Columbus Buggy Company
Oscar Glaze Peters | |
Products | buggys, automobiles |
---|---|
Revenue | $2 million (1892)[1] |
Number of employees | 1,200 (1892)[1] |
The Columbus Buggy Company was an early
Begun by three business partners, the company set up its manufacturing facilities in what is today the
It influenced the early automobile industry production methods and several notable employees, including Eddie Rickenbacker and Harvey S. Firestone. The company buildings, after some time empty, have since been re-developed as office space in the Arena District.
History
Origin
The Columbus Buggy Company was established by entrepreneur Clinton D. Firestone and brothers George and
Before starting the company, the Peters brothers had worked in the leather trade,[3] but had developed a process to produce cheap buggies for close to $150 apiece, using wood obtained from a company near the Ohio Penitentiary and building using a specialized manufacturing system. Before 1870 they produced 100 and sold them successfully at auction, though their business partners refused further work, leaving them in debt.[4][Note 1] In 1870, they were introduced to Firestone, a native of Canton, Ohio and who had operated a railroad business in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, moved to Columbus and financed the business with $5,000. Their first venture, Iron Buggy Company, launched in 1870 in a shanty built for $100,[4] at 180 North High Street and focused it on selling cheap buggies.[6][7] The business saw immediate success thanks to a design created by the Peters brothers and a system of labor that made production efficient, and it sold 237 buggies in its first year.[8] The building it was housed in burnt down on May 27, 1874 and was rebuilt.[9] In 1875 its owners sold the business to another buggy producer, H. K. Tuller of Buckeye Buggy Company.[4][8]
Success
In 1875, the three formed the Columbus Buggy Company and Peters Dash Company,
In 1883, the company had 1,000 employees and was producing 25,000 buggies a year. That year it was struck with a
The company continued to add buildings as it continued to expand along High Street until it became the largest manufacturer of buggies in the world.[10] By 1888 it occupied an entire city block between High Street and Wall Street.[15] In 1890 it pledged $5,000 to the creation of a YMCA building in downtown Columbus.[16] In the meantime, it began advertising its vehicles and dash products heavily in magazines.[17]
At its height in 1892,
By 1900, about two dozen other buggy producers had formed around Columbus, with factories working day and night in the city, and an estimated one in six buggies in use around the world was built in Columbus.[1] Some of these companies were older than Columbus Buggy Co,[19] but the manufacturer remained one of the largest businesses in the city. Columbus Buggy Co. moved its production to a new plant at 400 Dublin Road in 1906 at Firestone's insistence.[10]
Branching into automobiles
With the advent of the
The 400 Dublin Road facility began producing its first electric coupe in 1903, the Columbus Electric Model No. 1000. This would be one of several models of electric vehicle the company produced in larger scale beginning in 1905. The company advertised the vehicles as easy to operate, targeting women, and that they were quiet. But the vehicles were limited by a top speed of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h), limited range and a need to recharge batteries for several hours.[21] Powered by Willard batteries, this car sold for about $1,000.[22] It produced several models including the No. 3003 Firestone Motor Buggy: a light motor buggy, which it also marketed to physicians as a medical phaeton, as well as the Columbus Station Wagon No. 1102, which was to be driven by a chauffeur while its passengers rode in an enclosed compartment.[20] In 1907, it bought the Springfield Automotive Company of Springfield, Ohio which had been manufacturing the Bramwell, a gasoline powered automobile.[22]
In 1909, the company hired Lee Frayer to design a full-sized car, with Eddie Rickenbacker as his assistant.[23] The Firestone-Columbus, a gasoline-powered car geared toward families, began production in 1909.[21] About 500 of the vehicles sold in the first year and it was generally well received in the market. Improvements were made to the vehicles continually as they were produced, as opposed to creating successive model years.[22] There were a few different variations on the vehicle, including the model 76-A, an intermediate sized vehicle that could carry four passengers.[20] The Columbus-Firestone was reported to be the first car with its steering wheel on the left side of the car.[24]
Introduced at the
The company built a special
Decline
The business was affected by the severe flooding of local rivers during the Great Flood of 1913 and it this damaged the business sufficiently for it to declare bankruptcy,[22][23] with the company $624,000 in debt. Initially it was offered for sale for 25 cents on the dollar, but received only one offer, for less than $100,000, prompting its interests, headed by Frank L. Chase, to withdraw the offer. Under an order from a federal judge, $273,000, or 44 percent of the debt, was eventually paid to creditors.[26] In 1914, a new entity, named the New Columbus Buggy Co., was incorporated with $500,000 in capital under a new ownership group, including C. A. Finnegan and E. D. Hoefeller of Buffalo, New York.[27] This entity, controlled by the company's creditors, continued production at the plant.[24] That same year, Firestone died.[23] Both the Firestone Electric and the Columbus-Firestone vehicle lines were produced into 1915, when the company ceased operations, leaving an inventory of 35 new electric cars and 12 automobiles, as well as several used cars.[22]
