Fastmetal wrote (much snipped...) Studebaker is absolutely the Winner for
title of America's Oldest Manufacturer of Automobiles, as the Studebaker
brothers got their start building wagons (possibly Conestoga type ) that
were used to move the Pioneers westward across America ........ I think
they were already doing this in the 1850s.
-------------------------
Actually, John Mollar Studebaker got his start as a young man building
WHEEL BARROWS in Placerville California for the miners during the gold rush
in 1853. He arrived about 3 years too late to stake a good claim. He,
like many others, made an immense fortunate by selling tools and supplies
the gold seekers needed. He returned home with his fortunate and expanded
the family wagon business. When the civil war came along they got a
government contract (an American Tradition) to build horse drawn wagons for
the Union Army. The fortunate made from that eventually started the car
company.
-Elon
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