The Missouri Historical Society's exhibition Shifting Gears: The Automobile Industry in St. Louis, 1890–1930 runs until April 1, 2007, at the Missouri History Museum.

The first horseless buggies, or rather buggy bodies, were patterned after the horse-drawn vehicles then in use. For two passengers, the piano box, or Stanhope type were used, and for four and five passengers the surrey style. Later these were changed to various different types, including the rear entrance tonneau, with door in rear. The tonneau could be removed, which would then make it a two-passenger vehicle. This style was copied from the French. Later, other styles, with side entrances, similar to the ones in use today, were adopted.

The wheels used in the beginning were mostly of the regular wooden carriage type, with solid rubber tires, and a few motor vehicles were equipped with wire wheels and heavy pneumatic bicycle tires. Then the single tub pneumatic tire came into use for about three years, and was supplanted by the clincher tire similar to those in use today. The regular wooden sarven wheel was discarded and the artillery wheel with solid steel hubs adopted.

About the year 1906, a front wheel drive vehicle was built in St. Louis, which seemed to run satisfactorily, it being claimed that it took less power to pull the vehicle with the front wheels than to push it with the rear wheels. As far as we can learn, there were only two of them built in this city.

In the years from 1901 to 1903, there were more steam vehicles than gasoline, or electric types, and the question then was — which would be the coming motive power.

This historical data of the history of horseless vehicles in St. Louis was carefully gathered by the St. Louis Society of Automobile Pioneers. Before being compiled and printed in book form, the data was carefully gone over by a Censor Committee, by whom all mistakes pertaining to the dates when these vehicles were built, also their descriptions, etc., were corrected.

Emancipation of the Horse
by Henry F. Borbein

The horseless vehicle, or automobile as we call it, has not only given us rapid transit and cheaper transportation, but it has emancipated the horse, which for centuries has been a beast of burden to mankind. If we stop to think of the suffering of these animals that had to serve man, since man was created; they had to serve while sick or lame, and in some cases when they were almost too decrepit to arise in the morning. It is a blessing to know that this miserable suffering is growing less from day to day, all over the world. It is not only the horse that is being released, but other beasts of burden such as camels, bullocks, asses, etc., are all being more or less liberated.

Then from the angle of benefit to man, the country is brought closer to city inhabitants, and the city is brought closer to the farmer, and this change in turn has brought, and is still bringing us more good roads. It is true that there are more accidents and deaths, but we are of the opinion that traffic regulations will be so well managed in future years, that these casualties will be lessened to a minimum.

The first horseless vehicles were built by individuals who built them for the novelty of possessing a vehicle that would propel itself, under its own motive power, and the thrill that it gave them. Then they soon saw how much they could improve the next, and with financial help, soon commenced to build them for gain. But at this time no one had any conception, of the enormous quantity production, that these first horseless vehicles would lead to.

There are also the great traveling facilities, fine scenery enroute, different climates, etc., encountered while traveling from coast to coast in pleasure vehicles, and busses. With the connections that are being made at intersections, there are no limits to travel from east to west; from north to south.

They have for some time now, been experimenting with automobiles that can also be propelled on water and others are trying to make them fly in the air, so that when canyons or precipices are encountered they can fly over them. These innovations will perhaps in the future enable tourists to travel around the world. So much for the automobile at the present time, and in this generation.

J. D. Lewis’s Story

J. D. Perry Lewis worked in the automobile industry for many years, starting with the Halsey Automobile Company in 1900 and then his own business, the Lewis Automobile Company, where he worked as the local agent for Moon cars. Lewis was also a director on the board of the Automobile Manufacturers and Dealers Association.

A group of five St. Louis students of the Smith Academy, under the tutelage of their guide and friend, a professor of the above Academy, in Paris, in 1892, for the first time saw a horseless carriage. They did not see it closely, but only got a glimpse as it passed by, and young Lewis said: “I would like to have one like that.” So, when he got back to St. Louis, remembering a horse drawn buggy belonging to his brother, and standing idle in a shed, he soon managed to get permission to turn it into a horseless vehicle.

He fastened a large sprocket on the right rear wheel, then mounted an electric motor under the body, and fastened a small sprocket on the motor shaft, and connected a chain from this to [the] rear wheel sprocket. He then pivoted a handle bar perpendicular to the side bar of [the] buggy and connected this with knuckle joints to the front axle on the right side. On the left side a lever leading to a controller, and circuit switch was fastened. He then installed a set of batteries in the body, and the contraption was ready to run.

Mr. Lewis built this at his home, in 1893, and it was the first horseless vehicle seen in St. Louis. It would run seven to eight miles per hour, even if it was crude, as he admits. Mr. Lewis never ran it far away from home, for fear that he and his friends would have to push it back. The vehicle met with a real accident one evening, in the 3000 block on Locust Street. The none too heavy rear axle broke right in the middle, and the heavy batteries, with other appliances, dropped down in the middle of the street. There was no pushing the machine home that night. After a year and a half of experiment with his first automobile, he decided to build a better and larger car, so gave a local carriage maker an order to build a chassis and body to carry six passengers, according to his own design.

