My adopted hometown of Indianapolis has a deep history in the automotive industry. It can be argued that but for Henry Ford’s fortuitous decision to locate in the Detroit area, Indianapolis could have become a major center of the U.S. automotive industry.
Well, it some ways it still is – if we count cemetary plots.
We here at CC keep finding new things to write about. We have covered ships, aircraft, tractors, lawnmowers and even appliances. But until now we have never covered gravestones. While some could find the topic a touch on the morbid side, this certified automotive history geek finds this to be a fascinating topic.
It is also a topic that should be treated respectfully. Everyone in a cemetery had a life like you and me with families, friends, successes and failures. Those who became famous for their work in bringing us the cars and trucks we have been drawn to are no different. And I see this as another way to remember them for the good things they did.
A few years back and completely by accident I stumbled upon the fact that the Chevrolet brothers are buried in Indianapolis. Louis, Gaston and Arthur Chevrolet were legends in early auto racing, but the name is best remembered because Louis linked up with a certain W. C. Durant in forming a little auto manufacturing shop. You may have heard of it.
Anyway, Louis got sideways with Durant (didn’t everyone?) and stormed out of the company in 1916 because he was not about to make cheap cars like that guy up in Michigan. He and his brothers went on to other automotive ventures in Indianapolis including the Frontenac company, makers of speed equipment for the Ford Model T.
From left: Louis, Gaston and Arthur Chevrolet from their early days in racing.
Gaston died first, in a 1920 racing accident. He was buried in the old St. Joseph/Holy Cross Catholic cemetery on the south side of Indianapolis, in what is now an old industrial area. Louis joined him in 1941 and Arthur in 1946. There is actually some dispute about Arthur, with some claiming that he rests in an unmarked grave in Louisiana. Anyway, the Chevrolet Motor Division supplied some updated grave markers in recent years and there you have it – one of the most famous names of the auto industry will be forever sited in Indianapolis.
I got to wondering what other famous auto industry pioneers might be found here. And discovered that each of the Big Three is buried in the same Indianapolis cemetery. I do not mean that other Big Three that people in Michigan keep yammering on about. I mean the Real Big Three – the holy trinity of the classic car world: Duesenberg, Marmon and Stutz.
Fred and August Duesenberg are both buried here, in the big-league Crown Hill Cemetery on the north side of Indianapolis.
From left: August and Fred Duesenberg, c. 1925
They are, of course, known as the men behind the best and most exclusive car built before WWII. Although the company was part of the Auburn Automobile conglomerate assembled by E. L. Cord, the Duesenberg was manufactured in its own factory on Harding Street in Indianapolis. One of the buildings survives on the grounds of what is now a transit company maintenance facility.
Harry C. Stutz is also a famous name in automobilia, as the man behind “The Car That Made Good In A Day”. Who over age 60 has never heard of the Stutz Bearcat? It was the most sought-after sports car of its day (never mind what those fans of the Mercer Raceabout might say).
Harry Stutz is another resident of Crown Hill.
And while his name may not be quite as well known, his company’s factory still survives in the form of a collection of offices that serves the artistic and creative community here.
Finally there is Howard C. Marmon. Marmon was responsible for two great bursts of fame, first as builder of the Marmon Wasp, the very first winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1911 – a car that exists in the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. He was also the man behind the fabulous Marmon Sixteen, one of the most elegantly engineered cars ever built.
Although Marmon moved out of state following the demise of his company, he came back following his death and is another inhabitant of Crown Hill. His final factory survives as well, on West Morris Street between Kentucky Avenue and Harding Street, and is used by Eli Lilly, our hometown pharmaceutical company.
OK, in terms of tracking the burial sites of automotive heavyweights, we Central Indiana Hoosiers have Stutz, Marmon and Duesenberg with the Chevrolet brothers besides. Which I think is a pretty impressive bunch. So how about you – we have readers everywhere, and there are surely many, many famous automotive names buried in places all over. Yes, we will hear a lot from the Michigan contingent, but I have no doubt we will hear from some less expected places too.
You can add Virgil Exner, Sr., to the list of automotive luminaries who are resting in Indiana.
He and his wife are buried at the Saint Joseph Valley Memorial Park in Granger, Indiana.
Here in the Keystone State we have Charles Edgar Duryea, who is buried in the Ivy Hill Cemetery located in Philadelphia. Duryea and his brother tested the first gasoline-powered vehicle in the United States in 1893 (although this happened in Massachusetts).
In 1896, they formed the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, which lasted until 1917. At one point, the Duryea Motor Wagon Company had the largest automobile factory in the country.
To the best of my knowledge, no automotive pioneers are buried in Harrisburg or the surrounding area.
