Jackson Automobile Company
The Jackson Motor Car Company of Jackson, MI, started out in 1894 as a joint venture of Byron J. Carter and his father Squire B. Carter and was more of a bicycle shop than a company that produced cars. In fact, Byron was more interested in steam power than gasoline powered cars. In 1901 his steam powered designed car was produced by The Michigan Automobile Company and was being marketed as the Michigan. In 1903 he patented a 3 cylinder, 6 horsepower steam engine and then persuaded two other prominent Jackson, MI businessmen to invest in his bicycle shop.
Jackson, Michigan
He was successful in getting more financing and The Jackson Motor Car Company became the Jackson Automobile Company. The new business began to produce cars in late 1903. The line up included a steam powered car and a gas powered car. The steam car, called the Jaxon, was only produced in 1903. In 1904 a dispute between Byron and principle investors over steam car production, and a form of friction drive for standard cars, would see Carter leave the company. Byron Carter left the company he had founded with his father not a year after bringing on investors. He would go on to produce his friction drive car after founding another company called Carter Car.
When Byron Carter left, the company lost its main driver of innovation. They became more of a follower than a leader in the production of gas powered cars. The one thing the company had going for them, besides constructing a very well built car, was their willingness to try out new things, but only after they had been on other cars for a few years. The original gas car, a single cylinder curved dash, Oldsmobile look like, had its cylinder number increased to a double in 1904, then to a four cylinder in 1906. The company sold its first 6 cylinder engine in 1913. In 1916 they offered a car with a Ferro V8 engine.
In the later years of production Jackson cars were styled more and more to look like a Rolls Royce. The one engineering marvel the company came up with was the Jackson Back Seat Steer, which was exactly what it sounds like. By 1910 the company was under the sole ownership of George Matthews, one of the original investors. In 1919 the company did not produce any cars and focused solely on trucks. They attempted to produce a passenger car in 1920, but one of the assembly line workers said that the person who designed the car would have been better at “raising chickens'' instead. 1920 was the last year for passenger car production at Jackson. In 1923 the company was combined with the Dixie Flyer of Louisville, Kentucky and the National of Indianapolis, Indiana to form Associated Motors. By 1924 all three names would stop production
By: Chris Breeden