The entrepreneur who brought the 1st cars, electricity & jobs to Leitrim | Season 2 – Episode 79
Wheels Nov 16, 2022
Caleb Shera Laird AKA CS of Drumshanbo, County Leitrim was a real entrepreneur starting his career continuing to run the family business selling tea, sugar, tea and weighing out small quantities of snuff. But he had much greater ambitions setting up new businesses and one of the first electricity generators which provided a supply for public use.
In Irish automotive circles he is most famous for buying the first motorcar in Leitrim and one of the first to arrive in Ireland. He obviously loved his cars as he bought a second French Darracq motor a few years later, set up a car business and his son was a famous rally driver in the ’50s. CS acquired his first car in 1902 a Wolseley which had the distinctive registration number ‘IT 1’.
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It was a Wolseley, with its Irish connections through Carlow born founder Frederick York Wolseley, they were not any old cars as they had the highest of reputations. Authoritive automotive sources describe the Wolseley machines as having “earned golden opinions for their power, simplicity, and freedom from breakdown, while almost alone among motor cars constructed by makers of repute.”
The Laird Wolseley was a 10 horse power model with a four-speed gearbox with final drive by side chains. It had a rear-entrance Tonneau (open top) body. It was subsequently owned by Denis Lucey who set up one of the first transport museums in Ireland in Kerry. Caleb Laird’s second car has an equally interesting Irish automotive back story and was first registered as IT 7 in Leitrim. Laird bought the French origin Darraqh car from motor dealers Huttons of Summerhill, Dublin who we have mentioned in a previous post. They were one of Ireland’s most famous coach builders the work included the Irish state coach for Queen Victoria.
The Laird Darracq is a 12 horsepower four seater also in a rear-entrance Tonneau body. In 1903 the Darracq company cars were so popular there was a waiting list of several months and by 1904 Darracq produced 10% of output of the entire French motor industry. It is reported that when Laird was picking up the Darracq in Dublin he accomplished the 100 mile drive home in just five hours, even after stopping to mend a puncture.
A contemporary photograph, shows Caleb Laird, with his family and his dog, at the wheel of this car. The Darracq languished in a scrap yard from 1908 until the late 1950s when it was discovered by well-known Irish veteran car enthusiast, William Montgomery of County Antrim. On his wider business role CS after taking over management of the family business quickly purchased a nearby water driven mill. That enterprise was soon sawing timber, grinding corn and eventually generating electricity. It was doing this in 1929 nearly 26 years before the ESB Rural Electrification Scheme.
In the mid ‘30s Laird set up a jam factory which created a large volume of freight trade. With his interest in trains he was happy to support the local narrow gauge railway. He was also interested in boosting barge traffic on the local canal so Laird’s firm operated barges which brought flour up the River Shannon from Limerick, and on the return journey brought coal from the local Arigna mines.
In the late thirties, Laird built a garage and petrol-filling station and he had an agency for Bedford trucks and Austin cars, later to be replaced by Morris cars. The garage business did not prosper during the war years (‘The Emergency’ in the Irish Free State, 1939-45) due to severe petrol/ diesel rationing. But once the war was over and rationing decreased, the garage business began to boom. A larger garage was built and the Vauxhall car agency was acquired. This love for autos was strong in the genes as his son Raymond became a successful rally driver in the ‘50s. That is a story for another day which we will pursue!
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We understand the Laird Wolseley has been sparingly used in recent years but did take part in the inaugural Pioneer Run for veteran cars held in Dublin in 2005. It was sold off via Bonhams in the 2007 as part of the dispersal sale of the Kerry based Denis Lucey collection for the significant price of €183,425 (£161,000). In more modern times the Laird Darracq is said to be in remarkably condition and has been raced in vintage rallies. It was sold also at Bonhams in the 2009 for the not small sum of €81,914 (£71,900).
CS Laird contributed to the development and the many facets of Irish transport it is hard to think of another like him in Irish history.
Do you have an Irish transport story past or present you would like us to feature? Email Kevin Reid [email protected]
Sources of information
Bonhams.com
Esbarchives.ie
Leitrimdoc.ie
Treasuredcars.com