Buffalo, NY is the burial site of John Oshei, the inventor of the windshield wiper and founder of Trico. Trico had three mammoth plants in Buffalo until their manufacturing moved to Mexico. His legacy is the Oshei foundation which made a significant contribution to Buffalo’s new Oshei Children’s Hospital just completed two years ago.
An interesting topic-
While I haven’t done the research, I’m sure LA graveyards have any number of prominent names from the racing and speed accessory industries. Just driving around the area, I’ve spotted Edelbrock on a building across the street from my office, Iskedarian on a warehouse close to my house, and Agajarian painted on a building down in San Pedro (his home town).
Speaking of Agajarian, LA has strong ties to Indy, since many teams spent their winters building and testing next year’s car in LA’s mild climate.
Sadly, there are also multiple assembly plants buried in the LA area. I know GM was in Van Nuys and Ford used Long Beach and Pico Riviera. I’ve heard rumors of an LA Studebaker plant, and I’m sure others had a presence.
There was indeed a California Studebaker plant – 4530 Loma Vista Avenue in Vernon. It was opened in 1938, closed in 1956.
Well there you go-
I always figured the plant was located somewhere along Studebaker Road on the East side of Long Beach. Vernon isn’t too far away from the road’s terminus in Downey, but is couple of miles Northwest.
Nash owned an assembly plant in El Segundo, California from 1948 through 1955. It was then sold to Hughes Aircraft, which converted it to a missile assembly and test facility.
I just looked – Henry J. Kaiser is in a mausoleum at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland.
At first I was thinking there were no big name automotive people in the Bay Area. I overlooked Kaiser as I know him more for Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond builder of Liberty and Victory ships. Also for Kaiser Permanente. While I visit old California cemeteries for general photography I only have visited two for a specific person. My father at a National Cemetery and the man below at another National Cemetery.
Interesting. I knew he wasn’t buried here in Spokane, but didn’t know where. Even though he was born here and started his career here, and a Kaiser Aluminum plant was the biggest industry for many years, Henry didn’t seem to have any ties with the city, and the city doesn’t remember him. There’s nothing at all named after Kaiser. No streets, no parks, no stadiums.
Kaiser headquarters used to be in downtown Oakland, the tallest building in town at the time. I was born in the nearby Kaiser hospital, and remember visits to the HQ building. My mom liked the roof garden, and I liked the Jeep display in the lobby. My current home town has little automotive history, as far as I know, but I’ll do some research.
Yes, I think most people that have history with/in Oakland know of Kaiser, I certainly did when we lived there, we were a couple of miles from the cemetery. There was/is also the Kaiser Auditorium/Convention Center which is apparently being refurbished now, I believe I saw a presidential candidate speak there once. If you visit Lake Tahoe there is also a huge Kaiser Compound on the west side of the lake, near (in?) Homewood.
As an aside, if you google map the cemetery, less than half a mile to the west Fenton’s Creamery pops up, that’s the place featured in various Pixar movies and an excellent ice cream shop that’s been there about forever.
And no, nobody automotively notable that I am aware of is buried in Fort Collins, CO.
Been to Fenton’s Creamery on Piedmont many a time in the 70s and 80s.
Harley Earl was born in Los Angeles (Hollywood) but it appears he is buried in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Oklahoma City? Nobody that I know of.
We do have the remnants of a GM factory here. It started out building the ill-fated X-Body FWD cars (Citation, Omega, Phoenix, Skylark), then moved on to making some of the A-Body cars (Cutlass Ciera, 6000, Century) through their discontinuation in 1996. After that, it produced N-Body stuff (Cutlass and Malibu), before finally being re-tooled to make GMT360 (Envoy, TrailBlazer, Ascender) vehicles. It was idled in 2006, well before the bankruptcy, and eventually annexed into the nearby Tinker Air Force Base.
Well, technically not his burial spot, but Oldsmar, Florida (between Tampa and Clearwater) was founded by none other than Ransom E. Olds, founder of the Oldsmobile. And Powell Crosley’s winter home is still here in Sarasota, and Henry Ford’s winter home is in Fort Myers. None burial sites, but all still bear witness to them and honor their memory.
During my time in Indianapolis, I always was amazed heading south into downtown to see the names of car companies emblazoned on the older buildings. It was something one sort of knows, but does not fully realize, that Indy was thisclose to being the car capital instead of Detroit.
R.E. Olds’ mausoleum has pride of place in Lansing, Michigan’s Mt. Hope Cemetery. I see it as I drive by on Mt. Hope Rd. several times a week. I suppose Lansing could be considered the final resting place of both of his companies – Oldsmobile and REO – as well.
