Luella Bates

{{Short description|American woman truck driver (1897–1985)}}

File:Luella Bates driving a Model B, FWD truck, promotional photo.jpg

Luella Bates (b. Luella Born, October 17, 1897 – d. Luella Coates, November 25, 1985) is believed to be the first licensed woman truck driver. File:Luella Bates standing next to h.er truck. Taken in Clintonville, WI circa 1919.jpg truck.|Bates standing next to her FWD model B truck circa 1919.]]

Luella Bates was the first of six female employees of the Four Wheel Drive Auto Co.{{cite news |title=Can a Girl Be As Good a Mechanic As a Man Is Question |newspaper=Monongahela Pennsylvania Daily Republican |date=June 30, 1920 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/1261324/luella_bates_pioneer_truck_driver/ |via = Newspapers.com}} {{Open access}} chosen as test and demonstration drivers and worked as an FWD truck driver from 1918 to 1922.{{cite book |last1=Karolevitz |first1=Robert |title=This was Trucking: A Pictorial History of the first quarter century of the trucking industry |url=https://archive.org/details/thiswastruckingp00karo |url-access=registration |date=1966 |publisher=Superior Publishing Company |location=Seattle |isbn=0-87564-524-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/thiswastruckingp00karo/page/43 43]}} During World War I she was a test driver traveling throughout the state of Wisconsin in a Model B truck. After the war, when the majority of the women working at Four Wheel Drive were let go, she remained as a demonstrator and driver. File:Luella Bates driving a Model B, FWD truck, unloading sand.jpg

In January 1920, Bates drove a Model B to New York City, where she attended the New York Auto Show.{{cite web |url=http://www.dot.gov/womenandgirls/timeline/accessible |title=Timeline of Women in Transportation History |publisher=United States Department of Transportation |access-date=November 7, 2014}}The Four Wheel Drive Story: A Chapter in Cooperative Enterprise by Howard William Troyer (1954){Karolevitz|page=98}New York Evening Post (January 8, 1920) During her stay, she met with Secretary of State of New York Francis Hugo and became the first woman truck driver to receive a driver's license in New York.Clintonville Tribune (1918-1922) File:Luella Bates shaking hands with Francis Huge, Sec. of State of New York in the Bronx, NY, New York Auto show January 8, 1920.jpg

Bates was such a hit in New York that Four Wheel Drive decided to utilize her skills even further. In 1920, they sent her on three transcontinental tours throughout the United States. The advertising scheme introduced the idea that the FWD truck was easy to steer, as evidenced by a woman driver. During her first tour, she represented Francis Hugo's Safety First Campaign.

She toured approximately 25 towns, beginning in Kansas City, Missouri, and finishing in Belefontaine, Ohio. While in Erie, Pennsylvania, she flew over the city in an "earoplane" and saturated Erie with information about the Four Wheel Drive Company and its vehicles. In May 1920, Popular Science magazine referred to her as "exhibit A for feminine efficiency."{{cite journal |date=May 1920 |title=She's a Truck-Driver |journal=Popular Science |page=37 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OSoDAAAAMBAJ&dq=popular+science+may+1920&pg=PA21}} File:Luella Bates driving a truck in Clintonville, WI. Provided by the Four Wheel Drive Museum, Clintonville, WI.jpg

She returned to Clintonville, Wisconsin, in late July 1920. She began her next tour within the month, traveling to state fairs throughout the eastern United States. In September, she drove her truck loaded with coal through the streets of Utica, New York.Utica New York Morning Telegram (September 27, 1920) Both an expert driver and a mechanic, Bates was more than capable of completing all maintenance on her truck.File:Luella Bates doing maintenance on a Model B, FWD truck.jpg

During her final tour of 1920, Bates took the southern states by storm. She was now known as "our girl driver."{{Cite web |url=http://memory.infosoup.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15134coll4/id/274 |title=Some Movers and Shakers of Clintonville and Points North, edited by Jane K. Billings, (1997) |access-date=2012-05-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141107110706/http://memory.infosoup.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15134coll4/id/274 |archive-date=2014-11-07 |url-status=dead }} In Oklahoma, she defied the police and took her truck across a flooded road, hauling meat for a packaging plant. This courageous venture led to the sale of ten trucks for Four Wheel Drive and much admiration for Bates. For the next two years, Bates traveled as a demonstrator, both locally and throughout the United States, demonstrating the Model B truck and the newly developed fire trucks. File:Luella Bates driving an FWD fire truck in Clintonville, WI.jpg

In early December 1922, Bates moved to Milwaukee, later marrying Howard Coates and having two sons. Her descendants include one granddaughter and three great-grandchildren, one of whom is actress Ashley Hinshaw.

Luella Bates has been included in several books about the Four Wheel Drive company, the history of trucking and the history of Clintonville, Wisconsin.

As once we were: A pictorial history of Clintonville, Wisconsin. Robert and Jane Billings. (one photo where Luella is listed.) During the infancy of the trucking industry, she played an important role in the history of women in trucking.