Automobile changes transportation mode

The Burdick is reported as the first home-made car in Eau Claire. It was owned by Ralph Burdick, with Al Johnson as machinist, and Chris Anderson was the driver and also helped assemble it. The car was manufactured from parts picked up here and there. The automobile weighed 5,500 lbs. (Courtesy Mrs. Allen Finseth.)

     Although the automobile age started in the state as early as 1871 when Dr. J.N. Carhart of Racine built a two-cylinder steam buggy, the horseless carriage did not arrive in this area until 1900.
     The first car in Eau Claire was reportedly owned by a Dr. Ashum. It was a Stevens-Duryea, popular among early models.
     Other early car owners in Eau Claire included Chester and Delos Moon, Mrs. Ida Chamberlain, Capt. Rarle S. Pearsall, Wesley Lukin and O.H. Ingram.

Speed limits posted

     After an accident in which a car owned by Dr. Lyman hit a dray wagon, Eau Claire city fathers authorized a 10-mile an hour speed limit. Limit on Barstow, the city's main street, was six miles per hour.
     Gasoline was available only at hardware stores where proprietors installed sidewalk pumps. The first filling station in Eau Claire stood at the southwest corner of Graham Ave., then South River Street and Main Street.
      There were no serious attempts to manufacture automobiles here, although there were rumors of auto factories moving into the area, as recently as a few years ago.
     However, Eau Claire firms like White Machine Works - now National Gould Battery - Northwest Motor Co., Hutchens Industries, J.A. Baldwin Company made parts and filters for automobiles.

First car assembled

This is the Franklin Model G Runabout as it appeared in a brochure published by the company. The early 1900 model car was a popular seller in its day, priced around $650.

     The first car "assembled" in Eau Claire was in 1908 or 1909, according to at least two accounts.
     Traces and records of that "Burdick" disappeared long ago.
     However, stories by Chris Anderson, a driver, and Al Johnson, machinist, tell of both working on the car for Ralph Burdick, who manufactured gasoline engines. Burdick was determined to build an automobile for his own use.
     It was finally finished at a cost of about $14,000 and weighed 5,500 pounds.
     Brass work, highly polished, predominated. Lamps, also brass, were fed by an acetylene tank. The top was usually folded down except on occasions when it rained.
     Once Anderson was scheduled to drive Burdick and his family to and back from St. Paul, a trip that took three and one-half hours one way. The car averaged nine miles to the gallon.
     His recollections noted, "We got there without any trouble but on the way back we got stuck in the Elk Mound swamp but finally got loose and finished the trip."
     Anderson had been a coachman for Burdick when horses were the mode of transportation.
     Burdick later took the car with him to California, although "it rode like a lumber wagon."

State offered prize

All decorated for the holidays are these Wolf Auto Bus Line vehicles parked near Tanberg Auto Co., Eau Claire. Tanberg Auto Co. at one time held a number of dealerships in the city.

     After Carhart of Racine had come out with his steam buggy which caused panic whenever he drove it, the state legislature in 1875 appropriated $10,000 to be used as a reward to an inventor with a more practical machine. A race from Green Bay to Madison, a distance of 201 miles, was held to determine the winner.
     Dr. Carhart's car, called the "Oshkosh", finished first with an average speed of six miles an hour.
     Other cars were made in Wisconsin, including the Kunz Gasoline runabout build in Milwaukee from 1902 to 1906; the Merkel car build in 1905 at Milwaukee; the Badger car built in Columbia (it later became Clintonville Four-Wheel Drive); the Johnson Service Co. built limousines from 1905 to 01910 (the four-door 50 horsepower car sold for $4,500).
     The Petre Car Co. made the SeaBird and later the Beaver Car; and Brodessen and Oneida were truck companies.
     Briggs and Stratton put out the Buckboard, also known as the Flyer, about 1920. It idled at four miles per hour and cruised at 25.

Only Nash lasted

     Of the early car firms, only the Nash Company lasted, becoming what is American Motors today. Nash's first car in 1925 was called the AJAX; the popular Model 221 touring car sold for $925.
     Here are brand names of some of the cars which ere purchased in the area during the 1920's:
     Oakland, Graham-Paige, Star-Durant, AJAX-Nash, Hudson-Essex, DeSota, Studebaker, Buick, Reo, Chalmers, Franklin, Packard, Waverly Electric, Detroit Electric, Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Velie, Kissel, Dodge and Diamond Trucks.
     In Eau Claire alone there were 14 auto dealers in the 1920s, some of them handling more than one model. For example, the Tanberg Co., owned by Guy Wood, had the agency for six cars including Chevrolet which Wood Motor Co. still sells.

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.