oil Company installed new gas pumps at the City Garage, naming Schwendener and Wall the new representatives for their company in Enterprise.  That move sparked a gas war in Enterprise bringing the price of gasoline at every station down to 18.7¢ per gallon.

 

In February of 1922, W. C. Watkins, a new rural mail carrier on the route that Schwendener had carried three years earlier, broke his arm while attempting to crank his Ford automobile so Schwendener carried that mail route again until Watkins was able to carry it himself.

 

By the summer, 1922, both Schwendener and Wall had each put together Ford “speed wagons”.  They drove their Ford specials to the 1-mile oval Kenwood Park Speedway at Salina to get a feel as to how they would perform on a real racetrack.  While there, they entered the Fourth of July races to be run there that year.  Ted Schwendener’s incomplete racing record follows:

 

July 4, 1922 – 1 mile oiled dirt oval – Kenwood Park Speedway at Salina, Kansas

            Car:  Schwendener’s own Ford special

            Purse:  $2,250 total purse.

Attendance:  4,200

Finish:  Schwendener withdrew his entry in these races saying that his car was too high geared for a track of that size.  One wonders if the size of the oval racetrack for his first race and his poor eyesight might not have had something to do with his decision as well.

Feature race winner:  W. W. Brown of Kansas City, Missouri who was driving a Duesenberg owned by George L. Wade of Kansas City, Missouri

 

August 10, 1922 – ½ mile dirt oval – City Park in Council Grove, Kansas

            Car:  Schwendener’s own Ford special

Finish:  Schwendener finished 4th in the 10-mile race behind George W. Drashner of Council Grove who was driving an Essex special owned by Thomas Jacob “Tom” Crippen also from Council Grove, Kansas; John Gerber of Meriden, Kansas who was driving his own Chevrolet special #15 and John E. Wall of Enterprise, Kansas who was driving a Ford special.

 Schwendener finished 4th in the 10-mile ”Free-for-All” race behind George W. Drashner of Council Grove who was driving an Essex special owned by Thomas Jacob “Tom” Crippen also from Council Grove, Kansas; Hugo Haucke of Council Grove, Kansas who was driving his own double engine Ford special and John E. Wall of Enterprise, Kansas who was driving his won Ford special.

Feature race winner:  George W. Drashner of Council Grove, Kansas who was driving an Essex special owned by by Thomas Jacob “Tom” Crippen who was also from Council Grove, Kansas.

 

September 4, 1922 – 1 mile oiled dirt oval – Kenwood Park Speedway at Salina, Kansas

            Car:  Schwendener’s own Ford special

            Purse:  $2,000 total purse.

            Finish:  Schwendener’s car suffered a broken steering arm during “try-outs” a.k.a. “hot-laps” and could not be repaired in time to compete in any of the races.

Feature race winner:  Harold Roller of Abilene, Kansas who was driving his own Dodge special

 

September 28, 1922 – ½ mile dirt oval – City Park in Abilene, Kansas

            Car:  Schwendener’s own Ford special

Finish:  Schwendener did not place in his heat race.  Having suffered a broken left arm in an accident just 3-days earlier, it is doubtful that he even started this race.

  Albert Jouquin “Al” Koepke of Topeka, Kansas drove Schwendener’s Ford special and finished in 2nd place in the 10-mile feature race finishing behind Harold Roller of Abilene, Kansas who was driving his own Dodge special.

Feature race winner:  Harold Roller of Abilene, Kansas who was driving his own Dodge special

 

October 5, 1922 – ½ mile dirt oval – City Park in Council Grove, Kansas

            Car:  Still suffering from a broken arm, Schwendener entered his own Ford special to be driven by Glenn Royer of Council Grove, Kansas

Finish:  Royer ran a 2-lap time trial of 1:12.2 which was 7th fastest of the 10 cars that ran time trials.  The fastest time was 1:07.2 run by Harold Roller of Abilene who was driving his own Dodge special.

 Royer was involved in what was reported to be the “biggest pileup” and the “nastiest spill” in the history of this racetrack when the cars driven by Archie Bane and George Drashner hooked wheels on the second lap and skidded to a stop on the racetrack.  The cars driven by Royer, Hugo Haucke and James “Toots” Higgins then crashed into those two cars.  Higgins and Haucke received minor cuts and bruises.  Four of the cars were heavily damaged with a fifth, the Essex driven by Higgins, suffering a bent axel.  None of the 5 cars involved were able to compete in any more races that day.

 

Schwendener encountered a string of bad luck beginning on September 25, 1922 when he took his racing car out for a drive.  The Ford special bounced off of the road and into a ditch throwing Schwendener from the seat and fracturing his left arm.

 

Schwendener’s Ford special was damaged beyond repair in the 5-car pileup in the first heat race at Council Grove, Kansas on October 5, 1922.

 

Schwendener’s wife, Rubina (Thome) Schwendener, passed away on November 2, 1922 after a long illness and she was buried beside her mother in the Woodbine Cemetery at Woodbine, Kansas.

 

On Saturday, November 25, 1922, William Edward Beigel (1888-1968) of Wichita, Kansas, flew a Laird Swallow airplane to Enterprise, Kansas where he picked up Ted Schwendener and his business partner, John Wall.  The three men flew to Fort Riley, Kansas to “view some army airplanes with the intentions of selling them one of the airplanes.”  On the return trip to Enterprise, “the airplane flew very low over Chapman, Kansas and had then risen to an estimated altitude of 2,000 feet by the time it reached Enterprise.”  Instead of circling when about to descend, the pilot apparently tried to do a little showing off for his passengers.  “He shut the engine off and let the airplane go into a tail spin.  When he was ready to right the airplane, the engine failed to start.  The plane then changed ends and came down nose first.  At first, it descended slowly but, nearing the ground, it gained momentum.  The airframe struck squarely on a large timber which held the cinders that formed the platform around the Rock Island Railroad Depot” around 5 p.m.  Ted Schwendener was killed instantly.  John Wall lived for about two hours before expiring later that evening.  William Beigel survived the crash but sustained serious injuries including two broken legs, a fractured hip and several large bruises.  After receiving first-aid, Beigel was taken to a hospital in Abilene, Kansas for further treatment.

 

The joint funeral for Schwendener and Wall “was attended by more people than any funeral in the history of Enterprise” to that time.  Theodore H. “Ted” Schwemdener was laid to rest in the Mount Hope Cemetery at Enterprise.  His wife, Rubina (Thome) Schwendener (1895-1922), had passed away just 3 weeks before the airplane crash.  After Ted’s death, her body was moved to the Mount Hope Cemetery where it was buried next to his.

 

John Ernest Wall was buried in the Indian Hill Cemetery at Chapman, Kansas.

 

If you know anything more about Ted Schwendener, or his involvement in auto racing, please contact Bob Lawrence at: sprintguy @ cox.net

 

 

 

 

 Autograph signed in 1917

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank You

Reed Hoffman