Introduction
Joseph Robert “Bert” Mick was well known in Camden and South Jersey as an automobile dealer. With Hugh Morgan Hatch, he founded New Jersey Auto & Supply in 1908, a business which is still in existence today, under new ownership and in a different location. One of Camden’s first new car outlets, in 1908 N.J. Auto was the exclusive Camden County dealer for Buick, Cadillac, Hupmobile, and Ford autos, and later sold Pontiacs for a time. The dealership eventually settled in as a Buick dealership, and remained in business in Camden into the 1950s.
Bert Mick was the son of Gottlieb Mick and Mary Anna Bittner. Gottlieb Mick was a carriage builder working out of Mick’s Blacksmith Shop with his father Jacob Mick, on Whiskey Road, former name of Chapel Avenue in Merchantville, NJ. Bert Mick took this business into the automobile age. He lived in Merchantville at 62 Chapel Avenue, and maintained a garage under the name of J.R. Mick & Co. at 58–60–62 Chapel Avenue through at least 1911, and presumably sold Cadillacs at this location as well. By this time New Jersey Auto & Supply was up and running at Delaware Avenue and Market Street, near the Pennsylvania Railroad Ferry Terminal. They relocated to a building at Federal Street and Wright Avenue in Camden in February of 1942.
During the war years, his daughter, Mary Ann Mick served as an officer in the United States Army, the only woman from Merchantville to have that honor during World War II.
Joseph Robert Mick passed away on June 4, 1947. The Buick dealership was sold a few years later and became Masson Buick. Around 1980 Masson Buick moved to Cherry Hill NJ and was subsequently sold to the Classic Auto Group owned by Thomas J. Hessert Jr. The Buick dealership is still operating under the name Classic Buick at that location today, 95 years after the original dealership was founded.
1915 Patriotic Order of Sons of America Program Advertisement
J.R. Mick – Hugh Morgan Hatch
Auto Dealer Here Wins Essay Prize
Camden Courier-Post —
Contest Sponsored by Fisher Body Corp. Won by J. R. Mick
J. R. Mick, president of the New Jersey Automobile and Supply Co. of this city, won first prize in the Philadelphia-Camden zone, in an essay contest sponsored by the Fisher Body Corporation. The Philadelphia-Camden zone includes Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
“How Body by Fisher Has Helped Me Sell Motor Cars,” was the title of the contest. Mick’s essay follows:
“Body by Fisher is an invaluable asset to every salesman identified with merchandising of General Motors cars, which are equipped with Fisher bodies. Fisher bodies are an asset of decided value from the selling point.
“For more than 31 years America has known the name of Fisher as a symbol and guarantee of the finest coach work that ever graced a motor car. America has seen the name sponsor all of the most significant improvements in body design and construction.
“Today the name of the Fisher Body Corp. is held in highest esteem and the Napoleonic Coach emblem of Fisher unquestionably accepted as an emblem of outstanding excellence. There are two reasons why this is a valuable sales asset.
“First, bodies by Fisher are of distinctly superior quality. They are as fine as experience, scientific and artistic design, the best of materials, the most skillful workmanship and unlimited manufacturing and financial resources can make them.
“Second, the Fisher Body Corp. has not only made volume production of fine bodies possible, but it has gone farther and introduced new, improved processes which make Fisher Bodies beyond any doubt the best bodies built today, either in Europe or America.”
N.J. Auto Supply Buick
New Jersey Auto Supply Buick advertisements.
N.J. Auto Supply Buick
Now In Our New Building
Wright Avenue and Federal Street, Camden
We have moved from our former quarters on Front street to a large, new and modern building with equipment for the servicing of every make of car.
We will always endeavor to provide the utmost in service.
Now Observing 31 Years in Camden
We Invite You to Visit Our New Sales and Service Departments
N.J. Auto Supply Buick at Federal Street
N.J. Auto Buick at Federal Street and Wright Avenue, February 2003. The Sears-Roebuck Building is visible in the background.