Small Town Museum – Big Time Collection!

Some time ago, when planning our trip to Michigan, I googled things to do and see in Jackson County.  After all, it was the primary county where I was raised and where my mother lived until she passed in 1995.  In addition, my father’s family is from Jackson County…

I thought that I knew about all of the top attractions in the county so I was stunned when I discovered a special museum focused on automotive history in a small town just west of the city of Jackson and east of Concord, the latter being where my mother’s last home was located.

This is Ye Ole Carriage Shop in Spring Arbor Michigan.  The low-key appearing building doesn’t do justice to its contents.  Michigan Hwy 60 is the main thoroughfare through Spring Arbor…but Ye Ole Carriage Shop is discretely located on an adjacent cross street in town, at 3538 Henderson Street.  In addition, visits to the museum are limited to tours only.  Visitors can’t just walk in and view the collection.  Lloyd Ganton built the museum in 1974 but I’d never heard of it despite passing through Spring Arbor on a regular basis for many years.

A little information about the ‘town’ of Spring Arbor is in order.  It is an unincorporated community and census-designated place in Jackson County.  Unlike many small towns and villages across the USA, Spring Arbor is growing.  Its 2020 population was 2,881, up over 27% in just 10 years.  Spring Arbor is the home of Spring Arbor University, a liberal arts university that is affiliated with the Free Methodist Church.  With a student body of about 1,400 students, the University is key to Spring Arbor’s growth.

Although my focus was on the automobiles, Ye Ole Carriage Shop has much more to offer visitors.  Our tour guide was Judi Ganton, Lloyd Ganton’s wife and partner in the world of collecting.  The first thing we noted was a huge collection of Sparton products.  This display is just a fraction of the Sparton items in the museum.  Founded ca. 1900 and focused on making farm implement parts, the Withington Company hired William “Cap” Sparks and he soon became a partner.  The company’s name eventually migrated to a combination of Sparks and Withington…aka “Sparton”. 

In 1909 the Withington-Sparks Company began making radiator cooling fan assemblies and horns for the auto industry.  Then the company created the first all-electric car horn and it was soon being used in 42 different auto models.  The company also manufactured the first all-electric car radios.  Soon the Sparton Corporation was manufacturing fans, radios, phonographs and much more, even early televisions.  By 1929, 1 out of every 15 workers in Jackson was employed by Sparton.  The company went out of business in 2009.  To learn more about this innovative company, go to https://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/2013/04/peek_through_time_jacksons_spa.html.

Lloyd Ganton loves automobiles, especially if they were built in Jackson Michigan!  The automobile shown above is a 1903 Jaxon.  Never heard of a Jaxon automobile?  Neither had we! 

Lloyd graduated from Spring Arbor College and he settled in the area.  Then he found a car that had been made in Jackson.  His new found passion led to a consuming interest into cars made in Jackson and into the city’s auto manufacturing history.  His research revealed that 24 different companies had built cars in the city and that, at one time, auto manufacturing was the largest employer in town.

Lloyd collects all types of autos but a main goal has been to add at least one of every Jackson-made automobiles.  He currently has 18 Jackson-made autos.  Of the 6 he doesn’t have, 3 no longer exist and 3 are in collections which cannot be purchased.

So what’s the history of the Jaxon automobile?  In 1894, Byron J. Carter went into a partnership with his father selling bicycles.  By 1899 he’d built his first gasoline powered automobile, but initially he focused on steam cars.  His first steam cars were manufactured by the Michigan Automobile Company in Kalamazoo Michigan.  However by 1903, Carter had patented a 3-cylinder 6-horsepower steam engine and, with 2 partners, (one a buggy manufacturer and the other who manufactured axles), the Jackson Automobile Company was incorporated.  Production of the Jaxon model lasted only 1 year and this is the only remaining Jaxson in existence.  If you look closely, you can see that the Jaxon was steered via a tiller rather than a steering wheel.

This 2-seater runabout is a 1906 Steel Swallow.  It is the only known Steel Swallow in existence.  The Deering brothers from Spring Arbor Michigan and owners of the Steel Swallow Auto Company, built these autos in a facility in Jackson.  Only about 50 of these cars were built.  In 1906, you could buy a Steel Swallow for about $700.  That was a lot of money when you consider the fact that the average worker only made between $200 and $400 a year.

In 2006, Mr. Ganton recovered this auto from a barn in southern Michigan.  It didn’t have a motor and the Swallow itself was disassembled.  He stored the car for 10 years until he found an original motor to match with it.  The fully restored Steel Swallow with its original air-cooled 4 HP Harley-Davidson engine was fully restored and put on display in at Ye Ole Carriage Shop in 2019.  

Now onto a brand name that still survives today.  But these early Buicks were built in Jackson too.  This is a 1907 Buick Model F.  The Model F Buick was built in Jackson until 1907 when the company’s President, William C. Durant, the soon to be founder of General Motors, shifted production from Jackson to Flint Michigan.  

Note: Prior to his successes with Buick, Durant had made a fortune as co-owner of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company in Flint Michigan.  It was the largest carriage manufacturer in the USA.

The Model F was powered by a 2-cylinder engine, it had an 87 inch wheelbase and it weighed 1,800 lbs.  Back around the beginning of the 1900s, many automobiles developed their reputation at the race track, with hill climbs or by establishing land or endurance speed records.  When the Chicago American and Examiner Newspaper stages a 1,000 mile relay race from Chicago to New York in 1906, the Buick Model F was the only competitor to complete the event.  The Model F earned the nickname, ‘Old Faithful’, often touted in company brochures, and it remained in production through 1910.

