Mercer Automobile Company
Trenton, NJ
1910-1926
In May of 1909 the Mercer Automobile Company was founded in Trenton, Mercer county, New Jersey. The company sprang out of the former Walter and Roebling-Planche motor cars. Mercer took over the latter company's factory, a former brewery, and released a car in 1910 that shared a lot in common with the Walter car design of 1908. The driving force behind the Mercer was the Roebling and Kuser families. The Roebling family was filled with engineers ever since the head of the family, John Augustus Roebling, designed the Brooklyn Bridge in the early 1880s.
The family now turned its attention to the Mercer car and introduced a design in 1910. Weather or not the car was simply a change to the last Walter car, designed by Etienne Planche or not, no one seems to have even asked the question, but period newspapers give credit to A.R. Kingston and E.T. George, with input from C.G. Roebling. The 1910 line up included a speedster, toy tonneau and touring all powered by a 4 cylinder L-head engine.
In 1911, Mercer introduced a T-headed Raceabout. The car was designed by C.G. Roebling’s son, Washington A. Roebling III and was engineered by Finley Roberston Porter. The model would become synonyms with the Mercer name. Its light, bare bone bodywork and 300 cubic inch engine were just the right formula to create one of the United State’s most loved early cars.
ABOVE: Ralph De Palma driving a Mercer race car in the 1913 Elgin Trophy race. From: The Detroit Public Library Digital Collections
ABOVE: Mercer Advertisement. From: The Automobile Journal August 10, 1912.
In its introductory year, the Raceabout won 5 out of 6 major races it was entered in. Early In 1912, at the Los Angeles Speedway, Ralph De Palma set 8 new class speed records. A few weeks later, Spencer Wishart took a Raceabout off of the showroom floor and won a 200 mile race in Columbus, OH. For good measure, he set 4 new dirt track world records.
But, the good fortunes of the Roebling family and the Mercer Automobile Company took a bad turn. Washington A. Roebling died when the R.M.S Titanic sank in April of 1912. A few years later, Finley Porter resigned from the company and the new man brought in to replace him, Eric A. Delling, had different plans for Mercer.
Delling determined the only way forward for Mercer was to drop the rough image the company had gotten with the introduction of the Raceabout. He introduced a new, quieter 4 cylinder engine and began adding things to Mercer cars to increase comfort. This caused the car to lose its early mystic and to add insult to injury, Delling didn’t stick around to see what he had done to the make. Delling left in 1916.
The next blow came in 1917 when C.G. Roebling died. The company went on producing average cars and in 1919 it was taken over by a Wall Street backed group called the Mercer Motors Company. Once the group had gained a controlling stake they brought in an old Packard vice president, Emlen S. Hare.
ABOVE: A 1922 Mercer at an early car show. Photo from: The Detroit Public Library Digital Collections.
Hare had grand designs with Mercer. He wanted to make 50,000 cars a year. By 1921 Hare had run the company into the ground and following a major restructuring, old guard Mercer guy John Kuse found himself back in charge. The company would struggle on until 1926 when they produced their last new car. After that the factory was turned into a repair shop and continued on under the Mercer name.
In 1928 the Mercer name was bought by Harry M. Wahl, a former Durant executive. He recognized how important the name Mercer was and had a plan to create a new car, with the old name. The new company was able to make one car and one chassis that were displayed at the New York Auto Show in 1931. The Mercer name finally fell victim, like so many other makes, to the Great Depression.
By: Chris Breeden
ABOVE: Mercer race car at the 2022 Chattanooga Motor Car Festival. Photo by: Chris Breeden
