Humankind is unique among animals for its need to stamp out a legacy for itself; after all, few willingly meet death’s long embrace without raging against the dying of the light. Unfortunately for most men, anonymity is all that the grave can offer, even when said men have accomplished something staggering in their lifetimes. This humble Hupmobile may be almost forgotten in the basement of a Cleveland auto museum, but its historical significance practically oozes from every blemish, and the voices of the men who drove it echo from the walls of its long time domicile.
The Crawford Auto Aviation Collection in Cleveland houses this unassuming Hupmobile, a car that traveled roughly 47,000 miles under its own power and another 25,000 plus miles in the holds of ships to circle the globe between November 1910 and January 1912. Three hardy men were in charge of whisking it around a world with few good roads and much political mayhem: Thomas Hanlon, a crack driver and mechanic; Thomas Jones, a young reporter for The Detroit Free Press; and Joseph Drake, a Hupp vice-president and brother of Hupp’s president, J. Walter Drake.
Few amateur automotive historians will recognize those names, but the difficulties and adventures they faced over the course of their travels render them immediate unsung heroes, enduring discomforts that 21st century travelers could barely imagine. They christened their mount “Little Corporal,” after France’s famous dictator, a man who was unafraid of adventure and danger.
The car they used for their trip was unlike the famous Thomas Flyer that completed the “Great Auto Race of 1908.” Where the Thomas was large and powerful, the Hupp was light, agile, and efficient. Indeed, the three intrepid drivers suffered few mechanical maladies as they circled the globe, a broken axle being the most troublesome. Hanlon and his crew literally bought a pottery shop in Japan for its tools and spent more than a week fashioning a new axle. They spent much of their time in the far east, Australia, and New Zealand before touring India, much of Africa, and Western Europe. On the whole, the worst roads they encountered were in the United States, especially out west, proving that if America was to embrace the automobile, it had to embrace a massive expenditure on infrastructure.
The brass era was an age of automotive adventure, with every bold automobilist dreaming of a cross-country or round the world journey. The Hupmobile was not the first car to perform either of these feats, but it showed the world what an American automobile could do. Unfortunately, Hupmobile neglected to truly capitalize on their grand achievement, as internecine strife hobbled the company for much of its existence from the time Robert Hupp left his company, which he did while his Model 20 was abroad. Hupp Motor Car Company underwent a restructuring while our three heroes completed their journey, and a decision to focus on more expensive and powerful models contradicted everything their reliable little car was proving around the world. Hupp would have likely sold many Model 20s, but they instead abandoned this market (that admittedly would soon be dominated by Ford). The 1913 Model 32 pictured above is indicative of the larger vehicle the reorganized management favored.
Hupmobile groped through the Depression before breathing its last gasp in the form of this Hupmobile Skylark, which used Cord body dies atop a rear-drive architecture. It was a beautiful but bittersweet end to an automaker that once attempted a risky marketing sideshow, led by some average guys who performed a Herculean task, driving around the world in a car with about as much horsepower as a modern riding lawnmower.
Upon returning home from Cleveland, which the “Little Corporal” has called home since 1946, I was determined to discover the story behind what appeared to be a decrepit relic. Little is to be found online, and only one book has been written on the subject, Three Men and a Hupp by James A. Ward, and he covers the car and men involved in a way that one could hardly improve upon, and I’ve used his book as my source. Even he, in his detailed research, found difficulty in characterizing Thomas Jones, as he died fairly young and left no descendants, proving that even the greatest feats are soon forgotten, even when one leaves as palpable a legacy as this old Hupmobile.
Then again, if a man doesn’t truly die until his name is spoken for the last time, I’m happy to keep these three heroes going for a little while longer.
Nice post
I wonder if that tank on the passenger side running board was for acetylene(Carbide) headlights?
It could be. The colorized photo shows an acetylene generator on the running board.
This is one cool article. I’m surprised the car survived this long. Does the hood exist? That looks to be the only part missing.
Apparently, the three guys who drove the car stole a couple of parts from it for their personal collections, so one of them might have taken the hood at some point. It’s also missing the headlights and speedometer.
Wonderful story. It’s surprising how soon this kind of feat was achieved given the car was only just reaching any kind of maturity beyond the early cycle-cars and horseless carriages of a decade earlier.