This is a 1908 Fuller High Wheel.  It is the only known High Wheel in existence.  The Fuller was built by the Fuller Buggy Company in Jackson.  The company made both high wheelers with a double chain drive as well as vehicles with pneumatic tires and a shaft drive.  If you had wanted to buy a Fuller, they were priced from $800 to $1,200, not inexpensive for the time period. 

The High Wheel had a hand-cranked gasoline motor.  The high wheels were the same style as the wheels used on the Fuller Buggy Company’s carriages.  This style was abandoned when it was discovered that these narrow wheels didn’t do well in mud or soft soil.  The owner of the Fuller Buggy Company, George A. Mathews, also owned the Jackson Automobile Company and the Fuller Company was absorbed into the larger operation in 1911.   

This is a 1911 4-door Cutting automobile.  It is powered with a 4 cylinder 40 HP engine.  This unrestored original Cutting touring automobile is the only such model in existence.  The Cutting autos were built in Jackson Michigan by the Clark-Carter Automobile Company from 1909 – 1911 and subsequently by the Cutting Motor Car Company from 1911 to 1912.

These powerful automobiles featured a Milwaukee motor with horsepower ranging from 30 to 60 HP.  They were priced at between $1,200 and $1,500.  Noted award winning early race driver Bob Burman had worked as a ‘road tester’ for the Jackson Automobile Company and in 1912 he drove a Cutting race car in the Indianapolis 500.  Unfortunately, he crashed after 157 laps.  The Cutting Motor Car Company failed in 1912 due to a lack of funding.

This little red 2-seater runabout really caught my eye… It’s a 1914 Argo, and yes, it is the only surviving Argo in existence!  These small low-priced cars were built by the American Gear Company although I also found a reference to Benjamin Briscoe and the Briscoe Motors Company.  Argos were powered by a 4 cylinder 12 HP engine and in an attempt to compete with the Ford Motor Company’s affordable Model-T, they were priced at between $250 and $500.

Production of the Argo lasted less than 2 years, from 1914 to 1915.  Englishman Mansell Hackett owned the Disco Starter Company in Detroit and, as a related side business he would buy small nearly bankrupt auto manufacturers, split them up and sell the parts or refurbish them as a whole.  One of Hackett’s purchases was the Argo Motor Company as owned by Benjamin Briscoe.  Hackett decided to keep this company and begin manufacturing cars himself.  Reorganized as the Hackett Motor Car Company, this company operated from 1917 to 1919, manufacturing only about 118 autos…

Speaking of Benjamin Briscoe, his company, Briscoe Motor Corporation built these 2 rather unusual automobiles in Jackson.  The first one shown above is a racy looking 4 cylinder Briscoe Speedster…one of only 2 in existence.  The second photo is of a 1915 Briscoe Cyclops, a 4 seater meant for families.  Only 3 of this Briscoe model have been found. 

The unusual feature on both cars is the cyclops, a single center mounted headlight.  The headlight is actually faired into the radiator shell.  It turned out to be quite unpopular and it was illegal in several states.  Ben Briscoe claimed that this design came directly from a French design studio.

This is a 1916 Briscoe.  Note the absence of the cyclops headlight.  While the Briscoe Motor Corporation was headquartered in New York City, the manufacturing plant was located in Jackson Michigan.  I love the advertising accompanying this Briscoe Model.  It was promoted as “a car for men and women”.  Interestingly, in 1914 and 1915, Briscoe Motors began offering a 4-cylinder model with a lightweight body made of a composition paper-mache material.

At one point, the Briscoe Motor Corporation was one of the 20 largest auto makers in the USA.  However, in 1921 when the US was in a deep recession, Briscoe sold his interest in the company and permanently exited from the auto industry.  He didn’t suffer…starting a Canadian company refining crude oil with a process he invented, plus he mined gold and other materials in Colorado.  Later in life, he retired to a 3,000 acre estate in Florida.

The photos above are of a 1922 unrestored Earl Cabriole…and also of a fully restored 1922 Earl Cabriole.  Judi and Lloyd Ganton own 2 of these autos and there are only 2 of these vehicles in existence!  Lloyd left one unrestored to show the difference and give visitors an opportunity to understand the work restoration requires.  FYI, trying to find a clear definition of cabriole is challenging at best…but as promoted in advertising by Earl Motors Incorporated, it refers to the convertible nature of this model’s roof...

At this point I have realized that the early automotive industry was quite incestuous…with one company or owner merging or buying out another after working for the company.  Benjamin Briscoe appointed Clarence A. Earl as President of Briscoe Motor Corporation in the spring of 1921.  Earl had previously served as a Vice President of Willys-Overland in Toledo Ohio and has the distinction of being fired by Walter P. Chrysler when he took over the helm at Willys-Overland.  To get a full picture of Clarence Earl’s convoluted journey in the auto industry, just go to http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public4/earl-1.cfm.

Basically, the Earl was manufactured in Jackson from 1920 – 1923.  It was a longer more powerful version of the Briscoe.  It offered both open and closed models with a 4-cylinder engine.  An advertisement for the 1922 Earle Cabriole touted all of the extras that came with the car.  For only $1,395 customers received a touring trunk with a cover, 2 suitcases, a hat box, a bumper, motometer (a radiator temperature gauge), sun visor, a 1-piece windshield with a wiper and a Sparton horn!  In total, less than 2,000 Earl Automobiles were built before the company closed shop.  Clarence Earl had already moved on to the Presidency of yet another automotive manufacturer…but that’s another story.

Note: I was gobsmacked when I came across a listing of all of the automobile brand names that have ever been built in Michigan.  In the early days of auto manufacturing, it was a lot like the Wild West!  Go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Motor_vehicle_manufacturers_based_in_Michigan.  

I have just scratched the surface as regards the automobiles and other fascinating collectables on display at Ye Ole Carriage Shop.  More will follow in my next post… Lloyd and Judi Ganton have assembled an amazing personal collection!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave