Jeff Beard’s passion for collecting is rooted in its connection to people and their stories in local history.

“I like the connection with maybe a certain individual, where it came from or how it was found. It’s part of the hobby, it’s part of the hunt. It’s what makes it interesting,” Beard said standing inside a sprawling building near Felton packed with antique cars, “trinkets and oil and gas paraphernalia.”

There are several Model T Fords, one a truck with a West York-made Martin-Parry truck body, a couple of Pullmans, 1909 and 1915 that were made in York, a 1932 Plymouth, a 1925 Rickenbacker, a 1955 Nash Metropolitan, a rare 1975 Cadillac Eldorado parade vehicle that likely came from the factory with a rumble seat and even a flying machine that two RCA engineers built in the late 1980s.

They all have a story and most of them are kept alive functioning as they did a century ago.

Surrounding the cars are random items in cases and hanging on walls that you would have thought were lost to history decades ago. There is even a showcase of items dedicated to Red Lion history.

“I was really young when I started collecting odds and ends and the liking of antique cars, probably second grade,” the 65-year-old began telling his story, adding, “I like local history, so anything York or York County built is a must have.”

The 1927 Model T Ford touring car that started Jeff Beard's car collecting after his grandfather gave it to him. The vehicle was bought new in Cardiff, Md. with Muskrat trapping money made when the Conowingo Dam basin first filled.

His car collection began when his grandfather gave him the remains of a 1927 Model T Ford touring car. He still has the shell, basically only a frame, wheels and an engine, sitting among the completely restored shining paint and brass of complete, running cars.

The 1927 was sold in Cardiff, Md., new for $425, and paid for with money made from trapping Muskrats. He has the original title. It was a good year for Muskrat hunting, Beard said, because it was around that time the new Conowingo Dam began flooding that portion of the Susquehanna River and the creatures were trying to escape the rising water.

Jeff Beard repurposed a door from the Red Lion borough building for his rest room after the borough remodeled.

“The older the car the better,” Beard said while folding up the hood of a 1909 Pullman Model K that he was conditioning the leather clutch with Neatsfoot oil. He prefers cars made from before World War I.

But other vehicles earn a place in his collection because they are part of local history. There is a 1932 Plymouth that was bought used by a local man as his first car and kept his entire life. Wearing a Pennsylvania inspection sticker from 1957, the car was handed over to Beard two years ago.

The nose of a Nash Metropolitan along side wooden spoke wheels of a Model T in Jeff Beard's collection.

There is a pink 1955 Nash Metropolitan that was driven to work in York by its last owner until the last inspection sticker ran out in 1968 during a turbulent time in the city’s history.

Leaning over a 1915 Pullman “Junior” Model 4-24 with the engine opened up and the cylinders exposed, Beard said that he plans on having the car back on the road after he sourced a new head gasket from a person in Canada. Joking, Beard said, “Autozone didn’t have one.” When asked why it failed he said, "It's 100 years old, it got tired.”

“It’s not impossible to find a needle in a haystack, you just have to find the right haystack,” Beard describes sourcing parts for 110-year-old cars. He says the Amish are a good source for custom made leather and cast metal parts. Their wheelwrights can rebuild the wheels with wooden spokes. Beard is also part of a volunteer mechanics crew at AACA Museum in Hershey using their extensive library to research antique car repairs where he describes himself there as “one of the young bloods.”

Jeff Beard holds an original oil can for York Pullman Automobiles.

The future is uncertain for collecting and maintaining living history.

“We are losing interest with generations now … kids today don’t seem to have an interest in collectables like we did or the mechanical hands on that we did. Some was trial and error, maybe risky what we tore into and did, but that’s how we learned."

For now, Jeff Beard is dedicated to preserving local history.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Neat Felton antique car collection began with a Model T bought with muskrat trapping money