German forebears The ancestors of the Studebaker family descend from
Solingen, Germany. They arrived in America at the
port of Philadelphia on September 1, 1736, on the ship
Harle, from
Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Original manuscripts now in the Pennsylvania State Library at Harrisburg). This included Peter Studebaker and his wife Anna Margrethe Studebaker, Clement Studebaker (Peter's brother) and his wife Anna Catherina Studebaker, and Heinrich Studebaker (Peter's cousin). Photographs of the brothers and their parents are reproduced in the 1918 company history, which Erskine wrote after he became president, in memory of John M., whose portrait appears on the front cover.
18th-century colonial family business In 1740, Peter Studebaker, master of the German Cutler Guild, built his home on a 100-acre parcel which became known as "Bakers Lookout". The first Studebaker wagon factory was also built in the same year, where he began forging and tempering steel and seasoning wood. In this factory, Peter manufactured a wide variety of products, including products he had previously made in
Solingen, Germany, as well as wagons. Peter owned property on both sides of the
Conococheague Creek. Peter later purchased approximately 1500 acres in what is now known as the
State of Maryland. The home still stands today. (see Bakers Lookout Peter Studebaker's 1740 home website) In 1747, Peter Studebaker built a road across his properties, which became known as the Broadfording Wagon Road. It allowed heavy traffic to reach the wagon and forging services on Baker's Lookout, which were instrumental in expanding the West. The Maryland Historical Trust WA-I-306 writes 04/03/2001, that this road was "One of Washington County's earliest thoroughfares, Broadfording [Wagon] Road was already in existence in 1747." Although Peter lived in the American colonies for less than 18 years, the family business expanded through his descendants (see Exhibit M) and apprentices. They expanded the vast land holdings, enlarging the Studebaker family business and its industrious wagon-making region. Peter's trade secrets were passed on to the younger generations. The Studebaker family business plan was to gradually purchase vast amounts of land, on which they could build industrious farms with mills and facilities to make and sell wagons, each identical to the set-up on Bakers Lookout, industrious farms, much acreage, on which one finds the necessary resources: lumber, iron ore, oil shale and land selected with stream, spring, or river to hydropower factories, mills and equipment. Peter's technology enabled the expansion of the family business through the famous
Conestoga and
Prairie Schooner wagon designs. Peter's trade was the stepping stone to the expansion of the transportation industry. Thomas E. Bonsall wrote, "Much more than the story of a family business; it is also, in microcosm, the story of the industrial development of America." Peter Studebaker died in the mid-1750s.
End of horse-drawn era John M. Studebaker had always viewed the automobile as complementary to the horse-drawn wagon, noting that the expense of maintaining a car might be beyond the means of a small farmer. In 1918, when Erskine's history of the firm was published, the annual capacity of the seven Studebaker plants was 100,000 automobiles, 75,000 horse-drawn vehicles, and about $10,000,000 worth of automobile and vehicle spare parts ($ in dollars ). were produced using the same powerful six-cylinder engines. Number of motor vehicles produced by Studebaker: • 1902 – 20 electric vehicles • 1902–1912 – 1,841 electric vehicles • 1904–1910 – 2,481 gasoline vehicles • 1909 – 8,132 vehicles • 1910 – 15,300 vehicles • 1911 – 22,555 vehicles • 1912 – 28,623 vehicles • 1913 – 35,410 vehicles • 1914 – 35,460 vehicles • 1915 – 46,845 vehicles • 1916 – 65,885 vehicles • 1917 – 42,357 vehicles • 1918 – 23,864 vehicles • 1919 – 39,356 vehicles • 1920 – 51,474 vehicles • 1921 – 66,643 vehicles • 1922 – 110,269 vehicles • 1923 – 145,167 vehicles • 1924 – 110,240 vehicles • 1925 – 134,664 vehicles • 1926 – 111,315 vehicles • 1949 – 199,460 vehicles • 1950 – 268,226 vehicles
Studebaker automobiles 1897–1966 In the beginning In 1895, John M. Studebaker's son-in-law, Fred Fish, urged the development of 'a practical horseless carriage'. When, on Peter Studebaker's death, Fish became chairman of the executive committee in 1897, the firm had an engineer working on a motor vehicle.
Studebaker marque established in 1911 In 1910, it was decided to refinance and incorporate as the Studebaker Corporation, a decision finalized on February 14, 1911, under New Jersey law. and presided over the six-cylinders-only policy favored by new president
Albert Russel Erskine, who replaced Fred Fish in July 1915. Also in 1926, the last of the Detroit plant was moved to South Bend under the control of
Harold S Vance, vice president in charge of production and engineering. That year, a new small car, the
Erskine Six was launched in Paris, resulting in 26,000 sales abroad and many more in America. Plant 5 was the service parts store and shipping facility, plus the executive offices of various technical departments. An assembly plant in California, Studebaker Pacific Corporation, built engine assemblies and nacelles for
B-17s and
PV-2 Harpoons. After cessation of hostilities, Studebaker returned to building automobiles.
Post-WWII styling four-door sedan Starliner, showing the streamlined design of the 1950s Studebaker Studebaker prepared well in advance for the anticipated postwar market and launched the slogan "First by far with a post-war car". This advertising premise was substantiated by
Virgil Exner's designs, notably the 1947
Studebaker Starlight coupe, which introduced innovative styling features that influenced later cars, including the flatback "trunk" instead of the tapered look of the time, and a wrap-around rear window. For 1950 and 1951, the Champion and Commander adopted a polarizing appearance based on Exner's concepts, which was applied to the 1950
Studebaker Starlight coupe. The new trunk design prompted a running joke that one could not tell if the car was coming or going; it appeared to be influenced by the
Lockheed P-38 Lightning, particularly by the shortened fuselage with wrap around canopy. During the war, the Studebaker Chippewa Factory was the primary location for aircraft engines used in the
Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, and the marketing department attempted to evoke a reference to their contribution to the war effort.
Industry price war brings on a crisis Studebaker's strong postwar management team including president Paul G Hoffman and Roy Cole (vice president, engineering) had left by 1949 and was replaced by more cautious executives who failed to meet the competitive challenge brought on by
Henry Ford II and his
Whiz Kids. Massive discounting in a price war between
Ford and
General Motors, which began with Ford's massive increase in production in the spring of 1953—part of Ford's postwar expansion program aimed at restoring it to the position of the largest car maker which GM had held since 1931—could not be equaled by the independent carmakers, for whom the only hope was seen as a merger of Studebaker,
Packard,
Hudson, and
Nash into a fourth giant combine after
Chrysler. This had been unsuccessfully attempted by
George W. Mason. In this scheme, Studebaker had the disadvantage that its South Bend location would make consolidation difficult. Its labor costs were also the highest in the industry. == Merger with Packard ==