By Jim Hinckley

 

The infancy of the American auto industry is a tangled web of intrigue, tragedy, genius, and get-rich-quick schemes. It is also the story of innovation, vision, and eccentricity.

Consider David Buick, the man who gave the world the cast iron bathtub with a white porcelain finish. With Walter Marr and Eugene Richard, Buick engineered a revolutionary gasoline engine with a valve-in-head design for marine or farm applications. This advanced engine helped establish the Buick Motor Company in 1903.

In turn, the acquisition of Buick Motor Company was the cornerstone of a vast automotive empire named General Motors, which William C. Durant established. As Durant’s rocket sailed toward the heavens, David Buick’s plummeted to the earth, and after an endless string of failed enterprises, he ended his days as the information desk clerk at the Detroit School of Trades.

Durant would follow Buick on the road to ruin, but not before transforming General Motors into an industrial giant, losing control of the company and regaining it through the creation of a company named Chevrolet, or challenging Ford’s dominance with a company named Durant. In February 1936, Durant declared personal bankruptcy and ended his days as a partner in a bowling alley with a lunchroom and grocery store.

Durant and Buick were not the only men to flirt with fame and fortune during the heady days when the American auto industry was a whirligig with an atmosphere that hovered between a gold rush and a carnival. Nor were they the only pioneers to become forgotten immortals.

Swiss-born Louis Joseph Chevrolet arrived in New York as an agent for the French automobile company De Dion-Bouton. However, his skills as a mechanic for Fiat and as a driver for the racing team that included brothers Arthur and Gaston helped Louis Chevrolet develop a reputation that garnered headlines.

This notoriety led William Durant to retain Louis and Arthur for the Buick race team he was developing as a promotional venue. After losing control of General Motors for the first time, Durant again hired Louis, this time as an engineer, to design an engine that would power a new automobile, one that would carry the Chevrolet name.

This, too, proved a short-lived endeavor for Mr. Chevrolet, as Durant had established the company as a vehicle for regaining control of General Motors. Louis left the company and his trademarked name in 1914, resumed his racing career, and designed several race cars, including the one his brother, Gaston, drove to victory in the Indianapolis 500 in 1920.

Those who gained the hollow immortality of having their names transformed into a brand were the fortunate few; for men such as Henry Leland, obscurity was their only reward.

Incensed by what he perceived as an affront, Henry Ford stormed from the company. Undaunted, the directors reorganized the company under a name associated with Detroit’s founding, Le Sieur de la Mothe Cadillac, and used the engine Leland designed.

Leland would shepherd Cadillac through its formative years and help absorb it into the General Motors combine. Still, in 1917, a dispute with William Durant led to his departure and the establishment of a company to manufacture Liberty aircraft engines. As a historical side note, Leland named this company for the first president for whom he had voted in 1864, Abraham Lincoln.

Production had barely commenced when the Armistice negated his government contract. With mounting debts, seventy-four-year-old Leland swiftly transformed his factory and reorganized the company to produce automobiles.

Leland’s reputation for quality workmanship, attention to detail, and honesty is attested to by the fact that $6.5 million of common stock in the new company was subscribed within three hours of being placed on sale. Leland’s association with the company was relatively short.

Obsession over mechanical perfection, dated styling, and post-war material shortages hindered development and production. On February 4, 1922, the board of directors overrode Leland’s objections and placed the company in receivership.

The company was sold to Henry Ford for $8 million. His son, Edsel, assumed the presidency of Lincoln Motor Company before the year’s end.

Over time, Leland joined the pantheon of forgotten automotive pioneers. He was, however, in good company, as this is the final resting place for many of the giants from the infancy of the American auto industry, men like Ralph Teetor, Childe Harold Wills, H.J. Hipple, and Howard E. Coffin, to name but a few.