Stutz Bearcat ~ America's First Sports Car

by Ramona K. Cecil

My husband loves cars, especially vintage cars. I can’t tell you how many hours this past summer and fall we’ve spent perusing car shows. Some of his favorite models among the vintage cars are sports cars. While he doesn’t own one himself, he knows a lot about them and loves looking at them. What he might not know is that the vehicle considered “America’s first sports car” was built in our own home state of Indiana.

The Bearcat, originally “Bear Cat,” made its debut in 1912. A high performance roadster built by the Stutz Motor Company of Indianapolis, Indiana—formerly the Ideal Motor Car Company—the Bearcat was designed to appeal to the wealthy client with a “need for speed.”

1912 Stutz Bearcat - Notice small "monocle" windshield 

A century ago, the Stutz Motor Company was among the most prestigious of car companies, their automobiles highly sought by the rich and famous. Several innovations by company engineers earned Stutz a reputation for building fast, durable, safe, and stylish cars, and made the name synonymous with automotive excellence. The groundbreaking innovations included the most powerful and quietest V-8 engine on the market, the first under-slung chassis, dual overhead cam engine, and the first use of safety glass.

Stutz Wisconsin Engine design

The first car to bear the Stutz name was build in five weeks and then immediately entered in the 1911 Indianapolis 500 race where it finished in eleventh-place, earning the moniker “The car that made good in a day.”

Number 8 Stutz car lined up for a race

A year later the company rolled out the Bear Cat; America’s first sports car. In its debut year, the Bear Cat was entered in thirty automobile races and won twenty-five of them.

1912 Stutz Bear Cat

                       

In 1915 driver Cannonball Baker—for whom the Cannonball Run car rally is named—broke speed records when he drove a Stutz Bearcat from San Diego, California to New York in 11 days, 7 hours, and 15 minutes.

Edwin George "Cannon Ball" Baker in Stutz Bearcat

The Stutz Bearcat put the “roar” into the Roaring Twenties. Along with flappers, gangsters, speakeasies, and raccoon-skin coats, the Bearcat became an iconic symbol of the era. 

Hollywood movie featuring a Stutz Bearcat

1923 Stutz Bearcat

Hollywood fell in love with the Stutz automobiles, but seemed to have a special affinity for the sporty Bearcat, which became a status symbol. In 1923 a Stutz Bearcat cost $2,765.00; almost $48,000.00 in today’s money. Famous owners of the Bearcat included illustrious names like actor Gary Cooper, author F. Scott Fitzgerald, and gossip columnist Walter Winchell. Jay Leno numbers among the current celebrity owners of a Stutz Bearcat sports car.

Jay Leno with his 1918 Stutz Bearcat

Made for speed and beauty, the Bearcat somewhat lacked in comfort. The exceedingly stiff clutch gave rise to the rumor that it was purposely engineered that way to discourage women from driving what was considered a “man’s” sports car.

Despite all the time my husband has spent admiring Stutz Bearcats at car shows while doubtless dreaming of driving one, I don’t see a Stutz Bearcat in our future. But should our fortunes change and my husband find himself behind the wheel of one, I wouldn’t decline an offer to climb in beside him and take a spin around town in America’s first sports car—one of Indiana’s own. 

Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com 

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Waverly Electric Car

 

by Ramona K. Cecil
                                                                                          

Waverly Electric Car

Last year my daughter Kelly bought a Prius. She likes to brag about her hybrid car’s great gas mileage. What she might not know is that electric cars are not a new conception. In fact, electric cars were tooling around the cities and towns of America over one hundred years ago. It might also interest my daughter to know that one of the first electric cars was produced here in our own state of Indiana.


In 1898 the Waverly Company of Indianapolis, which had earlier produced bicycles under the name of The Indiana Bicycle Company, produced its first electric car; the electric Stanhope. Between 1898 and the company's demise in 1914, Waverly produced over a hundred different models of vehicles including wagons (trucks)with prices that ranged from $900 to $3,500.



 

 

 

The Stanhope was actually a two-seater buggy with tiller steering and was powered by an electric battery. The manufacturer bragged that their vehicle could travel up to forty miles at a dizzying top speed of fourteen-miles per hour. The Stanhope was favored by physicians of the time and is said to be the first car driven in the U.S. by a woman when Genevra Delphine Mudge drove her Waverly electric along New York city streets in 1898. While that historic benchmark might appeal to my daughter, I doubt that the Stanhope would work well for her in modern day Indianapolis traffic.



