End of the Line

L­ike so many early automobile manufacturers, the Auburn Automobile Company started out as an evolution of carriage making. Charles Eckhart started a company, the Eckhart Carriage Company, building carriages in 1875 in Auburn, Indiana. As the 19th Century wound to a close, his two sons, Frank and Morris, wanted to try their hand building one of those new-fangled contraptions, the automobile. They knew that carriages were on the way out, and autos were rolling in.

The first Auburn automobile was a product of the Eckhart Carriage Company of Auburn, Indiana. The year was 1900, and the Eckhart brothers, Frank and Morris, built a vehicle that hewed to the times, a single-cylinder, tiller-helmed, solid-tired Runabout. When production hit its stride in 1902, the tires now held compressed air, and the 78-inch wheelbase of the chassis held a 6-horsepower engine. This effort tipped the scales at 1,150 lbs., and set a buyer back $800. In 1904, Auburn built 50 of these, setting the stage for incremental improvements with each year.