Author: Deb Tracy

The Stearns Automobile was THE performance car during the first decade of the 1900s and was piloted by the likes of Barney Oldfield as it was used to rack up wins in speed, endurance and hill-climbing competitions.

However, there was another driver setting records in a Stearns; a woman by the name of Kathryn Otis.  In 1908, Otis lived in Cleveland and was the wife of a millionaire named Kenneth Otis.  In July of 1908, a week after winning a hill-climbing contest in her Stearns Four, she set out to break the record for driving from Cleveland to Buffalo.  She was well-equipped with the Stearns, powered by a massive 536-ci 60-hp T-head engine, and a terrific memory; Otis was said to have the ability to remember all the twists and turns of a route after being taken over it one time.  She opted to make the trek on a Monday because farmers filled the roads with market wagons on most other days of the week.  She also carried two big revolvers that she reportedly slammed down before the clerk at the Lafayette Hotel while remarking, “I guess they won’t hold me up when I carry these.”

The Cleveland to Buffalo trip was 204 miles, and Stearns reached speeds of 60 mph over what must have been wretched dirt roads.  In addition to the timing of the trip and the weapons to deal with highwaymen, Otis did one more smart thing to prepare for her trip.  She announced her route ahead of time and then took a different route with worse roads, but no constables, because all of the lawmen were posted along the route she had made public.

When the dust settled, Otis rolled into Boston with a new record of six hours and 10 minutes, beating the previous record by 26 minutes. When one reporter asked if she had been scared, she replied, “Scared! Why, it was perfectly glorious!”

The following September she attempted to break the Cleveland-Toledo record but fell short by five minutes. In February of 1909, during severe weather, she set what was described as a women’s endurance record by making the trip from New York to Boston and back during severe and snowy weather.  As a matter of fact, her trusty Stearns was the only vehicle that had passed over the roads since the snowfall. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported: “Every kind of rough going was encountered.  At many points on the route Mrs. Otis had to plow through mud with treacherous holes, slush and ice, snow that seemed impenetrable and ruts that menaced the plucky driver at many points.”

Outside of Boston, she was arrested for violating an ordinance prohibiting the use of skidding chains on the Metropolitan Parkway at Watertown.  She was finally allowed to make bail and barely missed having to spend the night in jail.  She paid her fine at 10 o’clock the next morning and headed back to New York where she was greeted with great fanfare.

I don’t know when she tired of competing as I couldn’t find any mention of her beyond 1921.  That was the year she was charged with smuggling liquor.  At the time she was living in Montreal but had a summer home at Rouse’s Point in New York. It was alleged that customs officials found “a large quantity of liquor in the seat which Mrs. Otis occupied in the Pullman Car.” Bail was set at $500 on this occasion.  I am not sure whether the aforementioned Pullman Car is referring to the train or the automobile by the same name. Either way, her mistake was not driving herself. She should have just backed the old Stearns out of the garage, loaded it up with booze and outran the coppers.

Sources:

“A Woman Breaks Motor Record.” The Hutchinson Gazette, 4 Aug 1908, p. 2.

“Cleveland Woman Makes Fast Time Between That City and Toledo, Ohio.” Los Angeles Express, 26 Sept 1908, p. 10.

“Found Liquor in Car.” The Montreal Gazette, 12 March 1921, p. 62.

“Mrs. Kenneth R. Otis on Her Two-Day Boston Run.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 7 Feb 1909, p. 11.

“Mrs. Otis – She Smashes Auto Records At 60 Miles an Hour.” The Sacramento Star, 21 July 1908, p. 6.

“Woman Driver Coming.” Los Angeles Sunday Times, 20 Sept 1908, p. 2.

“Woman Driver Fools Country Constables.” The Fort Worth Telegram, 11 Oct 1908, p. 21.

“Woman Sets New Record.” The Buffalo Express, 14 July 1908, p. 7.