The Auburn Automobile Company grew out of the Eckhart Carriage Company, founded in
Auburn, Indiana, in 1874 by Charles Eckhart (1841–1915). Eckhart's sons, Frank and Morris, experimented making automobiles before entering the business in earnest, absorbing two other local carmakers and moving into a larger plant in 1909. The enterprise was modestly successful until materials shortages during
World War I forced the plant to close. In 1919, the Eckhart brothers sold the company to a group of
Chicago investors headed by
Ralph Austin Bard, who later served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy for President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt and as Undersecretary of the Navy for Roosevelt and President
Harry S. Truman. The new owners revived the business, but it proved unprofitable. In 1924 they approached
Errett Lobban Cord (1894–1974), a highly successful automobile salesman, with an offer to run the company. Cord countered with an offer to take over completely in what amounted to a
leveraged buyout, which the Chicago group accepted. Cord aggressively marketed the company's unsold inventory and completed his buyout before the end of 1925. But after the
1929 stock market crash, despite advanced engineering and aggressive styling, Auburn's upscale vehicles were too expensive for the
Depression-era market, and around 1935, Auburn started to produce a line of kitchen cabinets and sinks, to keep the company afloat. Cord eventually gave up control of his automobile holding company, which included the even more expensive
Cord, and
Rolls-Royce-priced high-performance
Duesenberg brands, as well as
Central Manufacturing Co., an 1896 coach-building company that built metal bodies for a number of different car companies, including Auburn. In 1939, the sales and distribution rights were handed over to Diamond T; two years later the Pak-Age-Car was also discontinued with the switch to wartime production. After a 1940 bankruptcy reorganization, the former Auburn Automobile and Central Manufacturing Companies merged into
Auburn Central Manufacturing / (ACM) Corporation. In March 1941, Auburn Central Manufacturing (ACM) landed an important contract with Willys-Overland, initially for 1,600
Willys MA jeep bodies. The first bodies were shipped in April 1941, but more, very large, jeep body manufacturing contracts were gained from both Willys-Overland and Ford Motor Company during World War II. In addition to jeep bodies, ACM also made trailer bodies and aircraft components. In March 1942, ACM changed its name from Auburn Central to
American Central Manufacturing. ACM then went on receiving orders from Willys-Overland for
all body-tubs of their roughly 360,000 World War II 1/4ton, Willys MB jeeps, through 1945; plus roughly midway of their 280,000 or so 1/4ton GPW jeep production, Ford
also ordered the remainder of their jeep body tubs from ACM as well ! By mid 1943, during peak wartime production, and having built their 150,000th jeep body, the
Connersville, Indiana, company, and ACM's large buildings complex, together with many more automotive industries there, had formed a veritable
industrial park, that earned the town the nickname "Little Detroit". Eventually, Jeep body production for Willys continued through 1948. Post-war, in 1945, kitchen sinks, appliances, and cabinets were chosen as having the largest market potential for ACM's manufacturing capabilities. This indeed became ACM's core product after the war. ==Models==