OHIO

Registration of motor vehicles was done on a local basis for the first several years, with Cleveland leading the way in 1902, and other cities following close behind.  The first state law, 1906 House Bill 157, was passed on April 2, 1906, and effective June 1, 1906, requiring automobile owners (but not motorcycles) to register with the Secretary of State, pay an annual fee, and display an annual state-issued disc and an owner-provided rear plate with 4-inch-tall numbers and the prefix letters "OH" in white on black, and 1-inch-tall headlight numbers.  (In this respect, plates would have resembled Indiana 1907-13 plates.)  This law was considered to be substantially a copy of the New York (1904) law.

Registrations were to expire one year from the date of issue.  Fees were $5 for automobiles up to 30 horsepower, plus an additional $3 for each increment of 10 horsepower above that (i.e. a total of $8 for vehicles up to 40 H.P., $11 up to 50 H.P., etc.).  Motorcycles were not included.  Dealers were to register one vehicle of each class of motive power dealt in at the regular rates, and could purchase additional seals for 50c each.  Non-residents were exempted as long as they were registered in their home jurisdiction and displayed their home license number.  Local ordinances regulating automobiles were prohibited.

This 1906 law was declared invalid by the Ohio Attorney General on May 5, 1906, and was ultimately found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on November 19, 1907.  Therefore, no registrations were ever issued under this law, and the state had to wait for the outcome before proceeding with drafting a new bill.  City registrations and plates continued through the end of 1908, although there was at least one hiccup when Cleveland suspended issue on April 10, 1906, before resuming later.

Ohio's first successful state law was 1908 Senate Bill 425, passed on May 9, 1908, and effective June 10, 1908.  This law required automobile owners (but again, not motorcycles) to register with the Secretary of State, pay an annual flat fee of $5 for gasoline and steam vehicles or $3 for electric vehicles, and display a pair of state-issued plates.  No discs or headlight numbers were mentioned, but the law was very specific that the plates were to be white on blue.  The registration year was not specified, nor were the first license plates dated, but registrations were valid for one year from date of issue.  Non-residents were exempted as in 1906.  Dealers were to register one vehicle from each class of motive power, at an annual fee of $10.  For an additional $2 each, dealers could obtain a certified copy of the original registration certificate to use for additional vehicles.  Interestingly, this law repealed the 1906 law.

Owners who had already purchased a city license for 1908 prior to June 10, 1908, were exempted from this law until January 1, 1909, but some owners opted to register with the state in 1908 anyway in order to obtain a lower number.  But the new law did not specifically ban local registration beyond January 1, 1909, either, so some cities, such as Columbus, continued to issue city tags in 1909.  This loophole was fixed for 1910.

The Columbus Dispatch reported on May 20, 1908, that the Secretary of State planned to award the plate contract that evening to Charles H. Gerrish (also listed in other reports as Gerish and Garish) and Lewis W. Boyer, of Columbus, the lowest bidders.  The Dispatch stated the following on June 12, 1908:  "The contract for making the tags, which was originally given to Charles Garish and L. W. Boyer, has been taken from these gentlemen and given to Ingham, Richards & Co. of Chicago, of whom the Hiss Stamp company of Columbus is the local agent.  At the office of the secretary of state Friday it was stated that the change was made partly on account of the ability of the new company to get the tags out on time, and partly on account of the superiority of their tags, as shown by the opinion of Professor Edward Orton of the ceramics department [at OSU]...The first shipment of tags on this contract is to be made Saturday."  25,000 plates were ordered from Hiss Stamp Works on June 10, 1908.  Several decades ago, a group of discarded 1908-style plates was found, all with numbers below #100 and with an oval "O" state monogram instead of the round "O" monogram on all other issues.  It is unknown if these were the initial Gerrish and Boyer plates or not.  Since the state could not provide plates on schedule, a letter was issued to each paid owner stating that a temporary plate could be made up and used by the owner up to 30 days from the date of the letter, which could be presented to any law enforcement officer until the delayed plates arrived.

#23000 was issued on December 11, 1909, and the highest number listed in the state's ledger book was #23003 on December 17, 1909.  The highest known 1908-09 plate is #23234.  Numbers issued by calendar year are as follows:

      1908       1 - 11026    (11,026)

      1909   11027 -(23234)   (12,208)

The next state law was 1909 Senate Bill 38, passed on March 12, 1909, and effective January 1, 1910, which made several amendments to the 1908 law.  Registration was still annual and the fees were the same, but the registration year was now clearly defined as January 1 to December 31, and license plates were now to be issued annually in different colors, not just blue.  All registrations issued after March 12, 1909, were to expire on December 31, 1909, and registrations issued before March 12 would expire one year from the date of issue.  This means that some 1908-09 plates could have remained valid as late as March 12, 1910.  Owners were not allowed to reserve the same number they had in 1908-09 for 1910, but exceptions were made at least for #1 and 57, and the rule was changed for 1911.  The highest plate number issued in 1910 was #32941, issued on December 17, and the highest known 1910 plate is #32864.

Dealers could now obtain an additional pair of same-number plates along with the certified copy of the original registration certificate for each $2 extra fee, not just the certified copy.  So from 1910 through 1915, dealers were merely issued as many additional duplicates of their passenger number as they ordered.  Actual Dealer plates began in 1916 with a "D" prefix, with #D2457 known.

Motorcycles remained unregistered by the state until 1914.  Cities which had registered motorcycles under their automobile ordinances prior to 1909 continued to license motorcycles after that date, and some cities which had not had ordinances now passed them during the 1909-13 period as motorcycles became more and more common.  City registration of motorcycles ended in early 1914, after some cities had already issued their 1914 tags. More details on known local motorcycle registration can be found on both the Ohio Prestate Local and Motorcycle pages.

1913 House Bill #549, passed on April 28, 1913, and effective January 1, 1914, made several amendments to the previous motor vehicle law, the most significant being the introduction of a registration provision for motorcycles.  The annual motorcycle fee was set at $3, with half rates in effect after September 1 of each year.  But the raising of all other fees across the board led to litigation and ultimately the declaration of parts of this law to be unconstitutional by the Court of Appeals.  Therefore, registration of all vehicles for 1914 was delayed, and 1913 plates continued to be used until the situation was resolved.  In at least one case (Columbus), cities issued identification tags for 1914 for those newly registering cars for the first time.

1914 House Bill #55 was passed on February 16, 1914, and effective March 9, 1914, rolling most motor vehicle fees back to previous levels and setting the motorcycle fee at $2.  This law allowed registration to otherwise continue as provided for under the 1913 law for automobiles, and allowed motorcycle registration to begin.  State-issued motorcycle plates began in pairs in 1914.  There were 20,654 motorcycles registered in 1914, and the highest known 1914 motorcycle plate is #19781.