This is the first story of a series focused on Korey Santor’s mission of building a functional replica of the 1913 Ford Model T school bus. The Westside Connect will report on each phase of Santor’s project in the future.
Located near the borderline of Stanislaus County is a town named Newman. The town, founded in 1888, is often associated with an area local residents refer to as “the West Side”.
While a rural town can be overlooked, Newman is home to one of the industrial innovations of the 20th century with the 1913 Ford Model T school bus. The invention, created by Frank Patchett, became the first motorized school bus in California in a time where the only transportation was by horse-drawn wagons…