The Troubled Story of Elmer Powers and the Midway Garage

The Capital Trail Garage, formerly
Elmer Powers' Midway Garage

A few years back I wrote a post about the Capital Trail Garage, operated by Robert E. McFarlin (and
Wilmer E. Sharpe) from 1931 until about 1940. There was precious little information about it at the time, except for a few basic facts, a few educated guesses, and some wonderful photographs provided by Mr. McFarlin's daughter. Among the many points on which I could only speculate was whether McFarlin built the garage himself or whether he moved into an existing business. I've now uncovered new information that not only answers that question, but also tells the tragic tale of a young man who was associated with the business prior to McFarlin's arrival.

It turns out that there was indeed an existing establishment that Robert McFarlin took over in 1931 -- the Midway Garage. Located in the western outskirts of Marshallton on the south side of Old Capitol Trail (then, at various times, referred to as "Capital Trail", the "Capitol Trail", "the Lincoln Highway", or "the road from Marshallton to Newark"), the Midway Garage sat on land purchased in 1909 by Benjamin C. Hollett. The details of the founding of the business are unclear, but I've seen what I believe is a reference to it in late 1922, and definitely in early 1924. Most of the early mentions of the name in the newspaper are in classified ads listing cars for sale. Maybe someone else knows more about this sort of thing going on at the time, but it looks like they probably bought, fixed, and resold cars.

The Wilmington Morning News Annual Directory, published on June 17, 1924, gives us our first look at the name of the operator at the time -- George C. Hinrichs, a 42 year old, recently naturalized German immigrant who had arrived in the U.S. in 1897. [Edit: I did later find a June 1923 story about how Hinrichs had his arm broken while cranking the car of a "girl driver" (their words, not mine), who left his garage without paying.] Hinrichs left Marshallton a few years later and for about 20 years ran a service station at Dupont Highway and Basin Road. In March 1926, Midway Garage was included in a large advertisement listing all the locations that would be selling AMOCO products, although the proprietor is not named. Interestingly, there are four service stations listed in Marshallton alone (Midway, M. Bennett, Highway Garage, and Mullin's Service Station). There are only eight shown for Wilmington, and only fourteen others for what seems to be the rest of New Castle County. 

March 1926 ad noting the Midway Garage sells AMOCO-GAS

Ironically, the other series of notices I found mentioning the Midway Garage were in February 1925, asking for the return of a lost German police dog named Prince. The fact that it was a police dog is ironic because the next proprietor of the shop I could find was a young man named Elmer C. Powers, who would have more than one interaction with the police. I don't know exactly when Powers began running the garage, but the then 24 year old seems to have been there by 1930. There is a one year lease dated October 31, 1930 between himself (as proprietor of the Midway Garage) and the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (now Exxon). Since it's clear he was still running the garage in 1931, I assume the lease was essentially for him to sell Standard Oil gasoline. Elmer Powers' life would look very different before this lease expired.

The first sign of trouble had come in late 1928, when Powers was arrested and convicted of stealing a portable phonograph in Wilmington, for which he was sentenced to 6 months in jail. The next incident came on July 11, 1931, when Powers ended up in the hospital after being taken out of the overturned car he wrecked somewhere on the Lincoln Highway. He was arrested after being discharged because, (A) he was intoxicated at the time of the wreck, and (B) the car was not his. Turns out he had the car of Mrs. Florence M. Ware in his shop for repairs, and instead of repairing it he drove it to Wilmington, got drunk, and drove it (most of the way) home. Initially he was going to get off easy except for agreeing to repair the car, but when after three weeks it was still not done, Powers was fined and had his license revoked.

That incident was barely behind him when the next week he was again arrested (August 19), this time for breaking into another garage in Stanton and stealing several items. Powers was nabbed along with running mates Samuel Kauffman, George Taylor, and Harry Gregg. Barely more than another week later, on August 27, the four young men would again find themselves under arrest, this time for the more serious charge of arson.

Powers is arrested - 8/27/1931

The men were charged with setting two fires earlier in the year -- the February 24 blaze that destroyed what was left of the Kiamensi Woolen Mill and an April 3 Good Friday fire at the Simpson A.M.E. Church in Belvidere. In the later fire, Five Points Fire Company President William H. Foster was killed and two other fire fighters were injured. Powers was arrested by Private Charles L. Jones of the county police force. Jones also happened to be the chief of the Elsmere Fire Company, and had seen Powers acting suspiciously at a fire at the Diamond State Fibre Company in Elsmere the previous October. That fire was believed to have been arson, but was never solved.

Powers is convicted - 10/5/1931

In the end, Powers, Taylor, and Kauffman were all convicted in the Kiamensi Mills case, although Kauffman got off with only parole because he cooperated with authorities. Powers, Taylor, and Gregg were acquitted in the Simpson Church case. Elmer Powers was sentenced to the maximum seven year sentence, to be served at the New Castle County Workhouse at Greenbank. He was paroled in 1935, after serving less than four years of his seven year sentence.

Powers probably moved out of the area at that point, and appears in Salem, NJ in the 1940 Census (his WWII draft card lists a Philadelphia address in 1940). Sadly it doesn't seem as if he cleaned his life up much, as Powers was arrested several times in New Jersey in the late 30's and early 40's, including for desertion and non-support of his wife and six children. Yes, apparently he had married in 1929 and had a family while all this was going on, although it was never once mentioned in any article about him.

Besides being an interesting and sad tale, the story of Elmer Powers' misdeeds provides a bit of context for the arrival of Robert McFarlin at the Midway (renamed Capital Trail) Garage. In the Capital Trail Garage post, there was an ad from the Newark Post dated September 17, 1931, announcing the opening of McFarlin's business. This would have been after Elmer Powers had been arrested on the arson charges, but before he was convicted. Obviously he was not able to continue operating the garage, and Benjamin Hollett (remember, he owned the property and presumably leased the space for the business) needed a new tenant.

I found very little about the service station after this time frame, other than that it seemed to be the gathering and starting place for parades into Marshallton, such as for the Mill Creek Fire Company's carnivals. I still feel that the garage probably closed around 1940 when it and the rest of Marshallton was bypassed by the newly-constructed Kirkwood Highway, and that McFarlin was likely the last proprietor. And as for Elmer Powers, I tell his story not to denigrate or shame him or his family, but rather to add back another piece of the historical puzzle of Marshallton and surrounding area. His story not only touches on several historical sites, but also shows once again that The Past was not always the simple, happy time for everyone that sometimes we'd like to think it was.