In the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries, however, the Waverly electric car was a wonder. In a 1912 advertisement for their model Silent Limousine-Five, the company touted the benefits of owning one of their vehicles; no noise, smoke, gasoline odor, or oil spatters, it bragged. Sounds a bit like ads for electric cars today, doesn’t it? In 1912, however, there would have been no mention of cup holders, heated seats, or hands-free bluetooth phone options. Instead, the 1912 ad speaks of passenger comfort as well as the car's gentleness on clothing during a night out on the town: “Delicate Gowns Not Marred In This Roomy Electric. Your party for reception, theater or ball, may number five adults, yet no gown will be marred or even crushed.” Though automobile ads of today often tout ample “leg room,” you'll rarely hear claims of unmarred gowns.



Ad for Waverly Silent Limousine Five



One 1900 model Waverly had a front seat that faced the rear of the vehicle. The driver sat in the front-facing back seat and operated the steering lever, making it easy to converse with passengers. Yikes! And they warn today about the dangers of texting while driving!


                                                                             






By 1901, Waverly Electric had vehicles with three different sized motors to choose from; a two-passenger runabout with a 1.5HP motor, the Phaeton and Stanhope with a 2.5HP motor, and the Brougham with a 3.5HP motor. The Brougham also had an electric heater. Now that’s a feature Kelly would appreciate.



In 1903 Albert Augustus Pope, manufacturer of the Columbia electric car bought Waverly and the Indianapolis company became Pope-Waverly.




 Electric cars of the early 1900s were particularly advertised to women as they claimed to be easy to start, drive, and maintain. One ad enticed potential female buyers with the promise “No complications. Turn on the power and steer.” Despite the compelling ads, I have to wonder how many ladies actually found an electric car under their Christmas tree and how many brides received a Waverly electric as a gift from their grooms.

1906 Advertisement

1915 advertisement

 
 
Some of the famous people to own a Waverly electric car were financier Diamond Jim Brady, author Willa Cather, African-American hair care entrepreneur, Madam C.J. Walker, author and Civil War officer, General Lew Wallace, and inventor Thomas Edison, who developed one of the Waverly car batteries.


Madam C.J. Walker driving her daughter and others in her Waverly Electric Car

By 1914 Pope-Waverly could no longer compete with gasoline propelled automobiles and the company went belly-up.




Today, my Prius-owning accountant daughter might consider the Pope-Waverly far ahead of its time. Could I see Kelly tooling around Indianapolis in a Waverly electric dressed in early 1900 garb? Probably not, though everyone in the family agrees she looks great in hats. 

 

 



Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com

 

 

 

 

                                                

 

 

 

 

 



 

Studebaker ~ One of Indiana's Own

by Ramona K. Cecil

If you are over the age of fifty or are a vintage automobile enthusiast, you may recognize the name Studebaker. According to my husband, who fits both those descriptions, a vintage car show would not be complete without several models from the Studebaker line. But did you know that the Studebaker Company was famous for transportation long before the automobile?

Five Studebaker brothers. Left to right standing: Peter and Jacob
Seated: Clem, Henry, and John M.

It all began in South Bend, Indiana, located at the far northwestern part of my home state. In 1850, a young wagon maker and blacksmith, Clem Studebaker, moves from Ohio to South Bend, Indiana. The next year his parents and nine siblings join him there and in 1852 Clem, with his brother Henry, opens the H & C Blacksmith Shop with only $68.00 to their name. There they build the first Studebaker vehicle; a farm wagon.

Henry Studebaker

Clem Studebaker

  

Studebaker Blacksmith Shop, South Bend, Indiana

John M. Studebaker

In 1853 another brother, John M., catches the gold fever and heads to the California gold fields. There, he is persuaded to abandon his dream of finding riches in the land for making wheelbarrows for the hordes of other gold prospectors. If you missed Keli Gwyn's post Tuesday about Wheelbarrow Johnny, you must check it out! She tells how John made an indelible mark on Hangtown (later Placerville,) California. His memory is kept alive there through museums and even an annual wheelbarrow race. After five years in California, John M. returns to Indiana with $8,000.00 to invest in his brothers’ flagging wagon business, including the wagon repository (dealership) opened by brother Peter a year earlier in nearby Goshen, Indiana. I find the fact that he amassed that kind of money in five years during the 1850s nothing short of amazing!

Studebaker wagon exhibited in the El Dorado County Museum,

Placerville, California.

By 1860, H & C Studebaker boasts a manufacturing shop, paint room, lumber yard, office and fourteen employees not counting the Studebaker brothers. When the Civil War breaks out the Studebakers begin to supply the Union Army with wagons and their business booms. In 1868, the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company is incorporated in Indiana. By 1870 another brother, Jacob, joins the company.

