In 1923, The Cinder Buggy, a novel based in the town of Danville Pa, was first published in serial form in the Saturday Evening Post.
A cinder buggy was a two-wheeled cart used in the iron industry to remove hot ashes or cinders from the furnaces. The novel begins with two mill owners, one well liked, but not a great businessman, and one that is a great businessman, but not well liked. The two become entangled in a feud over a woman, while set against the backdrop of mill life over two generations.
Garett stayed for several months in the town of Danville, as guest of William C. Frick . He spent his time visiting the residents and collecting stories about the towns history, to use as a backdrop in his next novel. According to later newspapers, Garrett stayed at the Montour House, and spent many afternoons on a rocking chair on the porch, with his old friend, local artist Benjamin Rhodes. (The Montour House was located across from the county courthouse, standing in what is today the bank parking lot)
The book, centered on the iron and steel industries, did not paint a pretty picture of Danville in its heyday, although locals of the time admit that Garrett did a decent study of the history of the mills and the economy of the area.
The Danville Morning News
January 22 1930
Those familiar with Danville's history, if willing to overlook a few facts, will recognize Danville's Industry barons, the Grove brothers & Thomas Beaver. The heroine of the story, like Abigail Geisinger, decides she must build a fine hospital for the town, but that is the only similarity between the real Mrs. Geisinger, and the Cinder Buggy's heroine.
The Miltonian
Feb 22 1923
Garet Garrett was a poplar American Journalist and Economist. He was a relentless critic of foreign ideologies he felt were creating a European Welfare State here in the United States.
He was executive editor for the New York Tribune, An editor of the New York Times Annalist, and a financial writer with the New York Times, Evening Post, and Wall Street Journal. Garett retired from newspaper work at age 38, and devoted himself to freelance writing. He published eight books between 1920 and 1932.
The Cinder Buggy has been called an epoch novel and an unforgettable masterpiece.
Google Books says "This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.".
The book is in the public domain and can be downloaded and read for free.
The Cinder Buggy was published in 1923 by E.P. Dutton
There were three books in the series: The Driver , The Cinder Buggy, & Satan's Bushel
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