In 1933, John Moir, Sr., bought himself a used car.

As Mr.

Moir was of the family that had owned the Chase & Sanborn coffee company, and sold it quite profitably to General Mills, this might seem an unusual acquisition.

It is true that he got a bargain, as his son later reflected, but in typical fashion for a man whose earlier road car had been a French Brasier, it was no usual automobile.

It was the finest America had to offer: a Cadillac V-16 roadster, seating two passengers behind its 452-cu.

in.

powerplant on a 152-inch-wheelbase chassis.

The car had been local; its build sheet indicates delivery to the Fitzhenry Cadillac Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, with the notation “Tag Whittall.” The Whittall family owned all of the mills in that area of the Bay Store, and had the abundant funds needed to easily acquire a new V-16 roadster, likely the grandest automobile in Worcester—or, more likely Shrewsbury, where they had their “summer place,” the 100-acre spread known as Jun...