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By My80Volare ~ Kevin Imhoff
The early 1900’s were a tumultuous time. Automakers
were popping up all over the place. There were
literally hundreds of car companies starting up. It
seemed that everyone wanted to jump on the horseless
carriage bandwagon. Many of these companies would
start up, be dissolved or be absorbed into larger
companies. Then those companies would dissolve or be
bought up by larger companies. It was a process that
could happen several times to any one automaker.
Such was the case with Maxwell/Chalmers.
Maxwell-Briscoe was started in 1903 when Jonathan
Maxwell designed his first car, and with Benjamin
Briscoe, formed the Maxwell-Briscoe Company.
Production started in 1904 using an existing
facility in Tarrytown, New York. In that first year,
532 Maxwell cars were built. In 1905, a shaft drive
was used in place of the chain drive previously used
in the cars.
Frank Briscoe, Benjamin’s brother, provided
financial backing for a light automobile developed
by Alanson P. Brush in 1907. The company is called
the Brush Motor Car Co., and is located in Detroit
Michigan. It is noted for its one cylinder engine,
chain drive, wooden frame, and wooden axles. The
former Pontiac Buggy Co builds another one of
Brush’s designs, the Oakland.
In 1908, the Briscoe brothers enter discussions with
William C. Durant, to form one large automobile
company. These talks fail, and the two groups go
their separate way, with Durant using his Buick as
the nucleolus for the General Motors Corporation,
and the Briscoe brothers using Maxwell-Briscoe and
Brush to form the United States Motor Company. In
the mean time, sliding sales with Thomas-Detroit,
another small car company, result in Hugh Chalmers
being brought in from National Cash Register. In mid
1908, the car and firm are called Chalmers-Detroit.
During 1910, Benjamin Briscoe organized the United
States Motor Company, as an amalgamation of several
independents, who were encountering difficulty in
securing necessary financial backing. These
included: Maxwell, Stoddard-Dayton, Courier,
Columbia, Brush, Sampson Trucks and Gray Marine,
with the Thomas and other lines being added later.
The Chalmers-Detroit drops "Detroit." And is now
known simply as Chalmers. And in 1911, production of
the Alden Sampson Company moved to Detroit. Truck
production continues and the Sampson 35 car
introduced. But by the end of the year, the Sampson
was dead and Maxwell-Briscoe began using the plant
for the Maxwell car line.
The United States Motor Company failed in 1913, due
to conflict between two of its backers, who also had
a financial interest in General Motors. Walter
Flanders purchased the Maxwell assets, calling the
new, reorganized company Maxwell Motor Company, Inc.
He continued to build the popular line of Maxwell
cars, which were at that time ranked fifth in sales
in N.A.C.C. ratings. By this time, the Maxwell
assets included facilities in Newcastle, Dayton and
Highland Park, the latter consisting of a small, two
story brick office building on Oakland Avenue and
three factory buildings that had been built in 1909.
With World War I going strong in 1917, Maxwell sales
were going strong, while Chalmers sales were
falling. Maxwell entered into an agreement with
Chalmers for the lease of Chalmers Motor Companies
production plant on Jefferson Avenue, to augment
Maxwell’s Highland Park facility. Both plants were
needed for Maxwell to meet government orders for
WWI. In exchange, Chalmers cars would be sold
through Maxwell’s dealerships.
In 1920, things began to go downhill for both
Maxwell and Chalmers car companies. The post-war
recession, in conjunction with material shortages
and rising prices, weakened both companies. Maxwell
Motor Co. was some $43,000,000 in debt, and out of a
total production of 34,169 cars, had 26,000 cars
unsold for 1920. The single high point for Maxwell
that year was a new design that placed the emergency
brake on the driveshaft. This would be a Maxwell
trademark, which would continue with Chrysler later
on. Enter Walter P. Chrysler. He was asked to head
up a reorganization committee, which arranged for
the purchase of the combined assets of Maxwell and
Chalmers and formed Maxwell Motor Corporation,
effective May 1921. Mr. Chrysler became Chairman of
the Board.
For 1921, Maxwell Motor Corporation continued to
build the Chalmers car and an improved Maxwell car,
advertised as the "Good Maxwell."
Maxwell, faced with falling sales, ceases production
in the Chalmers plant. The Maxwell is plagued with
weak axles and poorly mounted gas tanks. Later 1921
models had two straps on the gas tank and two steel
trusses on the rear axles. Late in 1921, the company
bankers approach Walter P. Chrysler to save Maxwell
and Chalmers. Chrysler agrees, for $100,000 a year
plus stock options. The Maxwell Reorganization
Committee is forced to put the company on the
auction block. Faced with heavy bidding from William
C. Durant, the Studebaker Corporation, the White
Motor Company and others, the committee is forced to
pay $10.8 million for the company and its assets. A
new Maxwell Motor Corporation is incorporated in
West Virginia, and Walter P. Chrysler becomes
chairman of the board with W.R. Wilson as president.
The following year, Maxwell Motor Corporation
purchases the assets of Chalmers Motor Company for
$2,000,000.
1923 saw Walter Chrysler bring in Fred Zeder, Owen
Skelton and Carl Breer into the organization, as the
nucleus of a new Engineering Department - and while
continuing to build the Good Maxwell at Highland
Park, commenced production of pilot models of the
Chrysler Six in the Jefferson Ave. Plant. The
Chalmers car line was still being produced, and the
1924 Chalmers is introduced in the fall of 1923,
with 4-wheel hydraulic brakes - a test bed for the
brakes on the new Chrysler. Production of the
Chalmers ceases and is replaced by the Chrysler
thereafter.
The final Maxwell Motor Company car was produced in
1924. The Chrysler Corporation was organized
effective June 6, 1925, replacing the Maxwell Motor
Corporation -- and the Maxwell car was discontinued.
A new four- cylinder car, the Chrysler Four, went
into production in June at the Highland Park Plant,
as a companion car to the Chrysler Six, which was
built at the Jefferson Avenue Plant.
And therein lies the mixed up, twisted start-up,
buy-outs, and demise of the Maxwell/Chalmers car
companies. The newly formed Chrysler Corporation
would go on to integrate other car companies into
its corporation, with the demise of some, success of
others, until finally being absorbed into another
car company itself (Daimler-Benz).
(BK's
Note: Those who know of the Jack Benny Radio Show
will remember that Jack, cheapskate that he was,
drove an old Maxwell)
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