Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation

By Anthony J. Yanik

Though usually regarded as a footnote in automotive history, Maxwell Motor was one of the leading automobile producers in the United States during the first quarter of the twentieth century, and its cars offered several innovations to buyers of the time. For instance, Maxwell's was the first popular car with its engine in front instead of under the body, the first to be designed with three-point suspension and shaft drive, and one of the earliest cars to feature thermo-syphon cooling. In Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation, Anthony J. Yanik examines the machines, the process, and the men behind Maxwell, describing both the vehicle engineering and the backroom wheeling and dealing that characterized the emergence and disappearance of the early auto companies.

In this detailed history, Yanik charts the company's evolution through the early Maxwell-Briscoe years, 1903-1912; the Maxwell Motor Company years, 1913-1920; and finally the Maxwell Motor Corporation years, 1921-1925. He considers the influential leaders, including Jonathan Maxwell, Benjamin Briscoe, Walter Flanders, and Walter P. Chrysler, who executed the business decisions and corporate mergers that shaped each tumultuous era, concluding with Chrysler's eventual deal to transfer all Maxwell assets to form a new Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Yanik also discusses the aftermath of Maxwell's dissolution and the fate of its famous corporate leaders. For this study, Yanik draws on a wealth of primary sources including old automotive trade journals, the writings of Ben Briscoe and William Durant, and company records in the Chrysler archives.

Maxwell Motor and the Making of the Chrysler Corporation fills a gap in existing automotive scholarship and proves that the Maxwell story is an excellent resource for documenting the development of the automobile industry in the early twentieth century. Auto buffs and local historians will appreciate Yanik's thorough and engaging look at this slice of automotive history.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wayne State University Press
• Release date: Feb 25, 2009
• ISBN: 9780814340851

Anthony J. Yanik

Anthony J. Yanik is a widely published automotive historian and the former editor of Wheels: The Journal of the National Automotive History Collection. He is also the author of The E-M-F Company: The Story of Automotive Pioneers Barney Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders and editor of The Birth of Chrysler Corporation and Its Engineering Legacy.

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INTRODUCTION

The Chrysler nameplate has had a storied reputation for over three quarters of a century. The corporation’s meteoric rise to power during the 1920s as the third member of the Big Three is well documented, but its prehistory has received scant attention.

Yet that prehistory was essential to the founding of Chrysler Corporation. It was the source of the factories, the machines, and the skilled manpower necessary to engineer, build, and sell the first Chrysler cars. In other words, Chrysler Corporation was not formed from scratch. It already existed, albeit under another name—the Maxwell Motor Corporation. The new elements that Walter P. Chrysler added to this existing structure were a sensational new automobile—and his name. Nothing more. Often ignored are the several decades of enormously interesting Maxwell history that preceded the formation of the Chrysler Corporation, revolving around such early automotive giants as Benjamin Briscoe, Jonathan Maxwell, and Walter Flanders as well as Walter P. Chrysler himself.

When Chrysler Corporation was chartered on June 6, 1925, it existed for three weeks in name only. It owned nothing. An automobile called the Chrysler Six did exist, which no doubt precipitated some confusion within the ranks of a curious public since it was being built at the Maxwell-Chalmers factory on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit and had been in production for the past 18 months. Was there a hidden link between the Chrysler Six and the new Chrysler Corporation?

Indeed there was, but this did not become readily apparent until June 24, 1925. On that date Maxwell stockholders transferred all of that corporation’s properties and other assets to Chrysler Corporation and voted the Maxwell Motor Corporation out of existence. Walter P. Chrysler had founded a new corporation without going through the birth pangs that normally attend the formation of a new company.

Soon the Maxwell name quietly slid out of history. Its illustrious founders, Ben Briscoe and Jonathan Maxwell, gradually were forgotten since they no longer were in the public eye. No longer remembered was the fact that Briscoe had propelled Maxwell into fourth place in U.S. auto sales by 1908, only four years after its founding. Forgotten as well was his unsuccessful attempt to form a giant corporation combining the firms of Buick, Reo, the Ford Motor Company, and Maxwell, one that would resemble U.S. Steel. Few are aware of his later disappointing efforts with William Durant to merge Maxwell with Buick into a smaller combine (which led to the formation of General Motors), or that he finally succeeded in uniting the Maxwell-Briscoe Company with several other well-known marques. The latter gave birth to the United States Motor Corporation, with Maxwell-Briscoe its primary car division, which for several years was a rival to General Motors until falling prey to a receivership engineered by New York bankers.

