Transcript for Episode 2 of the 2024 Season of Talking Hoosier History.
Written and performed by Justin Clark. Produced by Jill Weiss Simins.
It was a day of surprises. Two drivers in the latest models tore through the congested streets of Philadelphia, interrupting (likely) stunned shoppers. Not your typical drag race, these drivers peeled around corners and then slammed on the brakes, put the cars in park, and shut off the engines – only to start them up again and race off to another destination.
They repeated this strange course again and again – making twenty-five stops within the congested shopping district. The competition was a friendly one, but the stakes were high. The test would determine whether a “40 horse power gasoline” car or a “runabout” electric car would perform better in the busy thoroughfares of the City of Brotherly Love.
Both drivers started on North Broad Street, making all of the necessary stops within the city’s shopping district, and ending right back where they started. In a shocking twist, the electric car finished first, beating the gas car by ten whole minutes.
Curiously, this race didn’t happen last week or even last year, and the electric car wasn’t a Tesla. It was a Studebaker, the South Bend-based company, and the year was 1908. And the driver of the electric car? Her name was Laure Duval, and she worked as a salesperson for the Studebaker Brothers Company of New York.
To understand our electric car future, one must drive into the past.
I’m Justin Clark, and this is Talking Hoosier History.
Studebaker cemented its place in the American economy as a successful brand by the time of its foray into electric cars. Brothers Henry and Clem Studebaker founded a blacksmith shop in the early 1850s, originally specializing in the manufacture of horse-drawn vehicles. Securing their reputation by supplying Union troops with vehicles during the Civil War secured its reputation, and in 1868, the brothers formed the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company in1868 . The firm built a massive manufacturing plant in South Bend and employed well over a thousand Hoosiers by the 1890s.
By 1897, Studebaker was “building and experimenting with a ‘horseless vehicle’,” and in 1901, they got closer to their vision with help from two of America’s most visionary inventors. Thomas A. Edison, the man behind the lightbulb and the motion picture camera, designed the battery for one of Studebaker’s two prototype automobile designs. Westinghouse, Edison’s bitter corporate rival (and Nikola Tesla’s financial backer) in the legendary “electric current wars” of the 1890s, developed the other battery. In the end, Westinghouse’s battery emerged as the victor in the “mini” current war and Studebaker successfully tested its first electric automobile on November 16, 1901. Shortly thereafter, they started producing electric cars and trucks, selling the first twenty runabouts by 1902.
Studebaker’s electric cars sold for $975 in 1903. ($34,604.97 in 2024 dollars). With that money, you could’ve bought 34 Ben-Hur bicycles, 650 premiere evening tickets to English’s Opera House, 2,785 cups of H. H. Lee Coffee, or 48,750 issues of the Indianapolis News! While the price tag limited the car’s marketability to mostly middle- and upper-class Americans, Studebaker effectively targeted two urban demographics: city businessmen and society women.
Businessmen especially took to the Studebaker electric, enticed by ads displaying the ‘gentleman about town’ completing his social calls and articles attesting to its popularity. One such professional was Dr. Jacob Frank, a physician who lived at 49 Pine Grove Avenue, who purchased a Studebaker electric in 1908. “I drove a gasoline car for the last two years . . .” Dr. Frank said to the Chicago Inter Ocean, “but for men of my profession it does not compare with the electric for city work. My new Victoria is no trouble whatever and I would not exchange it under any conditions for a gasoline car for around town work.”
By 1907, Studebaker supercharged its marketing to women. The company ran ads proclaiming that “the woman whose social duties require the constant use of a carriage will appreciate that advantage of a Studebaker Electric.” That same year, a photograph in the San Francisco Chronicle showcased a Studebaker electric with none other than actress Trixie Friganza in the driver’s seat. A mainstay of stage and screen for decades, Friganza was also a suffragist and attended rallies in support of women’s rights. Friganza’s willingness to be photographed driving a Studebaker electric car spoke to its popularity among successful women, something the company continually leaned into. Additionally, Friganza wasn’t the only driving suffragist. As historian Anita Morgan documented, leaders of the Woman’s Suffrage League, one of the major suffrage organizations in Indiana, embarked on an automobile tour in 1912 to drum up support, stopping at busy street corners and delivering speeches from atop their vehicles.
In addition to appealing to actresses and suffragists, Studebaker’s electrics gained a foothold with society women. According to the Pittsburgh Press in 1910, “a notable number of ladies of Pittsburg’s elite have visited this [Studebaker] exhibition and their expressions of approval and delight are particularly gratifying to the company’s executives.” Idahoan society women also loved them, the Boise-based Statesman noted, as it was a vehicle with “lots of class” that enhanced its drivers’ independence and opportunities. All across the country, the Studebaker electric’s brand became synonymous with simplicity, elegance, and cleanliness.
