The 1912 European Adventure of Mrs. G. H. Stewart and her sons of Shippensburg in their Cadillac

Mrs. George H.  Stewart and her sons Alexander and George, Jr.¹ left New York on May 30, 1912 aboard the Carpathia. It was the first trip the ship had made since rescuing the survivors from the Titanic in April.² The Stewart’s were on the first leg of what would be a 4,000-mile automobile trip through Great Britain and Europe in their Cadillac.

Interestingly, the Carlisle Sentinel published the Stewart’s itinerary for June and part of July.³ The Carpathia landed in Naples on June 18, and on the 19^th the Stewart’s picked up their car. The next day they took a boat to Capri and visited the Blue Grotto and then on to Pompeii. They motored the 150 miles from Naples to Rome where they spent several days. Then on to Florence, Venice and Milan. By July 4, they were in Stresa, a resort on the shores of Lake Maggiore, where they celebrated the day with ten Americans they’d met on the Carpathia.

The Stewart’s left Stresa at 9:30 on the morning of July 6^th and crossed the Italian frontier. They drove over the Simplon Pass (7,000 feet) and arrived at Zermatt where they encountered snow storms and extreme cold. They reported that their car had been performing “exceedingly well.”⁴ In a letter home to his relatives, George wrote “that the highest price he has paid for petrol, known as gasoline here, is 50 cents a gallon.” He said it is “part benzine and part dirty water,” but he said that the Cadillac engine used it as well as gasoline.⁵

In August, the Paris edition of the New York Herald ran the following item about the Stewart’s trip.

Mrs. George H. Stewart and her two sons have arrived at the Hotel du Mont Blanc, Chamonix, in their Cadillac automobile, from Martigny. Their automobile is (only) the fifteenth which has crossed the Forclaz⁶ and Tete-Noire passes in safety. The stunt of these tourists we understand kept their hearts in their throats all the time and was accomplished with honor to the driver George H. Stewart, Jr. and to the car he propelled.⁷

Where else they went in France, and whether they went to Great Britain is not known, but they arrived in New York aboard the Lusitania on September 13, 1912.⁸ After spending several days at the Bellvue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, they returned to Shippensburg on September 17.⁹

As well as regaling their family and friends with tales of their European adventures, in December, George, Jr., showed lantern slide views that he took in Switzerland to the ladies of Mrs. Stewart’s Tuesday Club.¹⁰