THE GREAT WAGON AND CARRIAGE WORKS OF THE STUDEBAKER BROTHERS MANUFACTURING COMPANY AT SOUTH BEND, ST. JOSEPH COUNTY INDIANA
(Transcribed from "An Illustrated History Of The State Of Indiana" by DeWitt C. Goodrich and Prof. Charles R. Tuttle Published 1876)

    A stranger, visiting South Bend twenty years ago, must have admired the beauty of her location, and the air of thriftiness surrounding the embryo city. If critical in that direction, he would have looked with pleasure upon the budding industries born of the immense hydraulic power of the beautiful St. Joseph river, and prophesied of the wonderful results inevitable in the then future. Perhaps the rushing waters, tumbling over their pebbly bed, as they sought for rest in the tideless Michigan, would have suggested possibilities never to be realized. Visions of cotton and woolen factories, with the whirl of spindles, and the click of looms, or the noise and hustle of other industries intimately associated with hydraulic force, might have crept upon his brain. Had he, however, looked into a little wagon shop on Michigan street he would scarcely have imagined that there was the nucleus of not only the largest industrial concern in northern Indiana, but of the most extensive establishment of its kind in the world, at the head of which would stand the young man then so lustily working at the forge, and singing his labor-refrain upon the anvil! Yet this last would have been a fact soon to be developed; for that work-shop was the starting point of the great Studebaker factories, and that young man to-day the able president of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company.
    It would be, both interesting and instructive. doubtless, to trace the history of this institution minutely, thus illustrating the great possibilities of small beginnings; the results of industry and enterprise, and fortifying the fact that maturity seldom springs from sudden effort, and that growth and permanency have a. singular correlation Such, however, is not the object of this article. Space, if not time, would fail us; so we shall present as briefly as possible, such dry facts and figures as are at hand.
    It was on the sixteenth day of February, 1852, that Henry and Clement Studebaker opened their shop in South Bend, by the firm name of H. & C. Studebaker. They meant business; that did business. They had capital enough, but it was chiefly invested in bone, muscle, and indomitable will. They were hopeful, cheerful, and, finally, prosperous. Changes were made in the firm name and in its personnel Slowly, hut surely, the work went on, until finally, in 1864, three of the brothers, Clement, John M. and Peter E., became equal partner; and the great house was founded by the name of Studebaker Brothers. Henry had retired and settled upon a farm near the city, where he now resides, a

well satisfied and very comfortable country gentleman. The works were enlarged, and soon after Peter E. established a branch at St. Joseph, Missouri, then a famous outfitting point, and where he did an enormous business Thus the new firm progressed, gradually enlarging its borders and strengthening its stake, until 1869, when its interests were consolidated in a joint stock company, called, as at present, the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company. But their course was not destined to he an uninterrupted one. In June 1872. they were visited by a fire which involved a loss of nearly one hundred thousand dollars. Meantime, Jacob F., the youngest brother, had come in, making up the quartet, and William Mack had become a stockholder. A large tract of land had been purchased south of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern depot and large improvements made. Immediately after the fire another gentleman joined the company. It was Mr. R. L. Hines, a former partner of John M. Studebaker, in California. Becoming superintendent of construction, Mr. Hines has done yeoman's service ever since. At once the work of enlargement on the new premises commenced, and was continued. until in the spring of 1874, the noble works of the company, the largest of the kind in the world, were completed, or nearly so. Something of their magnitude may be gathered from the following cut, which represents them at the period mentioned.
    On the twenty fourth of August, 1874, this noble pile, the beaus ideal of its proprietors, the pride of the city, and the wonder of all, was nearly destroyed by fire, with a large portion of its contents, involving a loss of about three hundred and fifty thousand dollars, not far from one third of which was covered by insurance. The average width of the main factory was sixty two feet, the length aggregating eight bundled and sixty eight feet. The outside linear measurement was about a ball mile, and its floorage measuring over five acres! Forty forges, with blasts operated by machinery, were hi the smith shop, and five large elevators brought all the floors into immediate connection The capacity of the works was one completed wagon each ten minutes. Of course the loss was a very severe one, and many men would have succumbed under the pressure of such a disaster. Not so the Studebaker Brothers and their associates. The fire was hardly quenched ere the work of rebuilding began, and before the cold days of winter, larger and more convenient works were completed, with an eastern frontage on Lafayette street of five hundred feet, and on the railroad five hundred and seventy five feet. All are of brick, substantially built, and nearly all erected since the lire.
    The coach and carriage factory of the company is situated some half mile from the wagon works, on the corner of Michigan and Jefferson streets. It embraces the old wagon shops with more recent additions. These buildings are of brick, elegantly built, ranging from two to five stories in height, and having a floorage of about two acres. They contain smith shops, with thirty five forges, wood shops, painting, trimming and varnishing rooms, repository, offices, etc. The engraving on page 435 gives a better idea of the size and quality of these great carriage works than can be conveyed in words.
    The summary of the combined establishments is as follows:
Ground occupied for manufacturing purposes.........................17 Acres
Aggregate length of buildings, about........................................1,6000 Feet .
Average height of buildings.....................................................3 Stories  
Ground area of buildings over.................................................2 1/2 Acres  
Aggregate area of floors, nearly..............................................8 Acres  
Length of sheds, about...........................................................4,000 Feet  
Width of sheds, average.........................................................40 Feet  
Area covered by timber sheds, nearly.....................................7 Acres   
.
    The motive power of the factories consists of two engines, one of two hundred and the other forty horse power. Over one hundred and thirty labor-saving machines are in constant use.
Thus these immense works are re-built, and have a capacity for extraordinary usefulness. At the present writing, nearly six hundred hands am constantly employed, at remunerative wages; a support being thus given to over two thousand inhabitants.
As showing the gradual but sure growth of this industrial concern, the following table of productions is presented, which includes seven years:

YEAR	NO. OF VEHICLES	VALUE
1868	3,955	$380,000
1869	5,115	$412,000
1870	6,505	$573,000
1871	6,835	$625,000
1872	6,950	$691,000
1873	10,280	$896,000
1874	11,050	$1,000,000
TOTAL	53,690	$4,577,000

The year 1874, although marked by an extraordinary destruction, is the heaviest of all.
At first glance it might be considered difficult to find a market for this immense production, and so it would, were business transacted now as it was a quarter of a century ago, or even nearer the present Then wagons were hauled by teams to the most accessible points and left on commission, or peddled through the country from farm to farm, or from town to town. Cash sales were infrequent Cattle, horses, hogs, grain, or other property, usually formed the consideration, or for good notes time was given. Now things are different. Wagons are shipped by the car, almost by the train load. and are sold for cash, or first class commercial paper on short time. There is no barter. The west, northwest and southwest, are tributary to the company. On the plains and prairies on the. highest traversal points of the great rocky chain, on farms plantations and ranches, in Mexico, South America, and even Europe, the handiwork of the Studebakers is to be met with, while orders far beyond the capacity of the works are constantly on hand. The trouble is less to sell than to make. lit should be remarked that the tires alluded to consumed but a trifle of the seasoned material of the company, and that a reserve sufficient for the construction of thirty thousand vehicles is always on hand.
    The Studebaker Brothers are now in the very zenith of vigor and usefulness, and the concern bids fair to grow to even more extraordinary proportions.


The Studebaker Brothers Biographies