Ingersoll was born in
New Jersey, one of five brothers. By 1900, he had moved to
Glenfield, Pennsylvania, a community on the
Ohio River near
Pittsburgh. Ingersoll also designed and built another ride that many parks presented as their signature attraction, the
Shoot-the-Chutes water ride, a type that has since evolved into the modern
log flume that many current parks feature. By 1901, Ingersoll and his company broadened their scope from designing and building amusement park rides to designing and building amusement parks themselves. Two early successes,
Riverside Amusement Park in
Indianapolis and
Rocky Glen Park near
Moosic, Pennsylvania, were trolley parks designed, built, and opened by Ingersoll by 1903 and 1905 respectively. With the success of the Ingersoll parks (and that of
Coney Island's Luna Park, which opened the same year), Ingersoll conceived of an amusement park chain, featuring establishments both individually and collectively named
Luna Park. By 1904, the Luna Park Amusement Company was formed with investor help.
Luna Parks After the 1905 opening of
Indianola Park in
Columbus, Ohio, Ingersoll turned his attention to his proposed Luna Park chain. The first two,
Cleveland and
Pittsburgh - the 36th and 37th parks designed and made by Ingersoll Company - ignited an explosion of park building worldwide, with Luna Parks (both associated with Ingersoll and those having no such connection) being spread around the world. While some Luna Parks (such as Cleveland and Pittsburgh) opening to sizable success, the monetary demands of constantly maintaining and updating rides and other attractions led Ingersoll to declare bankruptcy in 1908. As a result of bankruptcy proceedings, the Cleveland flagship park was sold to one of the investors of the Luna Park Amusement Company,
Matthew Bramley, owner of the
Cleveland Trinidad Paving Company (at the time the world's largest paving company). Bramley eventually became owner of Luna Park Amusement Company as Ingersoll's monetary problems continued in the 1910s. For a second bankruptcy filing (in 1911), Ingersoll listed liabilities of $179,668 and assets of three suits of clothes, valued at $75. In 1929, former roller coaster designer of Ingersoll Construction,
John A. Miller, eulogized him by stating, "We owe all the success of the amusement park to Fred Ingersoll." In the same eulogy, Lloyd Jeffries followed up by proclaiming "Ingersoll was the tree from which the amusement limbs branched forth, as many of the leading park men of today came from that tree in one way or another." == Ingersoll amusement parks ==