1903 Overland automobile

Wabash Valley profiles : a series of tributes to hometown people and events that have shaped our history

Description:	One typed page including drawing; a brief history of the Overland auto, a one-cylinder, five-horsepower front-mounted engine runabout on an oak frame. ABASH VALLEY WP R O F I L E SA series of tributes to hometown people and events that have shaped our history.1903 Overland Automobiletandard Wheel Co. at 13th and Beech streets in Terre Haute was the site of the assemblage of the Overland auto, a one-cylinder, five-horsepower front-mounted engine runabout on an oak frame. The first Overland, forerunner of the Willys-Overland autos, took its first test drive on Terre Haute streets on Feb. 12, 1903. Terre Haute entrepreneurs Crawford Fairbanks, Charles Minshall, Buena Vista Marshall and Edward Sendlebach were officers of the company, which maintained corporate headquarters on Ohio Street. Standard Wheel Co. also owned plants in Ohio, Tennessee, Michigan and Kentucky, as well as Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. In the 19th century, the industrial complex on North 13th Street housed Horatio Keyes reputable Hub and Spoke Factory. Vigo County native Claude Ernest Cox, an 1898 Terre Haute High School graduate, designed the pioneer vehicle. Hired as a traveling salesman upon earning a mechanical engineering degree from Rose Polytechnic Institute in June 1902, Cox became superintendent of auto manufacturing at Standard Wheel Co. in 1903. Kathryn Sendlebach, daughter of the vice president, conceived the name of the innovative vehicle. On March 31, 1906 -- soon after Standard Wheels auto division was shifted to Indianapolis -- Cox and investor David M. Parry incorporated the Overland Automobile Co. as a separate entity. In 1907, John North Willys ordered 500 Overlands and urged the new company to locate in Toledo. Instead of moving, Cox departed to become chief engineer at Inter-State Motor Co. in Muncie, where he invented The Inter-State, another motorcar. Hired as director of research at General Motors Institute in 1912, Claude had a distinguished career with General Motors Co. He was president of Bartlett Research Institute of Detroit when he died Aug. 14, 1964, at age 85 while on vacation in Beirut, Lebanon. In 1957 an honorary doctorate degree was bestowed upon Cox by his college alma mater. Terre Haute native Arthur James Paige -- Coxs classmate at Rose -- is credited with being a stimulus for the invention. In 1902, while still in college, Arthur designed, assembled and operated a four-seat horseless carriage with a musical horn called the Rose Technie. He earned the coveted Heminway Award in 1902. Remaining an instructor at Rose until 1908, Paige became general manager of Fort Pitt Motor Manufacturing Co. in New Kensington, Pa. In 1909, he fabricated the Pittsburg car for the Pittsburg Motor Co. Two years later, he built the Marion for the Marion (Ind.) Motor Co. After assembling the race car which won the 1912 Indianapolis 500, Paige earned renown in the design of rotary gasoline engines. Though he lived in the Detroit area most of his life, Paige died at Redondo Beach, Calif., Jan. 10, 1972, at age 89.STERRE HAUTE(812) 238-6000NATIONAL BANKAlways Close to HomeDate published: May 11, 2000Filename: Overland Automobile profile
Origin:	2000-05-10
Created By:	McCormick, Mike
Publisher:	Terre Haute Tribune-Star
Source:	http://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/vchs/id/568
Collection:	Vigo County Historical Society
Rights:	http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/UND/1.0/
Copyright:	Copyright Undetermined
Subjects:	Automobiles Automobile industry Transportation

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