The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in Auburn, Ind., is full of beautiful Art Deco-designed cars in a showroom designed to impress potential clients. Jon Bill, who provided some history about the museum, is the curator and has worked there for 16 years.

 

Before opening his own company, Charles Eckhart was a wheelwright working for the Studebaker brothers in South Bend, Ind., building wagons.

After moving to Auburn, he set up his own wagon company in 1874. He retired after almost 20 years, in 1893, and transferred the business to his two sons, Morris and Frank.

It was the two brothers who built the first Auburn car. Although he retired in 1900, after the invention of the horseless carriage, Charles charged Morris and Frank to do a feasibility study about the auto industry. They deemed it worthwhile and in 1903 introduced the first Auburn car, naming it after their fair city.

“The car had a modest success, with 50 to 100 selling per year,” Jon said. In 1908 the Eckharts built a factory near the current museum.

“They were never huge, they never sold very many automobiles; there were a lot of automobile companies at that time,” he explained.

Charles was successful enough that he was able to help the community. He built the local library, a YMCA and a park. During theoff-season he kept his workers busy, keeping local employment at a high and making him a beloved figure. After he died in 1915, his sons continued running the company.

The popularity of Auburn cars increased after the brothers changed from a single- cylinder, chain-driven style with solid  rubber tires, to a car that was stillchain-driven but had tires filled with air. Each new model had a few new introductions; the 1905 model had a two-cylinder engine, the 1909 version was a four-cylinder and the 1912 car was a six-cylinder.

“In 1919 Auburn introduced the new Beauty 6 and this caught the attention of investors from Chicago,” Jon said. “Among them was William Wrigley Jr.”

With a struggling economy, the Eckhart brothers were willing to sell the Auburn Automobile Co. to investors. There was only one problem: “(Investors) purchased the company, but they didn’t know how to run the company.”

With sales lagging during the tough recession, the investors began looking for something or someone to save the company. 

That turned out to be Erret Lobban Cord, who came to the country in 1924. While Auburn was producing six cars a day, they were not selling.

Cord worked at Quinlan Motor Car Co. selling Moon cars, and he turned down the investors’ offer to become their general manager on salary; however, he talked them into giving him a percentage of the profits and invested in the company, allowing him the opportunity to acquire controlling interest if he could make it profitable.

Jon said that Cord did just that. With an eye to get rid of the inventory on the lot, Cord repainted the cars and added some nickel plating and started selling. He gave a pep talk to local dealers, cut prices and unleashed a national advertising campaign.

 

Working with the Lycoming Co. in 1925, Cord used its straight-eight cylinder motors in the Auburns and introduced two new models. Sales went through the roof and by the middle of 1926, the third year, Cord was president of the Auburn Automobile Co. Expanding his empire, he acquired Stinson Aircraft, the Arnstead Engine Co., the Lexington Motor Car Co., Central Manufacturing, Lycoming of Williamsport, Pa., Limousine Body in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Duesenberg Motors in Indianapolis.

He combined all these into the Cord Corp. “He was an accomplished pilot and he founded Century Airlines that later became American Air,” Jon added. “At one time he had 60 companies under his belt.” This addition meant Cord needed a new corporate headquarters to sell his luxury cars. Fort Wayne architect Elvin Strauss designed it. “Art Deco was all the rage.

They created a floral ceiling, specially  designed lamps from Italy. The showroom was designed to impress people he showed the Cord Company Products,” Jon said.

At one time under Cord, Auburn was the fourth-leading exporter of automobiles in the United States. But while 1929 was the best year for sales, Cord was losing interest in the company. “A conquered challenge is no longer any fun,” Cord is rumored to have said.

So, he moved on to other interest, including real estate, ranching and mining. In doing this, he neglected the company and, without his creativity and with  the onset of the Great Depression, thecompany lost sales. It eventually closed in 1937.

Readers with questions or comments for Cindy Ladage may write to her in care of this publication. Learn more of Cindy’s finds and travel in her blog, “Traveling Adventures of a Farm Girl,” at http://travelingadventuresofafarmgirl.com