Mr. Lewis built an electric motor, and procured a set of batteries from an electric storage battery concern, and installed them, together with all necessary wiring, and other component parts. This car would make twelve miles an hour, but cost him $1500.00 to build. He used this car a couple of years, and then later, in 1899, bought a light steam car. In 1900 he accepted a position with the Halsey Automobile Company, handling Locomobile cars, where he remained until 1912, when he established the Lewis Automobile Company, handling Chandler cars. Mr. Lewis ran this business successfully until 1927, when competition got so strong that other firms were allowing more for second-hand trade-in cars, than the profit would stand. He decided to wind up the business, and enter into something else.

George P. Dorris Gives History

Started by John L. French and George P. Dorris in 1898, the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company was the first successful car company west of the Mississippi. French acted as president, with Dorris as vice president and engineer. By 1900 they had an extensive business, producing 130 cars in their first year of production at their factory on Vandeventer Avenue in St. Louis.

After leaving the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company in 1905, George P. Dorris founded the Dorris Motor Car Company. The automobiles produced by this company were priced close to twice that of the average motorcar price of the time, which was reflected in the company’s motto, “Built to Last.” Dorris continued to strive for excellence in engineering, developing at least 12 new patents for automotive improvements.

During his time in the car production business, Dorris, an engineering genius, developed many “firsts” for the automotive industry—the transmission run starter, the self-starter, and the distillatory, which filtered out heavy deposits in gasoline until they were heated enough to be drawn into the engine safely. Other firsts were the single-cylinder engine and the float-feed carburetor.

John L. French and myself are natives of Nashville, Tenn[essee]. We were boyhood friends and attended school together. As we grew older our instincts naturally turned to mechanical problems. This interest resulted in our purchasing a second-hand Racine coal-oil burning steam launch, in 1890. We operated this launch for the season. Owing to the fact that we were both under age, we had great difficulty in obtaining a license, so we decided upon building a gasoline motor. The first one being fairly successful, we built a double 5x5 motor, which operated the boast successfully until about 1897.

In 1895 French moved to St. Louis to engage in the piano business with the Jesse French Piano and Organ Company, a concern controlled by his father. About the time French went to St. Louis, I became interested in automobiles from reading accounts of the early German and French experiments in the Scientific American, and encouraged by the success of the road race held Thanksgiving Day in 1895, at Chicago, I decided to build an automobile. I had this machine in operation in the early spring of 1897. It attracted a great deal of attention. In the fall of 1897, my automobile had reached such a state that sixty-mile trips were made.

In 1896, French placed his order with the Winton Motor Carriage Company for one of its single-cylinder cars. The delivery of this car was, however, delayed from month to month, so that it was not actually delivered until the middle of the summer of 1898. This was the sixth Winton machine, and was successfully operated in St. Louis for a number of years following.

French, seeing a future for the horseless carriage, as it was called in those days, decided to embark in the manufacture of cars, so arrangements were made for organizing a company. On Thanksgiving Day, 1898, I arrived in St. Louis, and the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company was organized with $5,000.00 capital stock. John L. French was president of the company, and I was vice-president and engineer.

No experimenting had been done in St. Louis up to that time. My first experimental car was brought from Nashville, and the first two cars manufactured in St. Louis by the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company were practically copies of my first machine and were completed and delivered in 1899, one being sold to A.L. Lambrick, of St. Louis, and one to E.H.R. Green, of Dallas, Texas, a son of Mrs. Hetty Green of New York.

The first cars had twin cylinder 4 x 5-inch motors. From this you will see that the purchase of the Winton car stimulated Mr. French’s interest in automobiles, the actual car as first manufactured was a copy of my first machine—started in 1895 and completed in 1897.

In 1900, the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company had developed quite an extensive business, marketing a single cylinder unit power plant machine. This car had the motor, clutch, and transmission built as a single unit and patent papers were granted to us on this type of construction, thus you will see that the first unit power plant was incorporated in the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company’s product. Upon the organization of the Dorris Motor Car Company, this patent was transferred to the Dorris Company. The detail and design of this car was entirely the result of my work. One of the earliest races which the St. Louis car entered was the New York to Buffalo run in 1901, in which a St. Louis car was driven by French. At the conclusion of the race, French had the car shipped to Boston and spent the summer there demonstrating and selling the car. He sold sixty-five in Boston, which was practically the entire output of the St. Louis Motor Carriage Company for that season. The following year this same type of car was known as the “Boston Model,” and was sold in Boston by Reed & Underhill with great success.

In the fall of 1902, while French was demonstrating in Pittsburg, he had a collision with a street car on one of the steep hills there, and received injuries which later caused his death. He returned to St. Louis, and in the Spring of 1903 drove a St. Louis car to Florida, passing through Nashville and Chattanooga, where he drove the car up Lookout Mountain, his being the first car to climb the mountain. From Chattanooga he went through Atlanta and other cities, arriving in Florida in a weakened condition, where he died in May, 1903.

In the Fall of 1903 I drove a single cylinder, St. Louis Motor Carriage Company’s car in the New York to Pittsburg endurance run. My car was No. 42, and was the tenth to complete the run. There are still a large number of single-cylinder machines in use in St. Louis and vicinity.