“America’s first car” becomes the CCCA’s Newest Classic

A man in his mid-thirties then manipulated some controls on the buggy and made several cranking motions. The noise that followed made it seem like someone had set off their firecrackers before the evening’s festivities. The man then climbed onto the buggy, which began to move down the road without the aid of a horse! Was the man some sort of conjurer, or a practitioner of the black arts? No, he was just the superintendant of the local gas company, Mr. Elwood Haynes. The little self-propelled buggy was dubbed the “Pioneer,” and it had just caused quite a stir in the north-central Indiana town of Kokomo.

Mr. Haynes’ “Pioneer” was not the very first gasoline powered car to be tested in the United States, although it was built from the ground-up as an automobile, unlike the Duryea Brothers creation which “moved no faster than an old man could walk” that was run in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1893. The efforts of Lambert, who eventually produced cars in Anderson, and Black, whose only known car is on display at the ACD Museum, should also be mentioned also as predating Haynes’ efforts. The “America’s First Car” moniker was the work of an overactive advertising department at Haynes Motor Car Company around 1910.

Always an innovator, Elwood Haynes developed a balanced two-cylinder engine in 1895 that was utilized in his cars until 1905. He pioneered the use of alloys such as aluminum in automobile engines. When most other cars still were using tillers to steer, Haynes patented the tilt steering wheel in 1903. For all of his work on the automobile, the one creation of Mr. Haynes that old car hobbyists appreciate most is Stellite. This extremely hard alloy is used to harden valve seats so that we can run unleaded gas in our cars.

Elwood Haynes worked with the Apperson brothers through 1901, but their partnership soon faltered. By 1904, the Haynes-Apperson was no more, with Haynes and Apperson building cars under their own names. The little two cylinder runabouts and surreys soon grew into four cylinder touring cars. Haynes relied on a sturdy inline six from 1913 until the last Haynes car rolled down the line in 1925. A Light Twelve was offered from 1916 to 1922, and only a handful survive.

After his passing in 1925, Elwood Haynes, was gradually forgotten by many in the automotive world. Occasionally, one of his cars would turn up at an auction or a concours, and then it was seen as an oddity. Only in his adopted hometown of Kokomo was he revered and respected. In 1951, the Pioneer Auto Club, Haynes-Apperson Chapter was started by fans of the local cars. By 1966, his 1915-vintage home was a museum. A decade later, the Haynes-Apperson Festival, staged every July 4th weekend, continued building on that interest. By 1998, an automotive heritage museum was open, with a number of Haynes and Apperson automobiles on display. The problem was, outside of Kokomo, Haynes was still a forgotten pioneer.

On July 23, 2015, Elwood Haynes was finally inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Detroit. This came to pass because of the efforts of two local men, Tim Rivers and Jeff Griffin. Tim is the curator of the Elwood Haynes Museum and is a bloodhound when it comes to tracking down obscure documents and photographs. Jeff is a college professor who also happens to own the most exquisitely restored Haynes in the world. I had the good fortune to attend the induction ceremony, and was pleased to see Elwood Haynes finally get his due.

July 23, 2015 was an evening of elegance for the delegation from Kokomo to the Automotive Hall of Fame induction ceremony. It was held in the Detroit Marriot adjacent to the General Motors Renaissance Center. The centerpiece of the celebration was a 1922 Haynes Model 75 touring car. This machine is owned by Jeff Griffin, a computer science professor from Kokomo. One of the honored guests was former U.S. Congressman “Bud” Hillis. Mr. Hillis is Elwood Haynes’ only surviving grandchild, born in 1926.

This brings us to the other great honor to be bestowed on the Haynes Automobile. As of the June 2015 CCCA Board Meeting, all 1915-1925 Haynes automobiles are Full Classics®. Eight cylinder Appersons built from 1915-1926 are also Classics, joining the 1925-26 Straightaway Eights.

Captions

1. Elwood Haynes c.1896
2. The Haynes Pioneer in front of the Riverside Machine Works during the spring of 1894.
3. Jeff Griffin and “Bud” Hillis share a moment at the Automotive Hall of Fame induction in 2015.
4. 1922 Haynes Model 75 touring car.
5. “Bud” Hillis poses with one of his grandfather’s finest cars.