Civil War Supply Wagons



Civil War Ambulance Wagons

They sky seems the limit for the young wagon manufacturing company when disaster strikes. Over the next four years, two massive fires destroy the South Bend factory. Undaunted, the brothers rise up each time from the ashes and rebuild.

Studebaker factory South Bend, Indiana

Studebaker expands its market to Europe and its wagons win awards at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Over the next couple decades the company grows, providing wagons and carriages for the Spanish, American War and Benjamin Harrison’s White House despite a third factory fire. I can’t help wondering if anyone ever thought to build a water-pumping wagon to keep on the factory's premises? Just saying. . . Other U.S. Presidents who rode in Studebaker carriages include Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and William McKinley. The latter two rode in Studebaker carriages to the sites of their assassinations.

President Benjamin Harrison's Studebaker Coach

President Lincoln's Studebaker carriage

                  





President Grant's Studebaker Carriage



President McKinley in Studebaker carriage

By the end of the 19th Century, the company begins to experiment with powered vehicles. In 1902 they introduce an electric car and two years later they join with the Garford Company of 
Ohio to produce a gasoline powered car. In 1910 the Studebaker company purchases E-M-F, the second largest automobile manufacturer in Detroit, Michigan, while continuing their manufacture of horse-drawn vehicles as well. By WWI, Studebaker is providing wagons for Britain, France, Russia, and the U.S.

Thomas Edison in 1903 Studebaker electric car

1908 electric Studebaker police patrol vehicle

Supply wagons, WWI

1904 Studebaker-Garford Model C gasoline-powered car

The iconic Budweiser Beer wagon pulled by a majestic team of Clydesdale horses is a 1903 Studebaker wagon.






In 1915, Studebaker is the first automotive company to offer wholesale and retail financing.

The company moves automotive production from Detroit to South Bend in 1919 and discontinues their horse-drawn vehicle operation the following year.

The next three decades comprise Studebaker’s automotive “hey-day,” during which, the company introduces the four-wheel hydraulic brake system, acquires the luxury car manufacturer Pierce Arrow, introduces a car model named for legendary Notre Dame football coach, Knute Rockne, and even expands to the West Coast by opening their Studebaker Pacific Corporation in Los Angels in 1935.

 

Studebaker 1920 touring car

             



Studebaker 1930



Studebaker Pierce Arrow 1933



1932 Studebaker Rockne

When war breaks out again in Europe in 1939, Studebaker begins supplying the Allies with trucks, airplane engines, and the Weasel personnel carrier. By 1942 and America’s entrance into WWII, the company suspends all manufacture of civilian vehicles and devotes their entire capacity to the war effort.

Studebaker M29 Weasel

                      

At war’s end, Studebaker is the first company to produce a postwar automobile and is the subject of a Life Magazine ten-page article. One of the most iconic of the Studebaker models was the bullet-nose Champion of the 1950s. I remember a co-worker of mine in the mid 1980s who still drove her Champion to work every day and claimed it was the best car she ever drove. My husband’s favorite was the last of the Studebaker models, the 1962 sporty Avanti, which he still aspires to one day own. Despite the Avanti, Studebaker is faltering by the mid 1960s. The South Bend operation closes in 1963, followed by the Hamilton, Ontario plant three years later.

1950 Studebaker Commander

1950 Studebaker Truck

1950 Studebaker Champion

Over the next couple decades, through a series of mergers and sell-offs, the Studebaker Automotive Company ceases to exist. By the late 1980s, all that’s left of Studebaker is Avanti Motors, which finally shuts down production in 1991. Several attempts to resurrect Avanti in the U.S. and Mexico fail and by 2008 Studebaker as a brand is relegated to history.

1962 Studebaker Avanti

2007 Studebaker Avanti

Though Studebaker automobiles are no longer rolling off assembly lines, Studebaker enthusiasts can take heart and head to the two Studebaker Museums in South Bend, Indiana. In the original building on Chapin Street visitors can peruse three stories of memorabilia from Studebaker’s century and a half history, including seventy historic vehicles. 

 

Studebaker Museum Chapin Street,
South Bend, Indiana

Old Studebaker National Museum, Main Street, South Bend, IN

Do you have a Studebaker in your past? I’d love to hear your story.





Ramona K. Cecil is a poet and award-winning author of historical fiction for the Christian market. A proud Hoosier, she often sets her stories in her home state of Indiana.

Check out her website at www.ramonakcecil.com