Following the closure of the Columbus Buggy Co. The Allen Motor Co. of Fostoria, Ohio leased the plant and built automobiles there before closing in 1923.[23] The building itself was home to Janitrol Corp. before being redeveloped as the Buggyworks building in the 1990s.[28]
Legacy
The company played a key role in shaping the early history of the automobile.[1] Its manufacturing processes for efficiently producing vehicles were notable and ahead of many companies of its time.[5] The success of the business brought attention to C. D. Firestone, who became a prominent figure in the carriage industry and he became president of the Carriage Builders National Association in 1888.[13][Note 2]
Several of the company's employees rose to great prominence in the industry. Clinton Firestone's cousin,
Eddie Rickenbacker joined the company at the age of 17, and he quickly became an engineer and troubleshooter, dispatched to help owners when they had problems with their vehicles, and his service increased the reputation of the business among its owners.[22] It was during this assignment that Rickenbacker, while serving as a test driver for the vehicles, developed an affinity for driving fast cars.[32]
Some of the original sales catalog promotional material of the company are still preserved in the
Buggyworks complex
The company's original buildings north of downtown Columbus were redeveloped as part of a larger revival of the industrial area north of Columbus — by then termed the Arena District — following the construction of
See also
References
- apprenticed at another Columbus buggy producer. E. & H. F. Booth at Fourth and Gay streets, in 1856 for $3 per week.[2] His father, Tunis Peters, owned a large tanyard, Peters Run, in Columbus where he learned the business and later went into work building houses in Chillicothe, Ohiobefore many of them burned in a fire in 1845. A subsequent trunk manufacturing business is believed to be where Peters developed manufacturing skills that would lead to the success of Columbus Buggy Co.[5]
- ^ C. D. Firestone constructed a substantial terra-cotta home at 580 East Broad St.[29] Completed in 1886, the mansion was sold to the Columbus Mutual Life Insurance Co. which used it as a headquarters until the building was demolished in 1962. The site subsequently was home to an auto shop.[30]
Citations
- ^ a b c d e f g h Lentz, Ed 2003, p. 86.
- ^ a b Lee 1892, p. 324.
- ^ a b Lentz, Ed 2003, p. 85.
- ^ a b c d Lee 1892, p. 326.
- ^ a b Tuttle 1978, p. 386.
- ^ a b Barrett 2006, p. 30.
- ^ Hunter 2012, p. 118.
- ^ a b Tuttle 1978, p. 389.
- ^ Lee 1892, p. 553.
- ^ a b c Hunter 2012, pp. 126–127.
- ^ Lee 1892, p. 327.
- ^ Tuttle 1978, p. 391.
- ^ a b Pruitt 1998, p. 18.
- ^ Pruitt 1998, p. 19.
- ^ a b c Lentz, Ed 2003, p. 48.
- ^ Lee 1892, p. 717.
- ^ Tuttle 1978, p. 390.
- ^ a b Bryan 2002, p. 35.
- ^ Lee 1892, p. 328.
- ^ a b c Wrenick & Wrenick 2016, p. 156.
- ^ a b c Barrett 2002, p. 121.
- ^ a b c d e f Wrenick & Wrenick 2016, p. 158.
- ^ a b c d e Hunter 2012, p. 135.
- ^ a b c Hunter 2012, p. 108.
- ^ Barrett 2007, p. 14.
- ^ Anonymous 2012, p. 36.
- ^ Anonymous 2012, p. 33.
- ^ Barrett 2002, p. 120.
- ^ Hunter 2012, p. 67.
- ^ Hunter 2012, p. 78.
- ^ Bryan 2002, p. 34.
- ^ Lentz, Ed 2003, p. 106.
- ^ "Columbus Buggy Company Catalog, 1889 - The Henry Ford". Dearborn, Michigan: The Henry Ford. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- Columbus Business First. Columbus, Ohio. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- ^ Wartenburg, Steve (2014-06-22). "$10.5M 'Buggy Works' renovation in Arena District". The Columbus Dispatch. Columbus, Ohio. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- Columbus Business First. Columbus, Ohio. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
- Columbus Business First. Columbus, Ohio. Retrieved 2018-02-01.
Bibliography
- Anonymous (2012), The Automotive Manufacturer, Volume 56, Charleston, South Carolina: Nabu Press, ISBN 978-1276314657
- Barrett, Richard (2006), Columbus 1860-1910, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: ISBN 978-0738539621
- Barrett, Richard (2007), Columbus 1910-1970, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: ISBN 978-1531624354
- Barrett, Richard (2002), Columbus, Ohio: 1898-1950 in Vintage Postcards, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina: ISBN 978-0738519623
- Bryan, Ford R. (2002), Friends, Families, & Forays: Scenes from the Life and Times of Henry Ford, Detroit, Michigan: ISBN 978-0814331088
- OCLC 886535510.
- Lee, Alford Emory (1892), History of the City of Columbus, Capital of Ohio, Vol. 2 of 2, Chicago, Illinois: Munsell & Co.
- Lentz, Ed (2003). Columbus: The Story of a City. The Making of America Series. Arcadia Publishing. OCLC 52740866.
- Pruitt, Bettye (1998), Timken: From Missouri to Mars--a Century of Leadership in Manufacturing, Watertown, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press, ISBN 978-0875848877
- Tuttle, Charles (1978), The Carriage Journal: Vol 15 No 4 Spring 1978, Portland, Maine: ISSN 0008-6916
- Wrenick, Frank; Wrenick, Elaine (2016), Automobile Manufacturers of Cleveland and Ohio, 1864-1942, Jefferson, North Carolina: ISBN 978-0786475353