Gem City Jewel: Stutz Built His First Automobile Here

Harry C. Stutz, founder of the Stutz Motorcar Co., built his first automobile in Dayton. Moving to Dayton in 1896 when he was 20, he picked up some mechanical skills by working for NCR. The following year Stutz gathered up spare parts from an old buggy, some discarded farm equipment and a stationary engine and somehow cobbled it together to build an automobile he nicknamed “Old Hickory.”

In 1900 Stutz opened a machine shop and began building stationary and automobile engines, as well as a second automobile that was powered by a 1-cylinder engine of his own design. Harry would go on to sell the rights to his engine designs to Lindsay Automobile Parts Co. and move to Indianapolis. The rest, as they say, is history.