Great topic. Unfortunately, living in Virginia, I’m not aware of any notable automotive figures who are buried nearby.
Aside from finding graves of well-known historical figures, I love figuring out where they actually lived, which can often be found easily in historic Census records. I looked up several of the people whose graves you mentioned here, and this is what I found.
Fred and Isle Duesenberg lived in a fittingly grandiose house at 3290 Fall Creek Pkwy. in Indianapolis, within a strip of homes that look as if they all belonged to captains of industry. August & Gertrude Duesenberg meanwhile lived 2 mi. away in the Morton neighborhood, in a nice, but far from pretentious 5-bedroom house at 2044 N. Alabama St.
In 1920, Louis and Suzanne Chevrolet lived in a relatively simple house at 26 W. 36th St., in what now appears to be a downtrodden neighborhood a few blocks east of Crown Hill Cemetery. I assume the Chevrolets fell on hard times in later life. By 1930 they moved to Baltimore where they rented a small house on Harford Rd., and then in 1940 (shortly before his death) they moved once more to Detroit, where they lived in an apartment at 2695 Lakewood St. in Detroit.
Harry Stutz wasn’t exactly rolling in cash later in life either. In the 1920s his businesses all collapsed and he and his wife divorced. Late in the decade he remarried – the 1930 Census finds him and his wife living with his wife’s father in a twin home at 3554 N. College Ave.
Howard and Martha Marmon lived very well. Their main Indianapolis house in the 1920s was a very nice place at 3831 N Delaware St. At some point they moved to a fashionable apartment in the downtown Columbia Club building on Monument Circle (they may not have lived there full-time). But by 1940, they left Indiana, moving instead to an estate in rural Avery Co., North Carolina.
Fortunately, most of these houses and buildings are still standing, so it’s neat to look them up on Google StreetView and get a sense for how these folks lived.
I know all of those areas! And holy crap! – I spent ten years working in an office building on the same block as Louis Chevrolet’s house on W. 36th. I knew every house on that block as I passed them many times a week when coming and going from the parking lot which had a 36th Street entrance. Yes, it is a tough area now – it seemed to be on the upswing in the 80s, but that seems to have been temporary. But enough time may have passed that it is getting better again. It was certainly a solid middle class (or slightly better) neighborhood in 1920, and probably still was into the ’60s. My wife grew up about a mile east and her family moved out in 1970.
That would be a great piece – homes of automotive pioneers.
That’s amazing! I figured you knew most of these neighborhoods, but didn’t imagine your familiarity was that close-up.
Chevrolet’s 1920 neighborhood seemed relatively prosperous. Looking through the census ledger, it seems that a lot of residents were store owners, doctors, real estate brokers and the like. Louis Chevrolet identified himself as the President of a Motor Company… which I assume was the Chevrolet Brothers’ Frontenac Company.
And also funny is that I always saw a little “swiss chalet” in that house – not that I have any firsthand experience with what a swiss chalet should really look like. Maybe a swiss chalet as interpreted by a midwestern builder in the 1920s? 🙂 I guess it makes perfect sense given Chevrolet’s having come from Switzerland.
Are you sure you’re not thinking about the house next door, which is 22 W 36th St.? To me, that house does indeed look a little Swiss. Chevrolet’s house was on the corner of 36th & Salem… looks to me like a more traditional 1920-era house.
StreetView of Chevrolet’s house below:
You are right, Eric – I was looking at 22, not 26.
As might be apparent from the name, Meridian Street is the main divider between East and West in Indianapolis. The north-south streets were the really good addresses while the cross streets were much more modest homes, usually.
I forgot to add that my first apartment out of law school was about a block and a half north of 36th on Meridian. I lived there for a couple of years before I tired of the urban lifestyle and bought a house in one of the old suburbs.
You are proving to be too much for my afternoon productivity. What is interesting is that all of those are north-side addresses which was the “high class” side of Indianapolis in those days. Even the modest double on College where Stutz lived late was a relatively modest house in a nice area. He evidently lived at an even nicer one earlier at 3190 N. Meridian which was completed in 1923. I think Harry had sold out of the original company by that time and was running another company that built the HCS (for Harry C Stutz) automobile.
The Stutz place on Meridian would have been considered the far northern limit of the city at that time, with everything north of 38th street being the more-or-less rural suburbs (that were building up quickly after 1920).
It is somewhat addictive. I’ve found that the easiest source for this old Census data is from Heritage Quest — it’s an online database that many libraries subscribe to. With my library card, I’m able to access it from home. Many libraries subscribe to this database — I did a quick check and saw that Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville/Fishers subscribes, so I assume some others in the Indy area do as well.
