Ohio's Role in Automotive History

[James Peck]

https://cr4.globalspec.com/blogentry/30445/Nine-More-Reasons-Why-Ohio-May-Be-the-Most-Important-State-in-U-S-Auto-History?

 

James Peck

SAH Member

Ferguson Enthusiasts of North America member

 

I can remember riding in a White school bus and viewing a Buffalo White single axle semi-tractor up close while it was delivering a construction trailer.

I can also remember seeing a tracked Cletrac cultivating corn.

[Chry54]

if my memory is correct the first documented auto crash was in ohio. there were only 2 registered cars in the state and they managed to find each other. not sure of the year.

[old car fan]

I think  the Lambert was the first  car crash, still  one locally, still trying. 

[Jim Skelly]

Bimel (Sidney), Republic (Hamilton), Norwalk (Norwalk), Cleveland and Chandler (Cleveland) are a few of the other cars built in Ohio.  There are books on the subject:

 

The Chandler Automobile – McFarland (mcfarlandbooks.com)

 

The Jordan Automobile – McFarland (mcfarlandbooks.com)

 

Automobile Manufacturers of Cleveland and Ohio, 1864–1942 – McFarland (mcfarlandbooks.com)

 

Custom Built by McFarlan – McFarland (mcfarlandbooks.com)

 

[29 Chandler]

Also checkout Golden Wheels: "The Story of the Automobiles Made in Cleveland and Northeastern Ohio 1892-1932", covers all of the makes listed above and more.

[RAH]

Guys, Yes OHIO and automobiles have much to be proud of but don't forget DELCO, (Dayton Electric Laboratories Company of Ohio)!

[joelj]

Thaught I would mention the corporate headquarters for Firestone and Goodyear were both in Akron. I think Goodyear is still there while Firestone moved to Tennessee. Also the Lordstown GM assembly plant that produced I think about 16 million GM vehicles between about 1964 and 2017.

[Jim Bollman]

Crosley headquarters was in Cincinnati, they did engineering and some subassemblies in Ohio but the cars were built in Indiana.

[lump]

Can't forget the Grant motor car company, originally in Findlay, Ohio, and later in Cleveland. Or another company which Grant Motors acquired, the Denmo trucks of Cleveland. 

[lump]

And the Stoddard-Dayton and Courier cars of Dayton, Ohio. 

[lump]

I also think Maxwell had a plant in Dayton, Ohio area for a time. Not positive on that, but during my senior year in high school (1972), our history teacher loved to rear back in his seat and hold forth on various subjects, trying to impress us with great facts that he knew. One day he loudly and proudly pronounced that only one motor car was ever produced in Dayton, Ohio: being the Stoddard-Dayton. I was sure he wasn't correct on that, having grown up in the antique car clubs in our area. But I kept my mouth shut. In later years, I found a list (maybe from AACA?) of cars manufactured in Dayton...and there was certainly more than one. So I found that teacher's phone number and called for him. His wife answered and told me very kindly that he had passed away. But she thought it was so sweet of me to call for him. I felt a little guilty just then, because I had planned to simply prove him wrong. You see, on several occasions during his history I had challenged his "facts," and I usually prevailed (later, after finding myself forced to prove my point in a research paper, as impromptu homework). I soon learned to just let those questionable "facts" go, rather than get stuck with mandatory "extra credit" homework! 

 

Now, as I look back, I actually learned a lot in his class. RIP, Mr Townsley, history teacher. 

[James Peck]

Kent Ohio had Fageol and Twin Coach. Last time I was at Mike's Place at the corner of Ohio 43 and 261. they had a spaceship outside and a Twin Coach inside in which you could sit as you ate.

As a plus a Fageol long block sat out front. The former plant was finally torn down.

[James Peck]

I once lived in Kent Ohio near David, a Goodrich retiree. David was a child when he was taken along in the mass migration of people from the upper South to Akron to work for the tire companies. One fascinating story David told was of being in a big meeting to keep the Goodrich company going by developing radial tires.  At some point Goodrich and Uniroyal combined and had an office going West.

