Winton automobile

The Winton Motor Carriage Company of Cleveland, Ohio was a pinoeer United States automobile manufacturer. Winton was the first American company to sell a motor car.

The company was incorporated on March 15, 1897 by Scottish immigrant, Alexander Winton[?], owner of the Winton Bicycle Company. Their first automobiles, called "horseless carriages," were built by hand and assembled piece by piece. Each vehicle had fancy painted sides, padded seats, a leather roof, and gas lamps. The Goodrich Rubber Company[?] of Akron, Ohio made the rubber tires for Winton cars.

1899 Winton

By 1897, Winton had already produced two fully operational prototype automobiles. In May of that year, the 10 horsepower model achieved the astonishing speed of 33.64 mph on a test around a Cleveland horse track. However, the new invention was still subject to much skepticism and to prove his automobile’s durability and usefulness, Alexander Winton had his car undergo an 800 mile endurance run from Cleveland to New York City.

On March 24, 1898 Robert Allison of Port Carbon, Pennsylvania became the first person to buy an American-built automobile when he bought a Winton after seeing an advertisement in Scientific American. Later that year the Winton Motor Carriage Company would sell twenty-one more vehicles. The following year, more than one hundred Winton vehicles were sold, making the company the largest manufacturer of gas-powered automobiles in the United States. This success led to the first automobile dealership being opened by Mr. H.W. Koler in Reading, Pennsylvania. To deliver the vehicles, in 1899 the innovative Winton company built the first auto hauler in America.

Publicity generated sales and in 1901 the news that both Reginald Vanderbilt[?] and Alfred Vanderbilt[?] had purchased Winton automobiles, boosted the company’s image substantially.

In 1903 Horatio Nelson Jackson made the first successful automobile drive across the United States in a new Winton.

Winton continued successfully through the 1910s marketing automobiles to upscale consumers.

1915 Winton Six Limosine

The first part of the 1900s saw dozens of new automobile companies starting up. Rapid innovation and intense competition led to the end of production by Winton in 1924 and the Winton Motor Carriage Company became part of General Motors. The company still exists as a division of General Motors, producing marine diesel engines.

For information on other vehicles see: List of automobiles.