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Chapter 3: Overland by Bicycle, Wagon, and Automobile

           At the turn of the 20th century, the horse was still the primary mode of transportation.  However, the increasing number of people moving into urban areas, combined with the problems of feeding, watering, and removing the waste of the animals, necessitated a new form of transportation.  Railroads, canals, and trolleys proved useful, but lacked sufficiently flexible schedules to meet the needs of urban dwellers. 
           By the late 1800s, the bicycle had become popular, and was cheaper and easier to maintain than a horse. Toledo played a major role in bicycle production and was the home of several manufacturers, including the Gendron Company.  But the bicycle failed to solve the problem of traveling between cities, due to the greater distances and poor road conditions.  At around the same time, a vehicle known as the “horseless carriage” was being developed, and some bicycle companies re-tooled their factories and began producing them.  This included several Toledo companies which became known for the production of such vehicles as the Pope Toledo and the Milburn Light Electric.  These companies did not last long, but they set the stage for the city to become one of the most important centers for automobile manufacturing in the world.
           In 1908, John North Willys purchased the Standard Wheel Company.  The following year, he purchased the former Pope manufacturing plant in Toledo and began producing vehicles there under the company name Willys-Overland.  The company prospered for a number of years and was second only to Ford in car production.  The Great Depression hit the company hard, however, and it did not recover until World War II, when it began producing a lightweight military reconnaissance vehicle requested by the Army.  That vehicle became the world-famous Jeep.
           Willys-Overland was not the only major automotive company that moved to Toledo.  In 1929, the Spicer Manufacturing Company moved to the city to be closer to its customers in Detroit.  It was founded in Plainfield, New Jersey, in 1904 by Clarence Spicer, who invented the universal joint while he was still a student at Cornell University.  The universal joint proved more reliable than the sprocket and chain that had been used to power the earliest automobiles.  The company quickly became successful, but less than ten years later was in danger of going out of business.  Charles Dana, a young attorney from New York, provided the needed financing and eventually became president of the company, which was re-named in his honor in 1946. 
           Still another company that impacted Toledo and the automobile industry was Champion Spark Plug, co-founded by Robert and Frank Stranahan in Boston in 1907.  Robert Stranahan developed a better design for spark plugs that was asbestos-lined and had a copper gasket.  At the invitation of John Willys, the brothers moved their business to Toledo in 1910.  Robert’s revolutionary design caught on quickly and in later years would make the company so dominant that its corporate logo was second only to Coca-Cola’s in world-wide recognition.

 

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