Automobile Culture

Although Detroit is known today as the home of the automobile industry in the United States, Wisconsin - - and the Milwaukee area in particular - - made many contributions to the industry in its earliest years. Since 1900, more than eighty different makes of cars and trucks have been manufactured in Wisconsin. In 1873, the first steam-powered, self-propelled vehicle in the United States was designed and operated by Reverend Dr. J.W. Carhart of Racine. Two years later, the Wisconsin Legislature offered a $10,000 prize to the winner of a race between Green Bay and Madison in an effort to find a "cheap and practical substitute" for horses. Gas-powered automobiles began to appear more regularly in the state by 1899. Driving provided a new experience for Wisconsin citizens and proved a boon to the state's economy, as Wisconsin developed into a regional center for the automobile industry.

Edward Joel Pennington was one of the first Wisconsin manufacturers to produce automobiles. In 1895, Pennington joined Thomas Kane and Company in Racine to build the "Kane-Pennington Hot Air Engine." Unfortunately, the company soon failed. Bicycle manufacturer Thomas B. Jeffery was a far more successful businessman, building an automobile company that became one of Wisconsin's most successful. Trained in England as a maker of scientific instruments, Jeffery came to Chicago where he built bicycles called "Ramblers," experimenting with automobiles on the side. In 1900, Jeffery sold his business and moved to Kenosha, where, in 1902, he produced 1,500 new Ramblers, borrowing the bicycle name for his automobiles. Anticipating Henry Ford, Jeffery sought to provide quality automobiles for the average American family. The Jeffery family sold the business in 1916 to Charles W. Nash who quickly made the Kenosha plant the largest producer of automobiles outside Detroit.

In 1917, Kenosha's Rambler plant began producing the Nash. Additional plants were soon built in Racine and Milwaukee, and Nash negotiated a contract with the U.S. Army that made the Nash Motor Company one of the largest producers of trucks in the nation.

Bicycles also played an important part in the development of the Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee. William Harley and the Davidson brothers (William, Walter, and Arthur) designed a motorized bicycle with a two-cylinder engine that became the company trademark. During World War I, they produced 18,000 motorcycles to meet the needs of the military, which used them for dispatch work.

Other Wisconsin companies joined the race to produce automobiles before World War I. In Racine, successful wagon maker Mitchell-Lewis began building cars in addition to wagons. By 1911, the Mitchell-Lewis Motor Company had become the city's largest employer, employing 2,000 workers to build the company's fashionable touring cars. The company was later bought by another Wisconsin auto-maker, the Nash Motor Company, in 1925.

In Hartford, hardware dealer Louis Kissel moved into automobile production in 1906, producing one of Wisconsin's most prized custom automobiles. His automobile, the Kissel Kar, attained international renown for its classic design and outstanding performance. During World War I, the Kissel firm began to produce trucks for the Army, employing as many as 1,400 workers. The company suffered severe financial losses during the Depression, however, and ended production of the famous Kissel Kar in 1930.

William Besserdich and Otto Zachow of Clintonville invented the four-wheel drive in 1906. Their Four Wheel Drive Company helped make Clintonville a center of heavy truck production that reached an international market during World War I. The company produced 14,473 trucks for the U.S. government.

Despite the number of automobiles being produced in the early years of the twentieth century, the development and maintenance of Wisconsin roads remained a low priority for government officials. Trains continued to be the most popular mode of transportation and funding went to create additional rail lines. The Good Roads Movement of the 1890s and early 1900s sought to transform the condition of the roads, but was aimed at helping farmers rather than drivers. The poor condition of Wisconsin's roads made it difficult for farmers to maneuver their wagons to market, and Good Roads promoters campaigned for state-financed road improvements. After the State Aid Road Law passed in 1911, roads began to be paved with gravel. By 1916, the State Highway Commission recognized the needs of the automobile and so began to establish a system of highways throughout the state the following year.

Automobiles and improved roads also helped the tourist industry, especially in northern Wisconsin, which enthusiastically promoted its small towns. One of the most popular vacation routes was Highway 13, which ran from the Illinois border near Beloit to Ashland and the Bayfield Peninsula. Resort owners called the highway "Lucky 13" and promised tourists that they could find anything they wanted along its path. Brochures and pamphlets were sent out to encourage travel along the highway, highlighting various sites in each of the towns. In 1941, the federal government published Wisconsin: A Guide to the Badger State, which promoted the fun and excitement of driving along Highway 13.

In 1918 General Motors (which had been founded in 1908) decided to branch out into farm vehicles by buying the Samson Tractor Co. in Janesville. After enlarging the factory, the first GM tractor rolled off the line on May 1, 1919, and within 12 months production had picked up to nearly 150 tractors a day. Chevrolet cars began to be produced in 1923 and the plant expanded steadily through the 1920s. When the Great Depression temporarily closed the plant in 1932, about 200 Janesville employees went to work at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair to assemble cars. Production of Chevrolets resumed in 1934 and continued until 1942 when, as part of the WWII war effort, the Janesville plant produced 105mm artillery shells (16 million of them).

Automobiles played a major part in the growth of Wisconsin's economy in the twentieth century. From jobs to tourism, automobiles transformed daily life, presenting new and exciting opportunities to Wisconsin motorists.

[Sources: The History of Wisconsin vols 3 and 4 (Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin); Kasparek, Jon, Bobbie Malone and Erica Schock. Wisconsin History Highlights: Delving into the Past (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2004)]

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	The automobile population of Madison in 1903
	The early days of driving in Wisconsin
	A Racine pastor invents a horseless carriage in 1873.
	The great Green Bay to Madison automobile race of 1878.
	An 1897 bamboo bicycle
	La Crosse's first motor-bike, 1900
	An original "Big Boy" plastic sculpture from a Marc's restaurant, ca. 1971
	A 1910 automobile travel guide to Wisconsin
	The newest automobile from Kenosha's Thomas B. Jeffery Company
	The making of a Mitchell Car, 1911
	The Pneumatic, a progressive monthly paper for cyclists
	A Guide to Wisconsin Automobile Routes, 1916
	A Tourist Brochure for Shawano and the Menominee Indian Reservation, ca. 1925
	A Tourist Brochure for Marinette Co., ca. 1923
	An 1897 bicycling guide to Wisconsin
	The evolution of gas stations in Wisconsin
	Harley-Davidson's first factory
	Photographs of automobile manufacturing in Wisconsin, 1905-1968.
	Images of the Winther Motor Truck Company
	A Wisconsin sailor recounts the attack on his ship at Pearl Harbor