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During the early part of the last century there were many thousands of firms that cars built in the USA.. If you read automotive history there seemed to be a car company in every town at the turn of century. As we all know that only a few automotive companies are here today.

Here is a list of auto's built in my home town of Williamsport, Penna.

1. Imperial
2. Luxor
3. Stutsman
4. Tivy Steamer.

To all of you please add to this thread as to what auto's may have been built in your hometown.

John F. Shireman

Although the Empire Automobile Company was headquarted in Indianapolis, IN, their cars were assembled under contract, for a time, in my hometown of Greenvile, PA, by Greenville Metal Products, which became Greenvile Steel Car in 1914 and was more known for building railroads cars. GSC was bought and sold a couple of times over the course of several decades, and became part of Trinity Industries. The Greenville plant closed for good in 2000, when prodcution was moved to Mexico, and the facilities were demolished and sold for scrap a few years.

A restored 1913 Empire Model 31 touring sedan is on display at a small RR museum and park in downtown Greenville, which is a whole 'nuther story.

At the risk of drifting off-topic, you might be interested to know that Bill Mitchell, legendary auto designer and GM's second VP of Design, attended grade school in Greenville, PA. Local legend has it that a teacher caught him drawing in his notebook, instead of paying attention, and scolded him - telling him that he'd never amount to anything if he kept doodling in class.

Even Sioux Falls, SD had an inventor who produced automobiles.


Thomas Fawick was born in 1889 in Sioux Falls. At the age of seventeen, he went into business for himself. He was an inventor who designed cars. He built cars in Sioux Falls and called them Fawick Flyers. President Theodore Roosevelt rode in one when he was in Sioux Falls. His cars were some of the first to have four doors. They could go sixty miles an hour. They were said to be "quiet" cars, even though they could be heard four blocks away. When his cars did not sell well, Fawick left Sioux Falls to work for a company in Wisconsin. There he became known for his new designs for farm tractors. Later he invented a clutch that was used by the United States Navy and rubber grips for golf clubs. A Fawick Flyer can be seen at the Old Courthouse Museum in Sioux Falls.

DanL
Photo courtesy of Siouxland Heritage Museums

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Thomas Fawick left Sioux Falls for Waterloo Iowa and eventually Chicago. His clutrch inventions saw application with General Tire and Rubber, then later Ferrell-Birmingham, and defense applications with the US Navy through contracts with General Motors. See details at:

http://www.buffalohistoryworks.com/plant5/innovation/index.html
DanL

Imagine my surprise when I did a Google search for 'cars manufactured in Findlay, OH' (my home town) and came up with THIS...

http://www.findlayliving.com/?p=24

The Grant!

Nothing in my home town of Riverside, CA. I think most of the turn of the century Auto Manfucaturing was in the mid-west and east coast. Riverside was oranges groves as far as the eye could see in the early part of the century and home to several of the major citrus packing firms.

Back in the early seventies Philip Pedro a member of the Ark-La-Tex Antique and Classic Car Association was interested in finding a rare Bour-Davis car for the club to restore. The hunt for the illusive car was on. The idea and dream turned into a project that has lasted from the early seventies till 2004!
In the beginning the Bour-Davis; named from the two founders, Charles J. Bour and Robert C. Davis, was originally manufactured in Detroit till 1916, before the company was sold to the Shadburn Brothers in 1917. They moved to Frankfort, Ind., and promptly went bust. It was proposed at the time that a car be manufactured to sell for $800.
The Louisiana Motor Car Company was formed in 1917 in Shreveport, La. and they promptly purchased the rights to the Bour-Davis in April 1918. The LMC Company opened their doors for business in the old Merchants Building on the corner of Milam and Market Streets in Shreveport. A new name was wanted for the Louisiana car and a contest was undertaken in the "Shreveport Times" newspaper.
The contest had a nice gimmick, name this automobile and you can have it! This first place prize of a Bour-Davis auto had a value of $1,550. Mrs. A.R. Kilgore of the Cedar Grove area of Shreveport, with the name "Louisianne" was the winner of the car. The name was briefly used or maybe never used because the Bour-Davis logo was still on cars until 1922. Second prize would be $500 worth of stock in the LMC Company. Third prize $300 worth of stock, fourth and fifth would also land you $100 worth of LMC stock. Not worth much in the years to come.
One stipulation in the rules of the contest was that you had to own at least one share of stock to enter the contest! This small detail was clever on LMC's part. The newly formed LMC Company was formed by a struggling but enthusiastic group.
The LMC Company had a plan to sell shares of stock to build a proposed plant in the Cedar Grove area. They had a wonderful layout of a seven buildings to be built. They also included what investors should profit by joining in with LMC Company. They wanted to compare with the other new manufactures such as Ford, REO, Stutz, Chevrolet, Overland, Hupp to name a few. The car business was still in the beginning stages, just a little over 12 years old at the time.
Many men had high hopes and big dreams of making it rich with this new venture. It was a once in a life time opportunity for the people in the area to jump on board and make it big. "The manufacture of automobiles is the most profitable and safest business enterprise in the world." Is a claim printed on the LMC Co. proposed plan.
The Bour-Davis show room would be located on a site at 1035 Texas Ave. The factory never quite made it to the seven building plan. It was first just a few tents, in June of 1918 at 1648 Texas Ave. Later two buildings would be constructed at the proposed Cedar Grove site. This site was later occupied by the J.B. Beaird plant and then Kast Metals Corp.
Unfortunately, production never grew beyond a few hundred units because of mismanagement. The result: 267 cars built in 1916, 22 in 1917, four in 1918. These early models were to be priced against the Hudson and Cadillac at $1,200. Twenty were produced in Frankfurt, Ind., and one in Shreveport in 1919, and 296 were produced in 1920. Figures were unavailable for 1921 and 1922 and by the time the 1921 seven-passenger models rolled off the lines they were priced at $2,385, compared to $525 for a Chevrolet touring car, $935 for a Buick and $3,150 for a similar Cadillac. This price jump would put the company into receivership due to slow sales and an inventory of parts for 700 cars.
On May 18, 1921 the assets were sold to Commercial National Bank and the stock of 4700 investors became worthless. J.M. Ponder of Shreveport purchased the entire assets of the Louisiana Motor Car Stock from the bank on May 29, 1922 and organized the Ponder Motor Manufacturing Company, Inc. with all former stock-holders having stock in the new company. Not enough new capital, $1,500,000, nor sales enough to sustain the new beginning, Ponder and Bour-Davis ended and era in 1923.They sold the cars, made a profit, but the profit was drained off by the upper management. It was a good car, just not very attractive, and pricier than what had been planned in the beginning stages. This would be the end of the line for Bour-Davis, until the 1970's when the dream was brought to life again by the Ark-La-Tex Antique and Classic Car Association.
See a photo on link below.

http://eventsinminden.blogspot.com/2007/09/bour-davis-model-21-s-not-just-one-mans.html

BIGKEV: I consulted my wayback machine. It seems that a car called the Magnola was built in Riverside.

The Magnola of which only one was built may have been built between 1902 and 1903.


John F. Shireman

I grew up in Windsor Ontario not far from the Ford Motor Co. of Canada. Chryslers and the old Packard assembly plant were only about 1 mile . There were several makes of orphans cars and trucks produced in Windsor including the Graham-Paige and Pierce-Arrow assembly plants.

That is very interesting John. Magnolia Ave is the main drag that intersects Riverside proper from one end to the other. So that name has been in use for a long time here in Riverside. So I will have to poke around and see what I can find out about the "Magnolia".