Friday, March 12, 2010

For The Union It Was A Studebaker

The American carriage maker and one of the founders of the H & C Studebaker Company, Clement Studebaker was born March 12th 1831.

Clement Studebaker was born in Pinetown, Pennsylvania March 12th 1831. He learned to be a blacksmith in father John’s shop and later worked for a while as a teacher. Along with his older brother Henry in 1852, Studebaker opened the H & C Studebaker Blacksmith shop in South Bend, Indiana. By 1858 two more brothers had joined the business and they began making wagons for the United States Army. The company continued to this throughout the Civil War. It was during the Civil War that brother Henry Studebaker sold out his part of the business as he didn’t believe in supporting the Union’s fighting the war.

They changed the name of the blacksmith shop to the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company in 1868. It would become the only manufacturing company of horse drawn vehicles to successfully switch over to motorized vehicles. Studebaker died November 27th 1901.

Another web site with great information about this subject

The History of the Studebaker Company

1 comment:

  1. There are many Blacksmiths that morphed into vehical manufacturers
    Tatra
    IHC

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