Car club seeks sign missing from site of historic crash on Route 30 in Somerset County

July 2, 1932, was the beginning of the end for an automobile industry legend.

On that day, Frederick Duesenberg, a German immigrant who helped to create the same-named line of early 20th century luxury cars, was involved in a wreck along the Lincoln Highway — modern Route 30 — in Somerset County. It resulted in a trip to the hospital from which the 55-year-old Indianapolis man never returned.

Sixty-seven years later, the Latrobe-based Western Pennsylvania Region, Antique Automobile Club of America installed a plaque near the site of the crash – about four miles west of Jennerstown – to honor Duesenberg and to keep knowledge of the tragic event alive.

That roadside sign now has gone missing. The club has issued a plea for help in finding it.

“Over the years, on several occasions, the sign was knocked down and was re-erected by region club members,” said Mars-area club member Alan Terek.

In October, it apparently was knocked down again. But this time, Terek said, the club has been unable to determine the plaque’s whereabouts.

“We’ve checked with local and state road department workers to see if they had the plaque, but to no avail,” he said.

Terek said an unspecified reward is being offered for the return of the cast metal plaque, which is white with black lettering. “No questions asked,” he said.

According to an article by Elisabeth M. Marsh, published by the German Historical Institute and posted on immigrantentrepreneurship.org, after his father died, Duesenberg’s family immigrated to Iowa in 1885.

Early in his career, Fred Duesenberg went from repairing farming equipment to building, selling and racing bicycles. He worked in the first auto repair garage in Des Moines then opened his own garage with a partner.

After taking a correspondence course in mechanical drawing, he began designing his own automobiles, producing his first car with his younger brother, Augie, in 1905.

Working on more powerful engines, the brothers ended up in Indianapolis and created racing cars that won the Indianapolis 500 in 1924, 1925 and 1927. By the early 1930s, they also were producing customized luxury cars ranging in price up to $20,000. Hollywood stars who drove them included Clark Gable and Cary Grant.

The cars were produced in limited numbers. “The Duesenberg was a status symbol,” Terek said, noting many of the cars sell for more than $1 million today.

In early July 1932, Duesenberg was driving back to Indianapolis in a supercharged convertible owned by a customer in New York state when he wrecked just west of Jennerstown.

Ray Wotkowski, a retired middle school principal and antique car collector who lives in Sidman, Cambria County, has researched the wreck and the circumstances of Duesenberg’s death. Editor of the Keystone Packards club publication, he has made presentations and written about the crash.

According to Wotkowski, Duesenberg had picked up two college students who were hitchhiking and was descending the west side of Laurel Mountain when he reacted to an oncoming car that moved into his lane while passing another ascending vehicle.

The convertible spun out and crashed, throwing Duesenberg and one of the students from the car. Wotkowski learned the students were treated at a small hospital in Ligonier while Duesenberg was taken to a Johnstown hospital for treatment of more involved injuries – including multiple fractures.

“In a letter Fred wrote to his wife the day after the accident, he said the doctors expected him to be out of the hospital in three or four days,” Wotkowski said. Duesenberg developed pneumonia, a condition he’d battled multiple times before.

“There were no antibiotics back then,” Wotkowski said. “The many bouts with pneumonia diminished Fred’s ability to recover and his heart finally gave way at 7:35 a.m. on July 26.”

Anyone with information about the sign’s location is asked to contact Terek at alantere@zoominternet.net or 724-586-9489.