The demise and reorganization of U.S. Motor into the Maxwell Motor Corporation brought an end to Briscoe and Maxwell’s roles within the company. Dynamic Walter Flanders, who had drastically reformed Henry Ford’s production practices just prior to the introduction of the Model T, replaced them and within a few years had resurrected Maxwell to a point at which it once again was a leading player in the auto industry. Maxwell thrived under Flanders’s leadership until he retired, but not before he had engineered a partnership with the Chalmers Motor Corporation primarily designed to expand Maxwell production capacity. After Flanders’s departure, Maxwell sales began to slip badly, causing New York bankers to fear for their investment. They in turn convinced Walter P. Chrysler to assume control of the company’s management for a princely salary. This gave Chrysler an opportunity to place a powerful new car in production within Maxwell but under the Chrysler name. Its success and the resurgence of Maxwell prompted Chrysler to propose that the Maxwell Company be dissolved and a new entity—Chrysler Corporation—set up in its place.

Although the history of Chrysler has proved to be enormously interesting, the history of Maxwell Motors, upon whose foundation Chrysler Corporation was erected, should not be ignored. Its annals include an assortment of automotive pioneers whose names may no longer be familiar to us, but they deserve to be. This, then, is their story.

I

The Maxwell-Briscoe Years, 1903–1912

1

Prologue to the Founding of Maxwell-Briscoe

The formation of the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company can in a real sense be traced to a providential visit by Ransom E. Olds to Benjamin Briscoe during the summer of 1902. Olds was looking for someone to manufacture a cooling system for his Curved Dash Oldsmobile, the original one being too inefficient. Although Jonathan Maxwell, his chief engineer, had designed the new system, Olds was not in a position to produce it in quantity since he was having enough difficulty resuming Oldsmobile production after the disastrous fire that had razed the main Detroit factory to its foundations in March 1901. New production facilities were under way in Lansing, and the Detroit factory was being rebuilt, but for the near future Olds was forced to depend on outside suppliers for the necessary parts to assemble the Curved Dash Olds.

Olds was quite aware that the Briscoe Manufacturing Company, as the largest producer of sheet metal products in Michigan, probably would be in the best position to manufacture a cooling system according to Maxwell’s design.

Years later, Briscoe recalled that he had no idea the unusual piece of equipment he was being asked to produce was part of an automobile. It looked to me like some antiquated band instrument.¹

Briscoe agreed to attempt to duplicate the primitive radiator but, dissatisfied with the result, he experimented with it until he had fashioned a perfectly watertight system. Ransom Olds apparently was so pleased that he contracted with the Briscoe Manufacturing Company to build 4,400 of them, with additional contracts for fenders, fuel tanks, and bonnets (hoods), among other things, as well.

The Olds contract made Briscoe aware of the great interest that the automobile was stirring within the Detroit area. He pursued the development of the radiator beyond the Olds contract and soon became acknowledged as a primary source not only for radiators but for other automotive sheet metal components as well. In his own words, "[O]ur business grew by leaps and bounds, so that within two or three years we were employing 1,200 hands [workers], making a substantial profit. In fact, the business grew to be the largest producer in the world of the kinds of automobile parts it manufactured." He once remarked that his contract with Olds, along with other contracts that Olds had with local businesses, was the real beginning of the auto industry in the city of Detroit.²

Born in Detroit on May 24, 1867, Benjamin Briscoe came from hearty railroad stock (as, indeed, did Walter P. Chrysler, who appears at the other end of the Maxwell-Briscoe story). Briscoe’s grandfather, Benjamin Sr., and his father, Joseph Briscoe, were prominent in the early railroad history of Michigan. Both were highly skilled mechanics and inveterate inventors. Joseph Briscoe, in fact, had formed the Michigan Nut and Bolt works to capitalize on one of his inventions. It still was in existence at the time of his death in 1910.

