Iowa gets into gear

This year marks the 110th anniversary of three automotive manufacturers, each revolutionary and unique for their time, and each built in Iowa with dreams of taking on Henry Ford. Ford would ultimately open a factory in Des Moines and Walter Chrysler, whose first car in Oelwein went on to inspire an automotive empire.

Everyone recognizes the name Ford or Chrysler on automobiles today, but what about Maxen, Maytag, or Zip? These were manufacturers of early automobiles in Cedar Rapids, Waterloo, and the Quad Cities. They wanted to make Iowa the car and truck assembly center of America.

The Maxen, a 94-inch wheelbase touring car or roadster, was far ahead of its time, built by a windmill designer in Cedar Rapids who was considered the Elon Musk of his day. The revolutionary vehicle was powered by twenty-six batteries leading to an electric motor that produced 48 volts to propel the two door open top speedster at up to 20 m.p.h.

To further generate the image of speed, it was also assembled with an innovative underslung suspension system that allowed it to lay closer to the ground, giving its sleek body the appearance of slicing through the air and hugging the surface like today’s race cars. The factory was located on Seventh Avenue in southwest Cedar Rapids, and in 1912-13, its cars were to be sold for a considerable sum of $1,450.

Just before it made its debut, Frederick Maytag, who was producing motors for his clothes washing machines at Newton, decided to branch out into the automotive business. Maytag took over the Mason Company, a struggling pioneer car manufacturer from Des Moines whose chief engineers were August and Fred Duesenberg, who would later start their own legendary luxury sport car business.

Maytag joined with businessman, William Galloway, who had purchased the remains of a factory in Waterloo that was intended to built the cars of Frank and Charles Duryea, generally considered the inventors of the internal combustion engine automobile.

The Mason Company was renamed Maytag and production began on the assembly line of the former Duryea factory at Duryea and Westfield, in Waterloo, in 1910. The sporty car came in a hefty four cylinder touring model at $1,750 or a smaller, more economical, two cylinder version called the “Farmer’s Car,” for $1,250.

Production continued through the end of 1915 and today the site is largely a parking lot and warehouse near the John Deere Tractor and Engine Museum on the north side of downtown Waterloo.

At the same time these cars were rolling out for a wealthier market, a more affordable means of transportation for the masses was taking shape in Davenport.

Fifteen hundred dollars was a large amount for that time, most could not invest such a sum. So a group of businessmen led by industrialist Frank Skinner in the Quad Cities sought to create a car for the common man and conceived a lightweight vehicle that wouldn’t be known for luxury, but as a basic form of transit.

The vehicle, called the Zip, would have a short wheelbase and a two-cylinder air cooled engine capable of scooting its feather light weight of 700 pounds at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. A four-cylinder sixteen horsepower water cooled version would later be introduced, but each was available for less than $400 per model.

Its first prototype slid off the assembly line at Second and Warren in 1913 and made a cross-country run from the Quad Cities to New York. Impressed with the results, orders for the petite little engine that could came into Davenport from around the world, especially Europe, where the cyclecar, as it was categorized, fit the narrow streets of the old world cities and was also popular, in a souped up variety, as a racecar.

Despite this demand, when the first Ford Model T was lowered in price to closer to $700, the comparatively underpowered cyclecar couldn’t compete, and the Zip zipped out of business just before World War I. Nonetheless, many credit the threat of the more affordable mini car as helping bring down the cost of the average car.

Maxen, Mason, and Zip may not have become enduring names in the annals of automotive history, but certainly brought attention to and gained popularity for automobiles in the days of the first horseless carriages in the state of Iowa.

To learn more about how this got the wheels moving for the industry, the Center Point Historical Society is hosting the final installment in its Planes Trains and Automobiles exhibit and lecture series. The presentation is titled “Clash of the Titans: Henry Ford, Walter Chrysler and the Other Manufacturers of Automobiles in Iowa,” and will be held 2 p.m. Sunday Oct. 22 at the Historical Society Depot Museum in Center Point. Admission is free.

David V. Wendell is a Marion historian, author and special events coordinator specializing in American history.