My great-granddad favored Hupp and Pierce-Arrow products until both companies succumbed to the ravages of Depression-era economics and their own business models. After that, It was Packard until he died in 1951. While that was four years before I showed up on the planet, we have family photos galore of his various cars from 1898 until 1951. I just wish they were at my house, but my brother has them all (they help in his genealogy work). My next visit to Massachusetts, I will have to get some of them.
I remember a university lecturer proudly saying that the best car he ever owned was a Hupmobile – and being surprised there was someone in the class who’d heard of the name.
A wonderful article. I love these retrospectives of racing or endurance feats from early in automotive history. You are right, all of this stuff starts slipping back under the surface after awhile and eventually nobody will remember or appreciate it.
Unfortunately, even though Hupp almost made it to WWII, it is one of the forgotten brands of the 30s, along with Graham.
I know almost zero about Hupp, so you have increased my awareness by about 50% with just this one piece.
I know almost zero about Hupp,
Grab hold…here we go:
The Detroit Hupp plant was in what is now the south east corner of the GM “Poletown” plant, which straddles the border between Detroit and Hamtramck.
Hupp essentially pulled a Studebaker: closing the automotive division and diversifying into other businesses, particularly home appliances. Gibson, in Greenville, Michigan became a Hupp division in 56 (I grew up raiding a Gibson fridge in the evening) Hupp took over Hercules Engine in Canton, Ohio, sometime in 56-58, which had taken over Hall-Scott and moved H-S production to Canton.
Hupp was taken over, and partly dismembered by White in 67, with the appliance division becoming part of White Consolidated Industries while the Hercules Engine division became the in house engine builder for White trucks.
White Consolidated was later taken over by Electrolux around 86. Electrolux told it’s workers at the Greenville plant they either had to take pay and benefit cuts, or production would be moved to Mexico. The workers agreed to the cuts, but production was moved to Mexico a few years later anyway.
White spun off Hercules, iirc, in the late 90s and Hercules went BK a few years later. Another company has started up calling itself Hercules, with the objective of selling service parts for Hercules engines still in use. The Hercules plant in Canton is the subject of an attempted redevelopment project by the city.
The rump Hupp, in Cleveland, making automotive and commercial a/c components was passed around from company to company, finally expiring in bankruptcy in 91.
Meandering back to the Hupp automotive division, Paul did a piece a few years ago on the Lowey designed Hupp “Aerodynamic” models of the mid 30s.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1935-hupmobile-j-521-six-aerodynamic-raymond-loewy-helps-usher-in-the-aerodynamic-era/
Aerial photo of Detroit in the early 60s. “P” denotes the north end of the Packard plant. “G” denotes the Gemmer steering gear plant. The question mark is the former location of Packard’s foundry and the “H” denotes the former Hupp plant, already partially torn down by that time.
Now that you are oriented, this aerial is from 56, with the freeway right of way being cut through. The eastern half of the Hupp complex, which is completely torn down in the early 60s pic, can be seen on the left edge of the pic, though one of the n/s wings of the plant has already been torn down.
Thank you for writing this. The early days of the automobile are so full of wonderful stories, but as you said, these stories soon get lost in the fog of time.
The stories these three – and the car – could tell would be priceless.
I’ve seen the Thomas Flyer you mentioned in your article twice. It was in Austin Clark’s museum on the East End of Long Island when I was a kid and I saw it at the National Auto Museum (formerly the Harrah collection) in Reno NV, about 15 years ago. Amazing that cars like these, and the people who drove them, were able to accomplish what they did more than a century ago.
Amazing accomplishments indeed, and so adventurous to use often-unreliable mechanical technology that had hardly existed twenty years before.
Times change – and aren’t we a generation of softies?
Nice musings
I wonder if they made white tyres back then, or if the tyres turned white of aging.
In the old ad tyres seem to be grey.
The natural color of rubber is white. The addition of carbon black to tires was an early development in improving the performance of tires.
I thought I was fairly well read on the daring young men in their jaunty jalopies from the turn of the century but this trip I have never heard of!
that is why I love CC….you are always learning!! 🙂
What a great article ! .
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THANK YOU .
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Yes, they used to make white tires, I wish they still did .
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-Nate
Thank you for bringing this old car to life for us!
Carbon Black = black rubber
Zinc Oxide = white rubber
My dad spent his entire career in the rubber business and refused to have white wall tires because the rubber aged more quickly. Now if he would only have sprung for a radio!
Yes OK, I understand, but a white-wall-tire is not a white tire.
What I want is white tires for – let me say- my motorcycle.
I don´t care if those are aging fast or something …because I have to change them anyway within a few years.