The Studebaker Farm Wagon

The Studebaker Wagon Company started when the five Studebaker brothers joined together to form a company in the 1850s.  They had learned wagon making from their blacksmith father in rural Ohio.  Their sturdy wagons were prized on farms, used by settlers heading West, and achieved national fame for sturdiness during the Civil War. 



In 1892 they started building horse drawn vehicles, and their first self propelled vehicles were electric, as shown in the ad below.

Comments

[Galen Handy]

Studebaker 1902-1912 Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Co, South Bend IN. 1,841 electric cars were made before they went gas only. Studebaker became a Corporation in 1911. The Studebaker electrics had Westinghouse motors
John Mohler Studebaker had five sons.
1852 Founded by two of the brothers to build wagons and carriages.
1858 a third brother returns from the California gold fields with $8K from manufacturing wheelbarrows for the miners. The other two brothers joined later.
1890 Studebaker is worlds largest wagon and carriage co.
1899 Studebaker gets a large contract to make bodies for the EVC lead cabs.
A few electric Omnibuses are made to take passengers from the railroad station to the Studebaker Theatre.
1902 The first Studebaker Electric was sold February 12, to Mr. W. F. Blees of Macon, Missouri. Also that February they leased the Chockett Building for automobile manufacturing. 20 cars were made the first year. They had a top speed of 13 MPH. They weighed 1,350 lbs, had a 40 Volt 24 Ampere Westinghouse motor, 24-cell 96-Ampere hour battery, and claimed 40 miles to a charge.
No. 1354 Runabout, Stick Seat, no top, with a twenty-cell battery, full elliptical springs, chain drive.
No. 1355 Runabout, Panel Seat, leather top optional
No. 1357 Trap, leather top optional
No. 1358 Stanhope
No. 1363 Stanhope, leather top
1903 H. Hayden Eames (who likely gave the EVC body contract to Studebaker) of Columbia, EVC, and Westinghouse, with engineer William P. Kennedy, sets up shop as general manager.
1904 A gas car is introduced, with the mechanicals by General, and then the Garford Motor Co of Cleveland, known as the Studebaker-Garford, until 1911.
1908 Studebaker builds the “carry-all” 12 passenger electric cars for the tunnel between the House and Senate on Capitol Hill. They had four cherry-wood seats facing each other on either side.
The model 17’s featured interchangeable bodies.
17-C Landaulet, folding front $2,300
17-B Coupe, drop windows, $2,200
17-D Victoria Phaeton, leather top, side curtains, $1,850
17-E Landaulet, standing front, $2,300
22-C Stanhope, $1,500
22-G Coupe, with Coupe & Summer tops, $1,850
22-F Coupe, $1,800
16-D Victoria Phaeton,
17-B Coupe
22-A-C Runabout, Stanhope
2006-E Omnibus, Fourteen-passenger, 5,500 lbs, two motors 20 Amperes at 80 Volts each, a battery of 40-cells in four groups, 10 MPH
2008 Omnibus weighing 2,500 lbs
1909 The cars still used chain drive.
13-A Suburban Stanhope (faster). 73” wheelbase.
17-B-D-E Coupe, Victoria Phaeton, or Landaulet. 71” wheelbase.
22-A Runabout, 67” wheelbase
22-C Stanhope Phaeton
22-F Coupe
1911 Studebaker forms a new partnership for gas car platforms with the EMF Corporation. The “F” was for Walter Flanders; part of the empire was the Flanders Electric.
1912 Last year for electrics. Studebaker buys out EMF.
Studebaker built bodies for the Flanders Electric ‘til 1915.
1915 Col. George M. Studebaker buys a refurbished model 26 Detroit Electric, then a new one.

[George Vikos]

The short piece that you have on the Studebaker Civil War wagon and early Electric Car is very succinct and appropriate for non-Studebaker-ites. I would like to reproduce this section in The Graden State Champion newsletter which I edit. May I have your permission with the appropriate by-line?
Thank you, FlatheadGeo

[Web]

It’s great that more people are focusing on making better environmental choices. Plus technology is making it more economical now, and that’s what people really notice. Wind energy, solar power, hybrids and zap EV’s, our choices are good. There are now electric cars being sold everyday, you just plug it into a regular power outlet. When people test drive them they say it’s far more fun to drive an EV.