1912 S.G.V. History

The Early Years

In 1911, Charles Doering married Mary Jackson of Cowichan, B.C. Charles was a wealthy brewery owner and Mary was the owner of Fairburn Farm. For several years prior, Mary had run the 80 acre farm on her own after the death of her first husband. By all accounts, she was a capable farmer with a large herd of Jersey cows. After her marriage to Charles Doering, the farm was expanded to 1200 acres and developed as a hunting lodge catering to high society. As well, it continued as a major supplier of dairy products for southern Vancouver Island.

On their honeymoon, Charles and Mary travelled to San Francisco to take possession of the new car Charles had purchased for his new bride - a 1912 S.G.V. touring car. Apparently, the couple drove the car home!

S.G.V. cars were built by the ACME Motor Car Co. in Reading, Pennsylvania, from 1911 to 1915. For the first year or two, they carried the ACME name, before taking on the S.G.V. initials, which stand for Sternberg, Graham, and Van Tine. Mr. Graham was the company's San Francisco sales rep and was probably connected in some way to Mr. Doering, perhaps through business. From the start, ACME's goal was to build a high quality luxury car, inspired by the Italian Lancia. Indeed, Mr. Van Tine was an engineer who had had experience working with Lancia cars. Perhaps it was no coincidence that the four cylinder S.G.V. motors shared some features with the Italian model. In 1913, the car featured a 4 speed electric shift. It was a feature that didn't seem to catch on and problems with it may have contributed to the S.G.V.'s demise two years later.

The 1912 S.G.V. had a four cylinder engine with magneto ignition, pressure feed lubrication, aluminum block, and four speed transmission.

After 35 years on the farm, the S.G.V. ended up at the junkyard, to be scrapped. It was still wearing its 1923 plates.

For several years Mrs. Doering was often seen travelling to Cowichan Station in her 1912 S.G.V., usually driven by one of the farm employees. The car was in regular use until 1923, when it was parked in a shed on the farm. Charles Doering died in 1927 but Mary continued to run the farm for many years, with the assistance of a manager. The S.G.V. sat in the shed until Mary's death in 1948. At that time the farm was put up for sale and most of the farm equipment was sent to the junkyard. Eventually, the property was acquired by the MacMillan Bloedel Company, but not before the S.G.V. ended up at Fleming's Auto Wrecking on Lake Cowichan Road.