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Local history buffs and vintage auto enthusiasts made a long-awaited acquisition last week when an original Luverne Automobile arrived at the Rock County History Center on East Main Street.
The 1911 Luverne Thirty is one of only two known Luverne automobiles in existence, and one now resides — appropriately – in Luverne.
“I haven’t been able to sleep,” said Luverne’s Tanya Light. “I’ve been on a high. We’ve heard about this car. I’ve been trying to keep track of it, because I wanted to get it back in the Leicher family.”
Light is the great-granddaughter of Al Leicher, who with his brother Ed Leicher owned and operated the Luverne Automobile Co. from 1904 to 1917.
“It’s family history, and most of my older cousins and I played in the Luverne Fire Appartus,” she said. “We heard about it and saw pictures of the cars, and we knew there were only two — that we know of.”
She and several other community members have been in touch with Roy Bernick, 92, since he purchased the car several years ago from a Twin Cities collector.
Light was with Historical Society President Betty Mann when Bernick called Mann and said he would be willing to sell the car if Luverne wanted it.
“I just about fell off my chair,” Mann said. “Words can’t describe how very, very excited we were.”
Light asked Mann to let the Leicher great-grandchildren have the honor of bringing the car home. She contacted her cousins who pooled their resources to purchase it.
“They were glad to have the opportunity,” Light said, emphasizing that she and her cousins had the “easy” job.
“There were many, many people involved with this for a very long time. … If the Leicher family hadn’t done it, there were people who would have come forward. But we asked Betty to let the Leicher family do it. We have the connection to the car.”
In talking to her relatives, they decided the car should belong to the community. They would gift their money to the History Center to buy it.
“We knew it should stay in the Leicher family because of our memories, but when we’re gone, who will care?” Light said.
“Let’s just say it stays in the family and ends up with my son. He cares. But on down the line, then what? It might get stuck in a shed and get sold for $50. Who knows?”
She said the timing was right for getting the Luverne Automobile back in Luverne, since the History Center can now accommodate it, show it and keep it preserved.
“It belongs in Luverne,” she said. “It belongs in the History Center, where everyone can enjoy it — including the cousins. This way they can go and take their kids and grandchildren to see it.”
As the community’s historian, Mann said she’s grateful to have the car back in Luverne, and she is working with the Leicher great-grandchildren to plan a dedication next year.
“It came home to rest a block from where it was built,” Mann said.
Light and her cousins, Dan Anderson of Hills and Lynn Herrick of Worthington, were at the History Center when it arrived in Luverne Tuesday, Nov. 30, when Bernick and his mechanic delivered the Luverne Thirty.
“It’s where it belongs. It needed to come home and home is Luverne,” Light said. “Not just with the Leichers.”
Besides the History Center car, at least one complete and original 1915 Big Brown Luverne remains. The seven-passenger luxury touring car now belongs to a collector in Missouri. Light, with a gleam in her eye, hinted that it, too, could come home to Luverne.
“One could only dream for that,” She said.
The History Center and Leicher great-grandchildren will make a public announcement when they schedule the dedication, at which point they will share the complete story of how the Luverne Automobile found its way home.