After attending Detroit public schools, young Ben, then 18 years of age, took his entire life savings of $472 and formed Benjamin Briscoe and Company, specializing in sheet metal stampings. His business focused on needed household items such as garbage cans, sprinkling cans, bathtubs, and buckets. He later accepted an offer to sell his firm to the American Can Company so that he could form a new company, the Detroit Galvanizing and Sheet Metal Works, to capitalize on a machine he had invented for producing corrugated pipe. He also began producing sheet metal parts for stoves and ranges, a good business decision inasmuch as Detroit had become the capital of the stove industry.³

Benjamin Briscoe, cofounder of the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Company, as he appeared in his prime.

In 1900 Ben’s brother Frank, eight years younger and a University of Michigan graduate, entered the business. The two brothers reorganized their firm as the Briscoe Manufacturing Company but promptly ran into trouble when the Detroit banking house in which they had deposited the firm’s funds failed.

In an effort to keep their company from bankruptcy, Ben Briscoe called on the banking circles of Detroit but managed to obtain only one small loan from the bank of George Russell. Forsaking Detroit, he boarded the train for New York to seek help from the biggest banking concern in the country: J. P. Morgan and Company. He apparently pleaded his case most convincingly because Morgan agreed to loan the small, unknown Briscoe Manufacturing Company $100,000. The money rejuvenated the firm and enabled Briscoe to fill Olds’ request for 4,400 radiators the following year.

Had the Briscoe Manufacturing Company never expanded beyond its position as a prime sheet metal supplier for the emerging auto industry, it may have been better remembered in later years. His close contact with Olds and other auto manufacturers apparently inspired Ben Briscoe to build his own automobile. He was not alone in such a venture. In 1902 some 52 new car manufacturers opened their doors, although most did not remain in business for very long.⁴

Becoming an automobile manufacturer, however, first entailed designing and engineering a successful demonstration model that could be blueprinted and placed in production. The first opportunity to acquire such a model came as a result of Ben’s relationship with David Dunbar Buick.

Briscoe and Buick knew each other in a business sense. Both had formed successful companies. Buick, co-owner of a shop that manufactured plumbing fixtures, subsequently sold out his share of the firm to focus on developing his own gasoline engine and automobile. Briscoe understood how Buick felt, observing that when a man becomes infected with the automobile germ, it was as though he had a disease. It had to run its course.⁵

Briscoe in fact had become infected with the same germ. He once commented that to start an automotive company took a man of pioneering instinct, an idealist, one who didn’t do business merely for the hope of money gain, but because he was of an adventurous nature and perhaps subconsciously, because he wanted to do some new thing worth while for the world.⁶

David Buick matched this description. He already was a very successful inventor. By 1899 he had received 13 patents for such items as lawn sprinklers, flushing devices, various forms of water closets, and other bathroom devices. His crowning achievement was the development of a method for bonding porcelain to metal. The company’s porcelain bathtubs as well as its toilets and kitchen sinks became quite popular as the move toward indoor plumbing took hold in the home building industry. Despite such success, he acquired a passion for developing a gasoline engine, by one account as early as 1895.⁷ When Buick and his partner sold their business for $100,000 in 1899, Buick took his share of the proceeds to pursue his dream of building a successful motorcar.

By 1900 Buick had built several vehicles in a barn behind his house, but the development of a successful demonstration model for volume production continued to elude him. Most probably it was because he continually ran short of money before he could advance to the next critical stage, and he had exhausted his credit. One of the men to whom he owed money was Ben Briscoe, who had appreciated the thousands of dollars of supplies Buick had purchased from the Briscoe sheet metal works when the latter still was in the plumbing business. Out of friendship, Briscoe told his bill collector not to bother Buick but merely to stop in on him occasionally to see how his business was doing, then report back to Briscoe.

In the fall of 1902, the bill collector informed Briscoe that David Buick wanted to meet with him, at which time Buick admitted that he was unable to pay Briscoe or any other of his creditors in the foreseeable future. He told Briscoe that if he could only raise enough money to complete his demonstration model, he was confident he could find a backer and then be able to pay off his debts. Briscoe was intrigued. In Buick he saw a means by which he might be able to break into the automobile business, and he offered Buick an unusual proposal: he would pay off all of the other’s debts and loan him $650 for the rights to the demonstration model once it was completed. However, Buick would have free use of the model when making arrangements to meet with potential investors.⁸ Briscoe no doubt felt that he would have the first option to invest in Buick’s company if he liked what Buick produced. Work on the pilot was completed in the spring of 1903, at which point Jonathan Maxwell, who had left Oldsmobile to become chief engineer for the Northern Automobile Company, entered the picture.

