Submitted by Dale Dyer from the South Bend Tribune dated December 4, 1988 (Sources - Book entitled “A Century on Wheels: The Story of Studebaker” and Tribune Files.)
Three Studebaker brothers arrive at Philadelphia from Frefeld, Germany, via a sailing ship after a 10-week trip. The family belongs to the Church of the Brethren, more popularly known as the Dunkards, so named from the practice of immersion baptism.
The family has changed its name to Studebaker, to sound more American. Members of the family are listed as blacksmiths and woodworkers in York County, near Philadelphia.
John Studebaker marries Rebecca Mohler. They settle near what is now Gettysburg, PA.
John and Rebecca move family to Ashland, Ohio, in a covered wagon built by family members. John opens blacksmith shop. A hickory plank over the door reads in letters made with a hot poker: “Owe No Man Anything But to Love One An other”.
Financial panic (now called a depression) grips the land. John Studebaker goes broke.
Clement Studebaker, John’s second son, goes to work for 50 cents per day at Elikim Briggs Threshing Machine Works in South Bend.
The remainder of the Studebaker family joins Clement in South Bend.
Henry and Clement, with capital of $68 open a blacksmith shop named H & C Studebaker in South Bend. Brothers Peter, Jacob, and John M. later join firm that is to become Studebaker Corp. The firm early on adopts motto of “Always give a little more than you promise”.
John Mohler Studebaker goes to California via wagon train. He has three suits of clothing made by his mother, $65 sewn into his belt and a Bible. He loses most of his money in a card game, arrives in California with 50 cents in his pocket.
John Mohler works building wheelbarrows for gold miners at Hangtown, Calif.
Henry and Clement build their first carriage. The firm gets an order to build 100 wagons for the U.S. Army.
John Mohler returns to South Bend with $8,000 that is badly needed by the struggling black smith business and buys out Henry’s share.
Studebaker expands operations to meet rap idly growing demand for wagons for use in Civil War.
Peter Studebaker opens office in St. Joseph Missouri to sell wagons for pioneers heading west.
Studebakers doing $1 million worth of busi ness per year. Employment is more than 500 men. Studebaker-built wagons widely used across fast growing America. Company proudly proclaims that its 20-acre facility is the “Largest Vehicle House in the World”.
Studebakers celebrate 25th year in business. John Studebaker, father of five company founders, dies.
Company’s sales top $1.5 million. Plant gets electric lights.
Jacob Studebaker becomes first of founding brothers to die.
Clement Studebaker begins building stately dwelling name Tippecanoe Place.
William Henry Harrison becomes president and orders four carriages and buggy for use at the White House.
The first woman is hired at Studebaker plant. She works as a clerk in the Collection Department. A company document de scribes her as “a very good Methodist, and didn’t en courage levity.”
Henry Studebaker dies.
Peter Studebaker dies.
Studebaker wagons used in Boer War in Afri ca. Winston Churchill and his Studebaker wagon are captured by the Boers. Churchill escapes, Boers keep the wagon.
Clement Studebaker dies.
Company begins making electric-powered horseless carriages.
Company makes first gasoline-powered car riage. Annual sales exceed $4.8 million.
Company sells stock after incorporating as Studebaker Corp. The firm has total assets of $7 mil lion and $14 million in working capital. Production of electric vehicles ceases.
John Mohler Studebaker issues statement - “Business ethics are the same regardless of product. For sixty years the Studebaker Corporation has backed up its goods with a guarantee showing good faith. Its relations to those who bought and used its wagons and carriages has always been considered a binding obligation. We apply this principle to our automobile business.”
World War I brings rush of orders for Stu debaker products, including artillery wheels, water cards, ambulances and trucks.
John Mohler Studebaker dies. He is the last of the five brothers who founded the company. Company expands to meet production demands as U.S. enters World War I.
Company sales reach $133 million.
Company reorganizes in bankruptcy.
Local 5 of the United Auto Workers Union is organized to represent hourly workers at Studebaker.
Company fills $1.2 billion in orders for trucks and aircraft engines for use by Allies in World War II.
Company sales top $477 million.
The 1-millionth motor vehicle built since the end of Word War II in 1945 is driven from the plant.
Harold S. Vance, chairman, and president, reports record-breaking sales and profits for the six months ending June 30. Sales of cars and trucks for the period totaled 184,579 units.
Studebaker receives $250 million in U.S. military contracts in connection with the Kore an War.
Walter S. Gundeck, Studebaker industrial relations director, tells the Kiwanis Club that Studebaker, with its $100 million annual payroll in South Bend, supports from 35 to 40 percent of the economy of St. Joseph County.
Studebaker Corporation celebrates its 100th year in business. Sales in 1951 reached a record $503 million. They company employs 22,000 people.
Studebaker Corp. and Studebaker Local 5, UAW-CIO, face a charge of violating the Taft-Hartley Act by disciplining 15 employees who declined to sell their cars of other makes and buy Studebaker automobiles.
Between 3,000 and 3,500 Studebaker employees are scheduled to be idled because of a production cutback.
Studebaker produced 186,484 passenger cars in 1953, compared to 161,505 the year before, but its share of industry production fell to 3 percent from 3.7 percent.