 

David had been sent back to Athens County, Ohio to keep him out of urban temptation's for a while. One thing David told me I had never known was that the Southeastern Ohio Counties had differing accents depending on whether the first mass migration in was from Virigina or Connecticut. David knew some of the triracial population of SE Ohio.

Edited December 7, 2022 by James Peck (see edit history)

[James Peck]

In the early 90s, a placement salesperson contacted me about interviewing as a stamping process improvement engineer at Flxible in Loudonville.

Edited August 20, 2023 by James Peck (see edit history)

[Dave39MD]

Chevrolet also had a assembly plant in Norwood, Ohio from 1923 to 1987. My 24 Roadster was born there.

 

Dave

 

I almost forgot, Packard Electric in Warren, Ohio. Became part of General Motors and United Motors Service , great products.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Dave39MD (see edit history)

[James Peck]

I have been in the Packard related Dephi Maquiladora in Ciudad Juárez. Some aspects of manufacturing wiring harness are not easy to automate.

[James Peck]

On 12/6/2022 at 5:13 PM, RAH said:

Guys, Yes OHIO and automobiles have much to be proud of but don't forget DELCO, (Dayton Electric Laboratories Company of Ohio)!

I spent some time in the tryout floor of Makino in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati around 15 years ago. Much of the machining for Duramax engines is done on CNC machines.

[8E45E]

Arguably, the longest-running automobile manufacturer would be Overland/Willys-Overland-Jeep in Toledo, from 1903 to present.

 

Craig

[Rusty_OToole]

On 8/17/2023 at 7:45 AM, 8E45E said:

Arguably, the longest-running automobile manufacturer would be Overland/Willys-Overland-Jeep in Toledo, from 1903 to present.

 

Craig

Oldest vehicle manufacturer is General Motors of Canada,  originally McLaughlin Carriage Company of Oshawa Ontario. They built and sold their first vehicle in 1867. In 1912 they were the biggest vehicle manufacturer in the British Empire. That is when they decided to get into making cars. They consulted their old friend William Durant, then head of General Motors, but whom they had known since he worked for the Flint Wagon Works. He advised them that it would take a year and a half or two years to develop a good car, even an assembled car, but he could furnish proven Buick running gear at a good price. This was common practice in the carriage business, many smaller concerns made their own bodies but bought running gear. McLaughlin had their own patent running gear which they also sold to other makers.

McLaughlin began making cars using Buick chassis with bodies of their own design and manufacture called McLaughlin Buick. In the late 1920s they became a division of General Motors. The last McLaughlin Buick was built just before WW2, afterwards they were simply known as Buicks.

Last time I went past the Corvette plant at Bowling Green Kentucky it said General Motors of Canada on the sign out front. I don't know how to account for this.

[8E45E]

1 hour ago, Rusty_OToole said:

Oldest vehicle manufacturer is General Motors of Canada,  originally McLaughlin Carriage Company of Oshawa Ontario.

McLaughlin Carriage never had a manufacturing facility in Ohio.

 

Craig

[Rusty_OToole]

10 hours ago, 8E45E said:

McLaughlin Carriage never had a manufacturing facility in Ohio.

 

Craig

Touche

[James Peck]

Maybe a biggie, maybe not. The former Twinsburg Stamping Plant, built by Chrysler, was no more except for some of the front office when I last went by. Back in the aughties they were pulling single loaded 55 foot trailers bound for Newark, Delaware, east down I-480 to the Ohio Turnpike interchange in Streetsboro. There they would be connected as tandem 55s and pulled to Delaware. 

Single 55s were pulled from this plant to Windsor.

[Templar Recruiter]

TEMPLAR MOTORS 

13000 ATHENS AVE.

LAKEWOOD, OHIO

1916-1924     

(Bldg. still Standing & Occupied)  

 

TEMPLAR MOTORS FACTORY  DISPLAY 
(Located in Original Templar Factory)
VIDEO - FOX TV SHOW

”NEW DAY CLEVELAND”

HOST - DAVID MOSS

2019

https://fox8.com/on-air/new-day-cleveland/the-screw-factory-road-trip-templar-motors/

 

 

 

Edited August 23, 2023 by Templar Recruiter (see edit history)