The fascinating history of American cars . . .one story at a time.
Author: Deb Tracy
I am a reformed attorney who has returned to my first loves, American history and classic cars. Raised in a family of automobile fanatics, my Dad is one of those guys who can look at a set of tail lights and tell you what car they belong to and follow that with a story about one he owned. Forget the “new car” smell, I love the smell of old cars and old garages. My husband (retired law enforcement and former U.S. Marine) and I turned our hobby into a business a few years ago and now happily deal in classic cars and their various parts. We live in rural Nebraska with our amazing teenage daughter and a houseful of border collies.
I obviously inherited my love for old dealership buildings from my parents, because they snapped this photo the other day while passing through the village of Wilsonville, Nebraska:
Above that amazing arched doorway it reads, J.B. Andre ’07”
I did a little research, and it looks like J. B. Andre moved to Wilsonville from Marshalltown, Iowa in 1903 and opened a blacksmith shop. This 1907 building would have been ideal for that, and you can almost see the carriages rolling in under that beautiful arch.
It wasn’t long before Andre became interested in automobiles. One 1908 story noted that Andre was driving a new Mitchell, which, by the way, made a grand total of five automobiles in town. By 1912, Andre was selling Mitchells. He then moved on to selling Oaklands, Briscoes and Maxwells. By 1930, Andre was a Mopar man, advertising Dodge Brothers trucks in the 1930s and new Plymouths and Chryslers into the 1950s:
Finally, Andre signed off on this interesting bit of history that was published November 1, 1929, just days after the great stock market crash:
This headline from 1910 caught my eye the other day:
The author of this story was expecting the two companies to start one of the greatest manufacturing wars ever seen, a war that would set the automobile world on end and “create sensations never before anticipated”. Maxwell did eventually become stiff competition for GM, but certainly not in the way the author of this headline was predicting it would happen. It all makes for an interesting story about the birth of one of the American auto industry’s “Big Three”.
The Maxwell-Briscoe automobile came into being when Jonathan D. Maxwell, who had worked for Oldsmobile as an engineer, combined forces with Benjamin Briscoe, owner of a Detroit sheet metal manufacturing plant. JP Morgan was an investor and the Maxwell-Briscoe became the third largest seller behind Ford and Buick. This success was due in part to an imaginative sales manager with the decidedly east-coast name of Cadwallader Washburn Kelsey who dreamed up an unending parade of publicity stunts.
The 1910 combine that was mentioned in the headline above became the United States Motor Company (USMC) and involved both Maxwell and a company called Columbia. Columbia was owned by the Electric Vehicle company. This was significant, and the reason some were forecasting war, because Electric Vehicle owned the Selden patent.
In the 1870s, attorney George Selden had begun the process of obtaining a patent covering the use of an engine to propel a vehicle, but Selden kept the patent pending so long that it was not granted until 1895. By this time, many others were creating automobiles and everything Selden claimed was already being used by others. Regardless, Columbia paid Selden for the rights to this patent for a lump sum plus a royalty for every car produced and claimed the patent covered every gasoline-powered automobile in the country.
Many major manufacturers formed a group called the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers (ALAM), an organization that granted licenses to manufacture automobiles to those paying the royalty fee. The ALAM made it clear that they would not be granting licenses to all applicants, thereby keeping all the business for themselves. The decision-makers at the ALAM made the strategic error of denying a license to the always-combative Henry Ford, and that’s when the real war began.
Ford taunted the ALAM into suing him. Ever the master of publicity, Ford successfully portrayed himself as the underdog and made people sympathetic to his position. Both sides took out pages of advertising to argue their case in the court of public opinion, and the actual court case drug on for years, beginning in 1903 and not ending until 1911.
The dueling advertisements often appeared side by side:
The ALAM won in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York with a judge that admittedly knew nothing about engines. Ford appealed and the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit saw things differently. The panel of judges ruled that the Selden patent was limited to the use of a Brayton engine to propel a vehicle whereas the defendants were utilizing the Otto engine, that Selden had simply made the wrong choice and that the defendants neither legally nor morally owed him anything. They sent the case back to the trial court to be dismissed and even ordered the court costs charged to the ALAM.
1919 Maxwell at the Classic Car Collection in Kearney, Nebraska.1919 Maxwell brochure drawing
The United States Motor Company collapsed a year after the suit in 1912, and Briscoe left to make a new car (the Briscoe). Jonathan Maxwell reorganized and moved to Detroit where he manufactured Maxwell Fours as well as trucks and buses. Things went well for a time, but the company was hit hard by the post-war recession. Enter Walter Percy Chrysler.
