Preston Stephens and his wife, Dorothy, were married in 1939, then bought a farm near Frankford, Del., and eventually built a farmhouse and started a family. The couple were doing well by the early 1970s, but the daily demands of maintaining the family business had reached a point where help was needed to lighten the load.
In 1974, the Stephenses added an integral piece of machinery to the family’s Pear Tree farm. After years of raising crops on the family homestead and seeing annual growth, they realized it was time to add a practical pickup to handle loads of seeds and other farm-related supplies.
A dual-purpose Dodge
It had also become glaringly apparent in 1974 that Dorothy needed something larger to transport her wallpaper installation supplies and equipment. She struggled with the lack of space in her sedan, so she and Preston decided a well-cared-for used pickup truck would properly serve the farm and Dorothy’s wallpaper business. The couple purchased a Desert Turquoise 1970 Dodge D100 Adventurer pickup and devised a plan that allowed them to use the truck as a multi-purpose vehicle. For the next 16 years, the