Once in the database, you can search for individuals from each of the decennial censuses (those up to 1940 are available publicly… census data is confidential for 72 years). But there are limitations. For one, only big Cities had street addresses in the early 20th century, so it’s not always possible to trace a person to a specific house. Another limitation is that the original census ledgers are handwritten… the handwriting is often hard to decipher, and the automated search function isn’t always accurate.
But still, it’s loads of fun for the historically inclined.
Interesting about the types of neighborhoods these folks lived in as well. I’ve enjoyed virtually touring Indianapolis this afternoon!
All this talk of Indy is very interesting to me as I lived on North Meridian for awhile while attending IUPUI in 1968-70. Not too far north, though. I had a cheap basement apartment before I moved near the fairgrounds and finally out to the west side before leaving the area. I had to work to pay for my school so I worked for WFBM on the far north side. My work commute took me past the upscale areas in this discussion. Years later my career led me to working a lot in Indy so I am familiar with all of these neighborhoods.
The Graham family of Graham, Graham Page and Dodge truck fame is from my town and some of them still live here. In fact I ran into the grandson of one of the three Graham brothers yesterday.
The south side of Chicago has the burial place of the Taurus…
The Sayers & Scovills, AND some of the Hess & Eisenhardt families are in Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, all were hearse manufacturers. The Ahrens and Fox family are there too, firetruck manufacturers.
Powel Crosley and his family are in Spring Grove too…along with Otto Armleder (truck body manufacturer)
I went to the visitation one day before the funeral of Lee Iacocca and I paid tribute with flower and this,
Months later I heard they used a Chrysler Pacifica specifically for his funeral, rather than the Cadillac XTS in their fleet.
And I happened to conduct validation work on Jeep vehicle that day so I went there with the M plate Cherokee. Those are the sandbags on the seat for GVW.
The only one I’m aware of is the burial spot of Henry Ford. The Ford cemetary is a non-descript location at Joy and Greenfield Roads in Detroit proper. There are other members of the Ford family buried there as well, as the land was part of the Ford family farm in the mid 1800s.
Henry Ford was transported to his final resting place in a Packard! True!
Edsel Ford and his wife, Eleanor Clay Ford, are buried at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit.
R.S. “Sam” McLaughlin is buried in nearby Oshawa, Ontario. He was founder and president of McLaughlin Motor Car Co. (descended from the family’s carriage business), which evolved into General Motors of Canada. He sat on the GM board of directors into the 1960s and died in 1972 at the age of 100.
Canadian Buicks continued to wear the McLaughlin name until 1942.
Great question, but there’s nothing I can add.
However, if the question were modified (and I’m dropping hints here JP) to asking “What automotive related people were born somewhere you have lived?” I could add at least two names to that list.
Bill Lear, creator of the Lear Jet, was born in Hannibal. He also developed the 8-Track tape. Incidentally, he named his daughter Crystal Shanda. Think about it for a second.
Arther Frommer (who is still alive) was born in Jefferson City. He is the originator of the Frommer travel guides. That has no doubt been used by many drivers over time.
Jeff Morris, who played Bob, the owner of Bob’s Country Bunker in The Blues Brothers, was born in St. Joseph. It’s a car movie, so, well, yeah.
I know that Bill Blass the designer who lent his name to many a Lincoln was born in Ft Wayne, Indiana. And there was auto pioneer Elwood Haynes from Kokomo, about an hour north of Indianapolis. He is probably buried there too, come to think of it.
Crystal Shanda Lear… I love it. I didn’t know that Lear hailed from Hannibal, or that he invented the 8-track.
The most notable automotive figure from near my hometown was George Hurst, whose first shop was in Abington, Pa., just a few minutes from where I grew up. Incidentally, he also invented something not quite related to his main business — he invented the Jaws of Life rescue devise.
Not my hometown, but not far away. Waterville, Maine is the burial place of Alvin O. Lombard, the inventor of the most influential vehicle of the 20th century that no one has ever heard of. The vehicle was the Lombard Log Hauler introduced in 1901. The Lombard was basically a steam locomotive that didn’t need railroad tracks. It was designed to run on Maine’s frozen ground in winter to haul logs out of the woods pulling sleds mounted on skis. Later versions were gasoline powered. This vehicle changed the way that wars were fought, revolutionized earth moving and even reached into the space age helping to move mobile rocket launch pads. How? It was the first commercially successful application of a continuous track propulsion system that went on to revolutionize tank warfare, and make bulldozing possible. Mobile launch pads at NASA move on continuous tracks too. There is a gasoline powered Lombard on display under a shed building at the beginning of Front St. In Waterville, next to the Kennebec River.
