Old-fashioned values guided Oldsmobile founder’s career

Geneva, Ohio, is not celebrated in the same respect as Detroit is for being the birthplace of Henry Ford and the automobile. Or even the way Ellis, Kan., is for being the boyhood home of Walter P. Chrysler.

Located on the southern edge of Lake Erie, and in only a few square miles of space, the biggest thing about Geneva is the Annual Grape JamBoree, a fall harvest that's held the last full weekend in September and culminates in the crowning of Miss Grapette.

Only 6,500 people live there. One legend once did.

Ransom E. Olds was born in June 1864, 10 months after Ford. Son of machinist Pliny Olds, Ransom moved his family to Lansing, Mich., and eventually established himself as an automobile pioneer with cars such as the REO and the Oldsmobile. But not before calling that little Ohio town home; not before taking what he learned in a small part of America and applying it to every car he ever built.

Olds was a common man who would forever consider the common folk when he set out to build affordable transportation for the masses. He was someone who never forgot his roots, no matter how much his dream was realized. And Olds was a dreamer.

The youngest of five children, he signed up for a six-month course at a local business college by 16. By 18, Olds had taken over bookkeeping chores at his father's business. When Olds turned 21, he was so adept, his father made him a partner.

The youngest Olds was a tinkerer, a thinker and an inventor. In his lifetime, he earned 30 patents, the first for a new type of governor for steam engines. By 22, he would have his first automobile on the road: a three-wheeled steam-powered car. Four years later, he built another -- a larger model that he sold to a British company for $400. The car was shipped to India, but ended up at the bottom of the ocean: The ship sank on the way there.

Ten years later, after toiling around in his father's shop and perfecting a self-propelled carriage that would run better, Olds' business began to roll.

Internal-combustion engines were beginning to flourish and Olds wanted to be on the cutting edge. By 1884, with his third vehicle already built, gas quickly running the world and the Duryea brothers selling their first automobile in America, the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. was formed.

Working out of his father's old machine shop, the young automotive wizard was in motion. That year he sold four cars. Soon he would have the first car factory and would become the first to use an assembly line. But he needed help.

With the aid of Samuel Smith, a well-off friend, Olds turned the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. into Olds Motor Works three years later, moving the business to a plant on East Jefferson Avenue, near Detroit's Belle Isle Bridge, becoming the first to manufacture cars in the city that Ford later made famous.

After several unsuccessful models, Olds struck it big. But it almost wasn't. In 1901, a fire burned the company to the ground. One prototype was saved, which became the basis of America's first mass-produced vehicle.

After a move back to Lansing, Olds had the idea to make the floor of his new car curve up to form the dashboard. The vehicle, featuring a seven-horsepower single-cylinder engine with two forward gears and one reverse, topped 20 mph and became the first to wear the Oldsmobile name.

The curved dash was an immediate hit, the first real success among commercially sold U.S. models. Volume was key, as was the ability to turn out quality product. It sold for $625, which remained the same price for the seven-year life of the car.

Olds sold 425 the first year and, by 1905, more than 6,500. Dramatic numbers for the time. And, using much of that Geneva-learned ingenuity, he helped make these a must-have.

If the fire didn't give Olds enough publicity, he would also dream up musical jingles, hire famous people for promotions and even do some things himself.

His creative ad campaigns were some of the first to use race-car drivers for large-scale promotions. In 1901, he asked driver Roy Chapin to pilot an Olds from Detroit to New York for the auto show. In what would be the longest trip taken by a vehicle to that point, it took Chapin one week to get to Manhattan. Olds was there, in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel to meet him with a hug and a smile.

The next year, Olds took the wheel himself, racing against Alexander Winton on the beaches of Daytona, Fla., the first race on what would become a legendary speedway.

Olds and Smith eventually disagreed on the company's direction -- Smith wanted luxury cars, Olds wanted everyday vehicles -- and by 1904, they had parted company. Smith's luxo-rides failed, while Olds was picked up by William C. Durant in 1908 in what became General Motors Corp.

The rest was history.

Olds formed the REO Motor Car Co., which built cars and trucks until 1975. He also began a power lawnmower business, another invention all his own, and he dabbled in securities and real estate.

Olds died in 1950 at age 86, ironically about the time his once-proud product began to turn stale at General Motors. Ultimately, a lack of sales (and a lack of creativity) made Oldsmobile a dinosaur.

In spite of this seemingly unfitting turnabout, Olds' cars led the way. They were the first to have automatic transmissions; they eventually carried the world's first air bag; and they had loyal followers, many of whom were offended when GM tried to revive the brand with the "Not Your Father's Oldsmobile" campaign. Younger buyers didn't get it, anyway.

By 2004, the cars of which Olds dreamt were gone, and so was the tradition of firsts achieved by the quiet inventor from Geneva.

Jason Stein is a feature writer with Wheelbase Communications. He can be reached on the Web at www.wheelbase.ws/mailbag.html. Wheelbase Communications supplies automotive news and features to newspapers across North America.