Studebaker electrics also cultivated a reputation for reliability and performance. For instance, a series of tests in 1908 displayed a Model 22 Studebaker electric runabout expertly traveling from Kansas City, Missouri to Ottawa, Kansas, “in spite of the fact that the roads were very rough in places and a number of steep hills proved to be a severe test for some of the contestants,” the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote. Drivers also received a helping hand from local farmers, “who turned out in force with scrapers and spades and did their best to get the roads in good condition for the tests.”
Studebaker also manufactured electric trucks and delivery wagons, with prominent companies such as American Express and Gimbel Brothers using them consistently. However, the most newsworthy cargo a Studebaker electric truck ever carried was Tillie, an elephant from the Robinson Brothers’ circus who strained a tendon in her left front leg. A Studebaker electric truck converted into an ambulance transported Tillie to a veterinarian in South Bend, the circus’s latest stop. From transporting letters and telegraphs to industrial machinery and even elephants, Studebaker electric trucks and wagons played a vital transportation role in the early years of the twentieth century.
So, why did Studebaker stop manufacturing electric vehicles? The sources present us with conflicting information. As late as 1910, newspapers documented “heavy demand” for Studebaker electrics, and the company planned to expand its factories to meet demand. However, sometime between 1911-1912, Studebaker halted production of electric vehicles. One possible explanation might have been Studebaker’s merger with the Everett-Metzger-Flanders (E-M-F) automobile company in Detroit. Since E-M-F produced gasoline-powered automobiles, Studebaker may have seen it as more efficient to double down on existing automobile plants for its corporate expansion. Another factor may have been the electrics’ lack of speed. As Stephen Longstreet wrote in his history of Studebaker, “there was no real future in such a slow car depending on batteries. G
asoline-powered cars were the talk in smart engineering circles.” Whichever the main reason, Studebaker discontinued production of electric vehicles by 1912, after selling 1,841 in ten years, or 42% of all horseless vehicles sold in that period.
Furthermore, the history of automobiles indicated a significant shift towards gasoline-powered vehicles and “electric vehicles were pretty much irrelevant by the mid-1930s and would remain so for decades,” according to automotive historian Kevin A. Wilson. Significant technical challenges stalled the wider adoption of electrics, such as with the limitations with batteries. “The relatively poor energy density of affordable batteries, however, kept electrics in the shade,” Wilson noted, and “advances in electric propulsion came slowly while limitations of speed and range came to look even greater in the world as it was remade by the gasoline automobile and consumers grew accustomed to long-distance highway travel at increasing velocities.”
Today, this trend has started to change. With the success of companies like Tesla, Rivian, and BYD, electric vehicles genuinely compete for both customers and road space, as drivers report they are just as fast, reliable, and elegant as any gas-powered vehicle. In a sense, the pathbreaking spirit of Studebaker and many other companies lives on in these new manifestations of electric cars.
For roughly a decade, Studebaker stood at the forefront of an electric vehicle revolution that provided affordable, durable, and reliable cars to the public. The company constantly sought to improve its vehicles through rigorous testing and innovative technological advancements, such as home charging and extended trip times. Studebaker also marketed their cars to savvy, affluent consumers, from the city businessman to the society woman. And behind it all was a company based in South Bend, Indiana, that would go on to make gasoline-powered cars for decades, employing thousands of workers and stimulating the local economy, until its dissolution in 1966.
One senses that John Mohler Studebaker, one of the original brothers who built the company from the ground up, would be pleased to see electric cars having a dramatic resurgence. Who knows? Maybe he would’ve been photographed driving a Cybertruck if he was around today. Now that would’ve been something for the newspapers.
If you want to learn more about this topic read: The “Buzz Wagon: Studebaker’s Electric Cars” by me, Justin Clark, at the Untold Indiana blog. The link is in the show notes.
You can also learn more about how Indiana suffragists used cars to further their message from “Taking It to the Streets: Hoosier Women’s Suffrage Automobile Tour: by historian Anita Morgan, at our blog.
State historical markers are also a great way to learn about automotive history. Head to our website and look for the marker on legendary Howard County entrepreneur Elwood Haynes and his Horseless Carriage!
In Kokomo on July 4, 1894, Elwood Haynes made the first test run of an automobile which he designed and built. His car reached a speed of about seven miles per hour over a six-mile course on the city’s legendary Pumpkinvine Pike. He would continue to design and build cars with business partner Elmer Apperson from 1896 to 1905.
And keep on the lookout for our forthcoming Studebaker historical marker, which will be dedicated in the near future.
We hope you liked this short episode of the podcast. Let us know! Subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you get your podcasts. Once again, I’m Justin Clark, and this has been Talking Hoosier History. Thanks for listening.
Show Notes
Written and performed by Justin Clark. Produced by Jill Weiss Simins.
For footnotes, primary sources, and more info on Studebaker’s electric cars visit the Untold Indiana Blog: https://blog.history.in.gov/the-buzz-wagon-studebakers-electric-cars/
