The C R Wilson Body Company with its plant located at Milwaukee Junction, Detroit, Michigan was incorporated in 1897. Early customers included Cadillac, Ford, Oldsmobile, and many other now forgotten brands.
It grew from Wilson brothers' blacksmith and wagon repair shop which soon began to manufacture wagons then carriages. The brothers split the business by products and Charles R Wilson formed the C R Wilson Carriage Company followed by a new incorporation, C R Wilson Body Company. [1]
Wilson built Cadillac's first closed production body.
Former employees included the Fisher brothers who founded Fisher Body Company. Henry Ford appears in a photograph of Wilson staff dated around 1900. [1]
On the sudden death of Charles R Wilson in 1924 a merger was negotiated with the owners of J W Murray Manufacturing Company, Towson Body Company and J C Widman Body Company under the name Murray Body Corporation. [1]
Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a coachbuilder, manufacturing wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses.
The E-M-F Company was an early American automobile manufacturer that produced automobiles from 1909 to 1912. The name E-M-F was gleaned from the initials of the three company founders: Barney Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders.
William Crapo Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, who created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each seemingly independent, with different automobile lines – bound under a unified corporate holding company. Durant, along with Frederic L. Smith, co-founded General Motors, as well as Chevrolet with Louis Chevrolet. He also founded Frigidaire.
The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such things as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915, a time when these vehicles were often referred to as horseless carriages.
Fisher Body was an automobile coachbuilder founded by the Fisher brothers in 1908 in Detroit, Michigan; it had been a division of General Motors for many years, but in 1984 was dissolved to form other General Motors divisions. Fisher & Company continues to use the name. The name and its iconic "Body by Fisher" logo were well known to the public, as General Motors vehicles displayed a "Body by Fisher" emblem on their door sill plates until the mid-1990s.
A coachbuilder, or body-maker, manufactures bodies for passenger-carrying vehicles. Coachwork is the body of an automobile, bus, horse-drawn carriage, or railway carriage. The word "coach" was derived from the Hungarian town of Kocs.
The Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham was a luxury car manufactured by Cadillac from 1977 through 1986. In 1987, the Fleetwood Brougham name was shortened to simply Brougham, with production continuing through 1992 with only minor updates.
The first Cadillac automobiles were the 1903 Model built in the last quarter of 1902. These were 2-seater "horseless carriages" powered by a reliable and sturdy 10 hp (7 kW) single-cylinder engine developed by Henry Martyn Leland and built by Leland and Faulconer Manufacturing Company of Detroit, of which Henry Leland was founder, vice-president and general manager.
Frederick Douglas Patterson was an American entrepreneur, known for running the family business, C.R. Patterson and Sons, and he is the creator of the Patterson-Greenfield automobile of 1915.
Charles Thomas Fisher was an American businessman and an automotive pioneer.
The Piquette Avenue Industrial Historic District is a historic district located along Piquette Street in Detroit, Michigan, from Woodward Avenue on the west to Hastings Street on the east. The district extends approximately one block south of Piquette to Harper, and one block north to the Grand Trunk Western Railroad Line. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Milwaukee Junction is an area in Detroit, Michigan, east of New Center. Located near the railroad junction of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad's predecessors Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway and the Chicago, Detroit and Canada Grand Trunk Junction, the area encompasses the streets of East Grand Boulevard to the north, St. Aubin St./Hamtramck Drive to the east, John R Street to the west, and the border following I-94 to the south. Due to the presence of numerous car companies within it at the turn of the 20th century, Milwaukee Junction is considered the "cradle of the Detroit auto industry".
The Rauch & Lang Carriage Company was an American electric automobile manufactured in Cleveland, Ohio, from 1905 to 1920 and Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, from 1920-1932.
Albert Fisher was a pioneer in the burgeoning auto industry in Detroit. He was the uncle of the seven Fisher brothers, founders of Fisher Body. Albert Fisher built some of the first bodies for many automobiles and trucks. He built the first touring car body for Henry Ford. He was one of those whose efforts started the industry that transformed Detroit into one of the great metropolitan centers of the nation.
The Russell Industrial Center is an industrial factory turned to commercial complex of studios and shops that is located at 1600 Clay Street in Detroit, Michigan. The Russell Industrial Center is a 2,200,000-square-foot (200,000 m2), seven building complex, designed by Albert Kahn for John William Murray in 1915. It contains studios and lofts and serves as a professional center for commercial and creative arts.
The Chevrolet Series BA Confederate is an American vehicle manufactured by Chevrolet in 1932 to replace the 1931 Series AE Independence. Production slipped significantly from over 600,000 cars to 323,100 for the model year as the Great Depression continued, but was still sufficient for Chevrolet to retain first place in the American car sales table. Sales were also affected by cross-town rival Ford introducing the Ford V8 coupe and sedan. A new body style called a station wagon was produced in limited quantities by coachbuilder Mifflinburg Body Company of Mifflinburg, Pennsylvania.
The W.F. Stewart Company was an American carriage body and automotive body manufacturer founded in 1881 by William Francis Stewart and based in Flint, Michigan. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of wooden carriage bodies for horse-drawn transport and later automotive bodies. The company also briefly produced light aircraft, but went out of business in the Great Depression.
Briggs Manufacturing was an American, Detroit-based manufacturer of automobile bodies for Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Corporation and other U.S. and European automobile manufacturers.
Murray Corporation of America run from 1600 Clay Street, Detroit Michigan was, from 1925 until 1939, a major supplier of complete automobile bodies to the Ford Motor Company. Non-automotive stamped steel products were added during the great depression of the 1930s. Production switched to wings for wartime aircraft and other aircraft components. Postwar they moved further into stainless steel products including cabinets and kitchen sinks. Washing machines, plumbing and bathroom fixtures, cutting tools and truck engine parts followed. Their last automotive products plant was sold in 1955.
Flint Wagon Works of Flint, Michigan, manufactured wagons from the early 1880s. One of the world's most successful horse-drawn vehicle makers they formed with their Flint neighbours a core of the American automobile industry. In 1905 Flint was promoting itself as Flint the Vehicle City. The former site is now located in the neighborhood of Flint as "Carriagetown".
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