Rachel Whitney, Curator,
Sapulpa Historical Museum
It was announced this week in Sapulpa history, with a headline and opening line: “Sapulpa planning an auto factory. There is a chance that Sapulpa may soon have an automobile factory.”
In 1910, the city of Sapulpa began to grow and boom. The oil boom town took off like a rocket with oil companies running, families growing, new businesses opening, and the largest employer, the Frisco railway, made headquarters in town.
The dawn of the new decade would soon bring many factories to the city. The 1910s brought along glass factories, packing plants, and steelwork businesses. Another new industry would begin in this decade for Sapulpa: motor vehicles.
Just a couple of years prior to 1910, Sapulpa introduced a new auto fire engine, the trolley began, hotels were erected, cigar factories were developed, and the town introduced a new street numbering system because of the new ways of transportation and growing population.
*Note: In June 1907, a new numbering system was passed by the city council. Main and Dewey were to be the dividing lines. Main Street would divide the town east and west, whereas Dewey Ave would mark the north-to-south dividing line. Odd-numbered addresses would be on the north side, whereas the even-numbered addresses would be on the south side.
In Sapulpa, the automobile industry of making, shipping, and repairing vehicles was the new line of work. In the summer of 1910, “the pleasant weather of the past week has given automobiling a tremendous impetus and every owner of a machine has been driving overtime. Automobiling is a delightful pastime during these hot days and in fact, it is almost the only way to keep cool.” Automobiles were a hot commodity, and they had people proclaiming, “it’s hot, Don!”—Don Moore car dealerships in Owensboro, Kentucky and its tri-state area would stake this phrase as true.
“The Sapulpa Livery company organized by Dr. Frampton and Albert Bigbond is going to install in Sapulpa an automobile bus line…The home of the new company is in the old Central Motor Car Company garage on South Main St. Central Motor Car moved to their beautiful new garage on East Lee Ave. The new garage is a splendid type of modern automobile home and is fitted up with all the most modern appliances for keeping and repairing cars…The Hollenbeck Motor Company on South Main report a nice business and now with their sample cars are here among the automobile world of Sapulpa.”
With many means of transportation, Sapulpa became the center of it all.
This week in Sapulpa history, on July 19, 1910, a proposition was made to introduce an auto factory. “The company which is known as the Sapulpa Motor Vehicle company is composed of W.B. Stone, W.P. White, W.E. White, and R.P. White…they propose to put in a factory here that will start out with a rapidity of four cars a week and will employ at least twenty men.”
As a way to promote their factory, “this company made one car here which is known as the Sapulpa motor car.”
Just two days later, a demonstration of their vehicle was put into action. “At the Jim Sapulpa farm, two miles south of town, the Motor Farm Purpose machine was given a thorough testing in its principal use – that of bailing hay.”
The Sapulpa motor car would be used as a “practical farming machine,” and “would revolutionize farm work.”
The White Brothers and Stone stated their factory would manufacture these machines, “and also the Sapulpa automobiles…At the demonstration, the machine proved very effective bailing from three to four bales of hay while an old baler is completing one at a cost of less than one dollar per day for gasoline.”
By September, the Commercial Club endorsed the proposition of the auto factory, and looked forward to the “establishment in Sapulpa of an automobile farm purpose machine.” The proposition to the Commercial Club, not only included how many men it would employ, but stated “it will be the greatest industry in the city in a short time.”
Stone “subscribed to a thousand dollar more stock than the total subscribed by the people of the city, condition that they took not less than $10,000 of the stock. This would give the concern a capital of over $20,000 to begin with.*”
*Note: In 1910, $10,000 and $20,000 would be roughly around $300,000 and $600,000 today.
“At the present time, automobiles of various kinds are being made by this company. J.K. Vandiveer of the Sapulpa Storage Transfer company recently gave them an order for an automobile moving van, and while farm auto machinery will be the particular line of manufacture, it is likely that automobiles for passenger use will be a part of the business.”
B.T. Glover of the Glover Auto Supply Company praised the town of Sapulpa and stated why he believed business would be good this coming fall. “I really and truly feel that not only is business going to be good, but that it will be most excellent this fall. Crops are bringing the highest kind of prices, and labor is getting the best wages ever paid. Speaking of crops, if I had my way I would have a ‘motor farm’ and raise cars, for I do not seem to be able to get them from the ‘motor plants’ as fast as necessary.*”
*Note: Although Glover’s statement is true about the automobile and is a great symbol of the 1910 automobile industry, his quote came later in the decade – September of 1917.
By October 1910, W.B. Stone and the White Brothers proclaimed “Sapulpa now has an auto factory…When the motor is placed on the market, it will mean a revolution in farming as this machine can be used wherever horses are and in many places where horses cannot be used. Numerous orders have already been placed for this machine and they will be turned out just as fast as possible.”
The manufacture of these automobiles would be known as the “Sapulpa machine.”
“The starting of this automobile factory means another step and a large one towards the Industrial Sapulpa and adds another to the long list of factories already here.”
The 1910s brought a new three-worded phrase to everyone’s lips: “made in Sapulpa.”
(Sapulpa Sunday Light, June 5, 1910; Sapulpa Evening Light, July 19, 1910, July 21, 1910, September 7, 1910, October 10, 1910; Creek County Republic, September 21, 1917)