Chrysler had started his career in the railroad industry before catching the eye of GM executives. He went to work for GM in Detroit and was put in charge of the Buick division. He was an indefatigable worker who operated efficiently, making judicious use of his time. Before long, Chrysler made Buick into GM’s strongest unit. When he arrived, Buick was making 40 cars per day, and, when he left 8 years later, 560 Buicks per day was the output.
Chrysler made the move to Maxwell in 1920, and there were many problems for him to solve. A merger with Chalmers did not work out well, and the Chalmers automobile was phased out. The Maxwell’s reputation had suffered due to mechanical issues, so it was revamped and rebranded the “Good Maxwell”.
By 1924, Chrysler was ready to introduce a new car, one named after himself. The new Chrysler had a high-compression six-cylinder engine that cruised comfortably at 70 mph, hydraulic four-wheel brakes, and a reasonable price tag of $1395. It was an immediate hit with the public that shattered records with 10,000 new Chryslers being produced and sold within the first six months. People lining up to buy Chrysler’s creation included racecar drivers like Joe Boyer and Jimmy Murphy.
It is a household name now, but advertisements at the time had to instruct people how to pronounce the name of the new automobile:
1926 was the last year for the Maxwell as it was re-made into a 4-cylinder Chrysler.
In 1928, Chrysler continued his streak by purchasing Dodge Brothers and also introducing the Plymouth. So, the author of that 1910 story was sort of correct about Maxwell going to war with GM. It just took a number of years, a name change and the genius of Walter P. Chrysler to get there.
“Men who get very far ahead have some other qualities in addition to ordinary ability, capacity, energy and opportunity. Some are idea-resourceful. They possess imagination. They dare to take a chance and be different. They are willing to tackle anything. They refuse to acknowledge defeat until actually licked, and even then they are thinking about their next chance.”
-Walter P. Chrysler
Sources:
American Motor Car Manufacturers’ Association advertisement. Los Angeles Herald, 26 December 1909, part II p. 4.
Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers advertisement. The San Francisco Call, 24 February 1907, p.46.
“Big Auto War Expected Between Maxwell-Columbia Combine and General Motors Co. of Detroit.” The Los Angeles Record, 26 February 1910, p. 9.
Chrysler advertisement. The Detroit Free Press, 14 September 1924, p. 47.
Chrysler advertisement. Richmond Times-Dispatch, 28 June 1925, p. E5.
“Chrysler Six Breaks Record.” The Rutland News, 5 July 1924, p. 1.
“From Engine-Wiper to Motor Car Wizard.” The Spokesman Revie, 6 January 1924, p. 3.
Independent Automobile Manufacturers of America advertisement. The San Francisco Examiner, 29 May 1910, p. 42.
Licensed Motor Car Association of Los Angeles advertisement. Los Angeles Herald, 26 December 1909, part II p. 4.
Maxwell advertisement. The Tennessean Sun, 20 August 1922, p. 2.
“The New Chrysler Car.” The Tampa Tribune, 27 January 1924, p. E1.
“Selden Patent Decision Causes Furor in Auto Trade.” The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 10 January 1911, p. 3.
“Selden Patents Decision Not Particularly Important.” Williamsport Sun Gazette, 11 January 1911, p. 5.
“Talks of Plight of Independents.” Los Angeles Herald, 31 January 1910, p. 8.
“To Test Patent in Supreme Tribunal.” Moline Daily Dispatch, 10 January 1911, p. 5.
This is the front end of a 1954 Kaiser, among the last manufactured in America before the company moved operations to Argentina. That hood scoop was functional, and the Kaiser Super 226 “power-on-demand” engine had considerable horsepower for its time. It needed it, since the body was a whopping 218 inches in length (for comparison purposes, my Ford F150 Super Cab barely surpasses it at 231 inches in length)!
I was looking through a 1907 newspaper the other day and I saw this crazy thing:
As you can see, it is the power plant of the Carter TWO-ENGINE Car. That’s right, the car had two four-cylinder engines. Each engine possessed half the rated horsepower and had its own ignition, carburetor, lubrication, radiator and clutch. The engines could be used together or one at a time. There was an additional foot pedal for the second motor which was placed next to the first so that both could be engaged or disengaged with one foot movement. Each engine was held in place by four bolts, so that if it needed to be repaired it could be removed and the car would still run by using only the remaining engine.
The design was patented in 1907, and you can see the full application here.
The car was manufactured by the Carter Motor Car Corporation, named for Howard O. Carter (no relation to the CarterCar) and they advertised it with slogans like “Two hearts that beat as one” and “Two heads are better than one.”
In marketing the automobile, Howard O. Carter emphasized the dangers of being stranded by a car with engine trouble. I found a newspaper story from April of 1907 that may help to explain his strong feelings on the subject. Apparently, Carter stopped to help a stranded motorist near Detroit and was hit in the face when the engine crank kicked back. The left side of his head was crushed and part of his cheekbone had to be extracted, all accompanied by considerable blood loss.
Carter recovered, but his company was on life support. The design never caught on with the public and only lasted a couple of years. I’m not sure what happened to him after that, although it does look like he dabbled in airplane manufacturing. I found some stories about a 1916 Transcontinental Aeroplane Competiton in which Howard O. Carter and Carter Brothers Aeroplane Co. had entered two triplanes that, of course, sported two engines each.
In December of 1935, Henry Ford was urging people to give their families a new Ford V-8 for Christmas. Can you imagine finding a ’36 Ford with a big red bow on the driveway Christmas morning?
They called it “The Greatest Ford That Ford Ever Built,” an automobile with everything you could wish for including beauty, safety, comfort, V-8 smoothness, speed, power, dependability and economy of operation.
It was a gorgeous car with fat fenders and a distinctive, 1936-only grille with vertical bars:
The V-8 engine had 221-cubic inches and 85 horsepower. Ford advertised that no breaking in was required, claiming you could drive it 60 miles an hour the day you bought it, and, after the first 100 miles, “as fast as you desire.”
Ford also described it as “the car that does all things easily, ” meaning that It drove easily because it had speed, power and acceleration and responded to your touch “like a well-trained horse”. It was also easy on the pocketbook with prices starting at $510.
A ’36 Ford is getting harder to find, not to mention afford, but it would still make a terrific Christmas present (if you really, really love someone).
This vintage Christmas Ad was published in 1934, and it just exudes that 1930s vibe:
The Ohio Oil Company was started in 1887 as an independent company but soon became a subsidiary of Standard Oil. The Supreme Court ordered the break up of the Standard Oil monopoly in 1911, and Ohio Oil became independent once again. In order to diversify and get into the business of selling gas, Ohio bought Lincoln Oil Refinery in 1924. This purchase included 17 stations selling Linco gasoline. Ohio acquired the Marathon gas brand when it purchased Transcontinental in 1930, and “Linco” was eventually replaced by the popular Marathon brand.
Linco existed during an era when service stations focused on the “service” part, including cleaning windshields and headlights, checking oil and tires and even providing free road maps:
Linco also spent a substantial portion of their advertising budget talking about their fabulous and clean rest rooms:
If only the gas stations of today made that a priority!
If you can stand to listen to the news lately, you hear one instance after another of the “experts” getting things hilariously, and sometimes tragically, wrong. This is not a new phenomenon, and one good example from the early years of the automobile industry involves the “saturation point,” or that point when more automobiles are built than can be consumed. Believe it or not, the doomsayers were active from almost the inception of the American automobile industry.
In 1917, one expert lecturing at the New York Auto Show opined that there were 7.5 million Americans who needed cars. He had calculated this number based in part on the number of farmers (3.5 million farms of 100 or more acres) but stipulated that some of these farms did not produce enough “to warrant the owner to invest in a motor car.”
A short time later, in the mid-1920s, car registrations had blown past that 7.5 million number and actually exceeded 20 million, but the bad predictions continued. From the St. Louis Post:
“Allowing the modest estimate of five years as the total life of a car, though, on rebuilt basis, cars today are probably in commission an average of ten years, and then let the 20 percent increase in new cars continue each year, we get the astounding new car production of 32,107,794 by 1929.
The estimated population of the United States has increased, roughly, 10 percent in the last five years, or is today 113,493,720. If this rate of increase in population keeps up, which it may not do, due to restricted immigration, then every fourth person in the United States would have to be the owner of a new car to absorb car production.”
The papers were full of references to the saturation point during this time period with other groups estimating that point to be around 40 million cars and that it would be reached in 1936.
Well, by 1951 there were nearly 50 million registrations with no saturation point in sight as families were purchasing multiple cars per household. All of the hand-wringing regarding saturation levels proved to be unfounded, but of course the hand-wringers are never held accountable. The editors at the Meriden Daily Journal were on to their game in 1926, however, and the first paragraph of their editorial on the subject pulls no punches:
“Every little while some apostle of gloom will raise his voice in a warning that automobile stocks will soon glut the market and that people who buy automobiles or purchase stock in the companies are foolish, because the saturation point is reached. Some of these professional pessimists have been talking this for five years and each year their voices are louder and pitched a bit higher and they try to tell us that we are making a serious mistake in not paying attention to them. The only people that do pay attention are those who let others do their thinking for them and who are always ready to accept any gloomy prophecy.”
Sound familiar?
On a lighter note, with choices like this, who could blame those families of the 1950s for wanting multiple cars?
1955 Buick at the Classic Car Collection in Kearney, Nebraska.1955 Chevrolet1957 Oldsmobile1955 Ford Customline
Sources:
“Automobile Saturation Point.” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 24 April 1926, p. 12.
“Auto Saturation Point Far Ahead.” Tulsa Daily World, 4 February 1917, p. 11.
“Automobile Saturation Point Is Placed at 40,000,000.” St. Petersburg Times, 6 June 1926, p. 8.
“Auto Saturation Likely in 1936.” Woodward Daily Press, 14 July 1927, p. 1.
“Locus of Automobile Saturation Point Is Still Vanishing.” The Fort Collins Sunday Express-Courier, 13 November 1927, p.1.
“The Automobile Saturation Point.” The Meriden Daily Journal, 12 May 1926, p. 10.
This photo was taken at the 2020 Christmas Walk in downtown Kearney, Nebraska Thursday night. You may be cool, but you aren’t Santa-on-a-Harley-with-Christmas-lights-cool:
Someone asked me the other day why I’ve never mentioned Carhenge on this website. For the record, I love Carhenge, that ultimate example of repurposing located in Nebraska’s Sandhills, but I try to avoid re-hashed information and, let’s face it, Carhenge has been written about extensively.
In case there is someone not familiar with this particular tourist attraction, Carhenge is a built-to-scale replication of England’s Stonehenge using cars in place of stones, and it is absolute genius. The artist behind the creation is a man named Jim Reinders, and he actually spent time in England studying Stonehenge. According to the Carhenge website, Reinders and some family members created the sculpture in 1987 as a memorial to Reinders’s father. Reinders said it was built with “blood, sweat and beers,” as many of the best things are.
The “heel stone” is represented by a ’62 Cadillac, but there is a wide variety of automobiles used throughout the installation, everything from a Gremlin, to a Willys Jeep Truck to a 1960 Plymouth with enormous tailfins:
The site is popular with tourists, as it should be, and has high ratings on Trip Advisor. It also received a Traveler’s Choice award for 2020 from that online travel company. Here is the funny part though, many people hated it when it was first built and were hellbent on destroying it.
Even though the sculpture was located two miles outside of town on private property, the members of the local Planning Commission got their panties in a twist because the land was (gasp) zoned for agricultural use and, obviously, those arbiters of all that is good and tasteful just didn’t appreciate the pile of old automobiles marring the landscape. In August of 1987, Reinders even received a letter from a Nebraska Assistant Attorney General informing him that his creation was considered a junkyard under state statutes, that it was not in an area zoned for junkyards, and that he had until the following Saturday to tear it down. Nebraska is a large state, and I do not know why some squishy bureaucrat located 367 miles away in the state capital inserted himself into the situation.
Luckily, this unique and quirky attraction found a degree of local support. A group call “Friends of Carhenge” was founded, concessions were made to soothe the fragile egos of the government officials, and Carhenge is now an award winner and a triumph for the little guy. I read an article from the following year, 1988, in which Reinders found one more hilarious way to tweak the bureaucrats. He told the reporter that he was planning a trip to China and was considering constructing a “Great Wall” out of cars in Nebraska for his next project. Fantastic.
We took a little foray (farther) into the country the other day, our destination being an old farmstead owned by an avid Mopar collector. The man had carried a torch for Dodge, Plymouth, Chrysler and Desoto for many years, and the hills were covered with the consequences of that partiality:
1953 Plymouth Suburban
1957 Plymouth Belvedere1966 Plymouth Sport Fury1971 Plymouth Duster
We came home with some fun stuff, including a pile of nice bumper guards.
The ones we have polished up so far include some nice examples from the thirties and forties.