The discontinuance of the night shift, accompanied by the layoff of 2,500 people, will re duce employment in South Bend to 12,000 people.
Studebaker omits payment of its common stock dividend and announces actions to conserve funds in order to meet competitive conditions in the auto industry.
Top officials of Studebaker Corp. and Packard Motor Car Co., Detroit, make an optimistic pronouncement of their intention to combine their resources, talent, and facilities in a head-on invasion of the automotive field now dominated by the Big Three.
Studebaker employees will carry home a five-day week paycheck, the next week for the first time in months.
Some 56,000 people attend Studebaker Preview Rally at Notre Dame Stadium.
Production at the Studebaker Packard Corp. plant here is to be interrupted for plant rearrangement work.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. to call most of the 10,000 local employees back to work.
What’s happening at Studebaker? Over and over, that question is being repeated by South Bend and Mishawaka area residents who read reports of production halts and hear rumors of unrest.
Some 10,000 South Bend employees of the Studebaker-Packard Corp. sent home by the company shortly after 7:00 a.m. following a refusal to work by personnel in the body shop’s paint spray line.
The work week for most of the more than 9,000 Studebaker-Packard Corp. production workers ends at 7:20 a.m. Officials said the shutdown was a result of a work stoppage involving some 55 workers on the final assembly line. The shutdown was the ninth in the last 11 working days.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. produced 182,033 cars in 1955 and this amounted to 2.29 percent of the auto industry’s production.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. re ports $29.7 million loss for 1955.
Production of 1956 model cars to end Friday, the day that will mark the start of work at consolidating all Studebaker-Packard Corp. automotive production in the main Studebaker plant in South Bend. Some 3,500 of the corporations' 7,000 employees will be affected by the shutdown.
Shareholders of the Studebaker Packard Corp. vote overwhelmingly in favor of an alliance with the Curtiss-Wright Corp.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. reports loss of $43.3 million for 1956.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. to market Mercedes-Benz cars from West Germany.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. managed to cut deeply into its operating losses in 1956, finishing the year with a loss of 11.1 million.
As a result of a slight upturn in automobile orders, most Studebaker-Packard Corp. employees to work at least four days this week.
More than 6,000 persons will be at work next month when Studebaker-Packard Corp. begins production of its 1959 line of smaller low-priced Lark automobiles.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. will close 1958 and open 1959 with an accelerated production rate to help fill a huge backlog of orders for Larks.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. sold 50,324 automobiles in the U.S. in 1958, the equivalent of 1.9 percent of the total U.S. market.
Harold E. Churchill, Studebaker-Packard Corp. president, said the company is looking forward to a long life as an automobile manufacturer in spite of the fact that it has begun a program of diversification.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. reported a net profit of $28.5 million in 1959. This makes 1959 the most profitable year in the company’s 108-year history. The improved situation was attributed to public acceptance of the new Lark models. The company’s auto industry market share rose to 3 percent.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. will suspend passenger car and truck production all next week as a result of “inventory adjustment and a rebalancing of dealer surpluses.”
Sherwood H. Egbert is elected President of Studebaker-Packard Corp.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. reported a net profit of $708,850 for 1960, down mightily from 1959 profits of $28.5 million.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. faces a “rough year” in 1961, says Egbert. The company reported a loss of more than $6 million in the first quarter.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. vehicle production in the first half of 1961 was down 55 percent from assemblies in the first six months of last year. In the same period, U.S. auto industry output dropped 28 percent.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. has acquired the 1.4 million square foot Curtis-Wright Corp. plant on West Chippewa Avenue.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. reported net profits of $2.5 million for 1961 even though its Automotive Division reported a loss of $10 million.
Studebaker-Packard Corp. announced it will introduce its new prestige automobile, Avanti, to the public on April 26.
Shareholders change the name of the company to Studebaker Corp., dropping the word Packard from the name.
A pilot run of fiberglass bodies for the Avanti began moving through facilities set up in the Studebaker Corp. plant here.
Studebaker executives vow the company will remain in the automobile business de spite sales declines in 1960, 1961, and 1962.
Studebaker Corp. reports a net profit of $2.5 million on sales of $65 million, despite continuing losses from its automotive operations.
Sales of 1963 Studebakers doing poorly, despite booming sales in the rest of auto industry.
Studebaker Corp.’s difficulties get wide attention in communication media. Tribune article says: “Few want to see Studebaker, oldest in the auto business, leave the scene. This is especially true of the other automakers, who have visions of government anti-trust action in an industry that is getting to be a near monopoly in some respects.”
Restyled 1964 Studebakers in full-scale assembly line production.
Studebaker Corp. pares its work schedule to four days this week for the second week in a row.
Studebaker cars account for less than 1 percent of total American automobile production.
Rumors abound that Studebaker is getting out of the automobile business.
Egbert resigns as president. Byers Burlingame, Vice President-finance, takes over the top spot.
Company executives say the key to Studebaker’s future is in reducing production costs.
Plant halts automobile pro duction after only 2-1/2 days of work for that week. Production is suspended for the next week, with out put scheduled to resume Dec. 9.
The company’s board of directors announced it is discontinuing auto production in South Bend but will continue to make cars in Hamilton, Ontario.