Historic Laredo

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Proprietors William J. Sames and
James Moore pictured in front of
Sames, Moore, & Co., a wholesale
grocer, real estate brokerage, and
onion growing enterprise.
COURTESY OF HANK SAMES III
responsibility to keep it going and pass it on to
another generation.”
Sames represents the fourth generation of the
family in the auto business. His great-grandfather
William Sames was originally from
Connecticut and had gone to Cuba to sell life
insurance. When that venture proved unsuccessful,
William worked in Yucatan with archaeologist
Edward Thompson in the Chichen Itza
dig. Later, while in Monterrey, William developed
pneumonia, and was told to return to the
United States for his health. He arrived in
Laredo in the 1890s. He met his future wife
Virginia Wright, who ran the boarding house
where he stayed. William took a job with a
wholesale grocery owned by J. O. Nicholson,
and became friends with the man’s nephew
James Moore. The two young men eventually
bought the grocery, and it became the original
Sames Moore Company, a partnership that lasted
until 1925 and dealt in a wholesale grocery
business, brokerage, onion growing, and farm
and city real estate.
In 1910 Sames and Moore opened the Laredo
Auto Sales Company as another venture when
Ford began offering auto franchises. The
operation began with the purchase of three Ford
automobiles, which were sent unassembled by
train. “Basically, you got a freightful of cars and
assembled them yourself,” Hank Sames said.
The original three cars were sold from a grain
warehouse behind the Sames-Moore Wholesale
establishment.
The business expanded
over the years in Laredo as
the auto industry exploded
all across the country.
Laredo Auto Sales moved
to a new location downtown
across from the
Hamilton Hotel in 1914,
and opened a second location
and garage on Jarvis
Plaza. A newer location in
1919 followed on Houston
Street. The first cars in
Duval, Dimmit, Jim Hogg,
LaSalle, and Zapata
Counties were sold from
Laredo Auto Sales, with
dealerships later expanding
to Alice, Encinal, Hebbronville, and
Mirando City. Sales grew from less than a dozen
cars in 1910 to about five hundred in 1922 to
more than one thousand in 1926.
Presently, Sames Motor Company has four
dealerships in Laredo: Auto Plaza on San Dario
in North Laredo, the Calton Rd. location established
in 1985, the Loop 20 & Highway 83 location
established in 1992, and the Sames Honda
dealership, acquired in 1995 and relocated to
the current Honda site in 1997. “That was really
the first Honda store of that type in the country,”
Sames said. “It’s the new prototype.”
Sames noted that in 1998, Sames Motor
Company sold 2,500 new cars and 1,500 used
cars, the present level of a growth curve that
has seen an annual 30 to 40 percent increase in
the past four years. As for projected future
growth, “Well, we want to sell more, obviously,”
said Sames.
Sames has contributed to the community that
has supported the business through the establishment
in 1997 of the Ford “Salute to
Education” Scholarship Program in Laredo.
Thirty $500 scholarships were presented to
Laredo high school seniors the first year, 40 in
1998, and 50 will be awarded this year. “I’m
proud to be here,” Sames said.
Sames said his great-grandfather decided to
stay in Laredo because William Sames saw great
potential here. Hank Sames feels the same way.
“Our goal is to grow as Laredo grows. It’s not
going to stop for a while.”
36 ✦ HISTORIC LAREDO