That’s easy for me to answer. There are no cemeteries in my town…they are outlawed by City ordinance.
And I am not posting comments too quickly.
I’m taking Jason Schafer’s hint about a broad interpretation of the question with one for the Aussie contingent. The most famous local racing driver in Oz, Peter Brock, is buried 45 mins north-east of downtown Melbourne in the glorious 160 y.o. Arthur’s creek Cemetery. Feels miles from anywhere, but is now just 10 mins from the train and teeming new suburbs.
(For the briefest of bios in case of (unlikely!) curiosity, Brock was born out that way, learnt to drive illegally as a kid all over the backroads as they then were, became a hugely talented driver for Holden, won Australia’s “Great Race” at Mt Panorama, Bathurst – think Indy 500 of Oz, but hilly and scary as hell – 9 times, later retired, and was not too long after killed at 61 in a road rally at a road-legal speed. He was a larrikin and a ladies man, and known and quite loved by the general public – rather like Steve Irwin, who, incredibly, had died two days earlier).
Photo link of the cemetery and its beautiful outlook:
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x6ad7cae5c8facf35:0xdf336a156fa6e001!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4shttps://lh5.googleusercontent.com/p/AF1QipMpZ1NVsIUAMt2xulsnxu1M8ZoSmefuAJERBTEe%3Dw239-h160-k-no!5sarthurs+creek+cemetery+-+Google+Search&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipMpZ1NVsIUAMt2xulsnxu1M8ZoSmefuAJERBTEe&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiXuu6SiZHlAhXVV30KHYquCWgQoiowE3oECA4QBg
Louis Semple Clark is buried in Pittsburgh’s Allegheny Cemetery, the same resting place as songwriter Stephen Foster, baseball star Josh Gibson, saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, and a host of Mellons and Negleys. Clark founded Autocar, and developed the placement of steering wheels on the left side of early cars. The Autocar brand was eventually bought decades later by White, and even later, Volvo. For six years, I worked on Semple Street in the city’s Oakland neighborhood, where parking was so scarce it was easier to take the bus!
The Indianapolis and Indiana automotive heritage is very deep. The Speedway’s origin and history speak to this. I love to travel to Indianapolis in May for 500 qualifying. Being there for several days and able to get around town much easier than during the days around the 500, you can bump into these early automotive names on buildings around town and inside and outside the Speedway Museum. Hoping this coming May to be “back (home) again in Indiana” and visit the Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg Museum in Auburn, Indiana.
We got the Dodge brothers.
While I may not be the biggest fan of Mopar stuff, they were way influential and it’s definitely worth showing respect.
Long live Detroit.
Not even close to as famous as the names mentioned above, Arthur Garford is buried in the city just a few miles from where I live. He built the Studebaker-Garford automobile in Elyria, Ohio for a few years in the early 1900’s. The building where they were built is now the home of The Ridge Tool Co, A brand that is known worldwide & also well known for something that many red-blooded males had hanging on their bedroom wall-the Rigid calendar.
By the early 1900s, Elyria, Ohio, businessman Arthur Garford had amassed a sizable fortune from the Garford Manufacturing Company. Garford eventually sold this company to George Worthington, who renamed the firm the Worthington Manufacturing Company. In conjunction with George Pope, a bicycle and automobile manufacturer, Garford, utilizing funds from the Garford Manufacturing Company’s sale, soon formed the Federal Manufacturing Company. In 1904, Garford purchased Pope’s share in the firm, and this same year, Garford renamed the company the Garford Company. The Garford Company primarily manufactured Studebaker-Garford automobiles. The company began production in 1904 and ceased production in 1911, having manufactured only 2,481 Studebaker-Garford cars. In 1908, Garford sold his majority interest in the Garford Company to Studebaker. Studebaker officials sold the Garford Company to the Willys-Overland Company in 1911.
Cleveland’s famous Lake View Cemetery is the burial site of automotive pioneer Alexander Winton, who founded the Winton Motor Carriage Company in 1897. He is credited as making the first commercial sale of an automobile in the United States in 1898. He used races and cross country tours to promote his products, and is the inventor on more than 100 patents. Winton auto production ended in 1924. In 2006, Winton was inducted into the Inventor Hall of Fame.
And also Henry A. Lozier, founder of his eponymous bicycle and car company. The luxurious Loziers were five times the price of comparable Cadillacs and twice the price of similarly-bedecked Packards. My great-grandfather, Fred Pyper, got his start working for Lozier in Plattsburgh, N.Y. and followed the company to Detroit, eventually landing at Buick for a 40+ year career.