Maxwell, whom Briscoe had come to know quite well from his association with the Olds Motor Works, had dropped in for a friendly visit. In their conversation, Briscoe mentioned that he could not make up his mind whether to invest any further in the Buick enterprise. On a sudden inspiration, he asked Maxwell to examine the Buick demonstration model and tell him what he thought of its potential. Maxwell did so, but when he and Briscoe next met, Maxwell made little comment about the Buick car, instead suggesting that he and Briscoe join together to produce an automobile of Maxwell’s own design. Briscoe was intrigued but initially made no commitment. Other things were occupying his mind. He had decided to spend the summer in Europe studying the advances European companies had made in radiators. Although his own company was acknowledged to be the largest manufacturer of radiators in the world, I thought it wise to run over to France and find out all I could about them.⁹

He examined the Buick Manufacturing Company’s books before he left to make certain that the company would not disappear while he was gone for lack of funds. He decided that another loan of $1,500 would be necessary to keep Buick solvent until his return. This brought his total investment in Buick to $3,500. The new loan was contingent upon David Buick reorganizing his company.

Thus Buick Manufacturing became incorporated as the Buick Motor Company on May 19, 1903. Capital stock was set at $100,000 (mostly backed by Buick patents), consisting of 10,000 shares, each valued at $10. Although Briscoe owned none of the shares, the arrangement he arrived at with Buick was that he would hold 9,700 of the 10,000 shares with the stipulation that they would be turned over to Buick upon Briscoe’s return to the United States in September. This would take place only if at that time Buick repaid him the $3,500 owed him from his loans to the company. If he did not do so, Briscoe would take possession of the Buick Motor Company.

The Buick dilemma resolved itself while Briscoe was abroad. Shortly before he left for Europe, Ben and his brother drove to Flint to visit Dwight T. Stone, a young real estate salesman related to them by marriage. They mentioned their arrangement with Buick and that they were concerned about recouping their investment in the Buick organization. Stone was a friend of James Whiting, president of the Flint Wagon Works, one of the largest wagon makers in the area, and he mentioned that Whiting was looking for an opportunity to expand into the emerging auto business. Briscoe contacted Whiting and found that Whiting was quite receptive to purchasing the Buick Motor Company, so much so that the Flint Wagon Works purchased the Buick demonstration model, then came south to Detroit to begin negotiations over the purchase of the Buick Motor Company. Although Briscoe sailed for Europe before negotiations were complete, I was not at all anxious about it as I could see that they had definitely concluded to buy.¹⁰

Jonathan Maxwell, cofounder of the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Car Company.

Briscoe was correct: while he was in Europe, David Buick and the Flint Wagon Works came to an agreement. The sale was ratified on September 3, 1903, for a price that would enable Buick to pay off his $3,500 debt to Briscoe and regain control of the 9,700 shares of stock Briscoe held, which then would be turned over to the Flint Wagon Works. David Buick later recalled that although there were some discouraging moments during the negotiations and trial runs of the car, I could see that nothing but some unexpected turn in events could ‘unsell’ them.¹¹

Buick met with Briscoe immediately after the latter’s return from Europe and paid off his debt. Briscoe in turn released the 9,700 shares of Buick stock he had been holding, and thus passed out of the Buick picture.

As Briscoe had predicted based on the terms of the sale, David Buick realized very little from selling his company to the Flint Wagon Works. The new owners informed Buick that the stock assigned to him through the sale was to be held in escrow until he returned the money he had borrowed from them to pay off his debt to Briscoe and other creditors. Buick never was able to do so, and later was duped into signing his shares of Buick stock over to the Whiting forces in exchange for the unpaid debt.¹² Sadly, Briscoe’s assessment of Buick’s inability to be successful on the management side of the automobile business proved all too true—David Buick ultimately died a pauper.

Unknown to David Buick as he was negotiating the sale of his