Nearly a hundred years ago, in the early 1930’s, Floyd native, Major Lee Sweeney, was a blacksmith by trade. But the world was changing. Though the motor vehicle had been invented nearly fifty years earlier, the 1920’s and 1930’s was the era in which cars were just starting to become mainstream. Where other pre-industrial tradesmen may have faded into the shadows cast by progress, Mr. Sweeney saw an opportunity. Instead of letting the times pass him by, he decided to grab advancement by the coattails with an entrepreneurial spirit so strong that it’s lasted for generations!
With great foresight, Major Lee Sweeney opened a garage in Floyd County, and has gone down in history as the man who worked on the very first car to have ever broken down on the road between Roanoke and Floyd! In addition to taking part in automotive history, Mr. Sweeney also found himself taking part in another cultural phenomenon of the era. The 1930’s and 1940’s were famous for moonshine and bootlegging in Appalachia! Bootleggers needed fast and agile vehicles to escape the law, and Major Lee Sweeney worked with several of these romanticized bootleggers to make their cars capable of staying ahead of the hot pursuit. Continue reading
