(First Posted August 27, 2013) The early days of the automotive industry in the United States saw a multitude of different makes, many now forgotten or rarely mentioned. The Luverne could easily fall into the latter category.
The Luverne Automobile Company was founded by brothers Fenton (sometimes found as Al) and Ed Leicher. Based in the town of Luverne, Minnesota, the first Luverne was assembled by the St. Louis Motor Car Company and was powered by a one cylinder Buick engine. After seeing how manufacturing was performed, in about 1905 the brothers set out to assemble their cars themselves. Automobile production lasted until 1916; only two Luverne autos were manufactured for 1917.
image source: www.hemmings.com
One of their best known automobiles was the $3000 Montana Special powered by an engine manufactured by Rutenber Motor Company. For a measly $3000 in 1915 dollars, one could purchase an automobile built for the rugged terrain of Montana. The fifty horsepower was generated by an inline six engine.
Luverne began shifting its focus to truck production beginning in 1912 due to higher demand and less competition. As time went on, the focus was more on fire trucks and related equipment, eventually with the company building apparatus on frames produced by others.
Luverne is reported to have made fewer than 300 automobiles through 1917 with the majority of the bodies being wooden. Upon seeing this wooden body, your author was a bit perplexed by the seat doubling as a tool chest (or maybe it’s the other way). The initial assumption was the restorer used wood to avoid metal work – certainly an erroneous thought. Driver comfort did not seem to be a big consideration.
The company is also credited with building the first motorized funeral coach in 1915 as well as the first tilting dump box truck in the United States. The common trait of the Luverne Automobile Company was that quality was held in higher regard than was quantity.
This 1916 Luverne truck was found in a display by the American Truck Historical Society held at the 2013 Missouri State Fair. Sitting on a one-ton chassis, this particular truck is a wrecker and maintains the Luverne tradition of having a nearly all wooden body.
After the transition to fire apparatus production, Luverne would change its name to Luverne Fire Apparatus; the company was later known as Crimson Fire. Crimson Fire is now part of Spartan ERV.
Despite such an obscure beginning, the Luverne still has highly active descendants.
Nice! Love cars and trucks from the teens. One doesn’t exactly see a two truck from that vintage often.
I had to find out what the $3000 price for the 1915 Montana Special adjusts to in today’s dollars: almost $70k. Seems a lot at first glance, but this was obviously a very fine, large and powerful car for the times.
Thanks for writing up a brand I would not have remembered existing without this post.
Fabulous. I am not sure I have ever heard of the Luverne. These really early heavy duty trucks are extremely interesting to me. They are so different from the lightweight Model Ts that were everywhere then.
Yes, that seat looks mighty inviting! I wonder if the driver was required to bring his own pillow. Were these hard rubber solid tires? Pretty sad to have to rely on those huge leaf springs for every bit of ride comfort that this old thing had to offer. Could men being forced to drive trucks like this have been behind the growth of the Teamsters Union? 🙂
Most trucks with wood bench seats came with a leather upholstered cotton batting-stuffed cushion, included or at an additional cost.
Great find, based on the building it sure looks like this was a pretty large truck with a heck of a step up onto that running board.
It was indeed a very large truck.
Incidentally, there were a few Cornbinders in this display. They just await their day in the online sun.
There was a sister make to the Luverne called the Shirley. They were also built under license by the former Schotz Brewery in Milwaukee during prohibition.
My great-grandfather was the sales manager for their East Coast distributor, Schlamiel-Schlamazel. He lost that job during the Depression when they were bought out by Hassenpfeffer, Inc.
The only reason I know those names is because of a certain TV show
What?!? I’ve lived in Luverne all my life and I’ve never known about any of this? What have they been teaching in our schools?
On a side note, I do know about Luverne Truck Equipment. They make mostly accessories like grille guards, bull bars, nerf bars/running boards, things like that. Now they’re based in Brandon, SD, for reasons unknown. Our last pickup, a ’98 F-250 light duty, had Luverne nerf bars, and I remember that they were a lot higher quality than the Ford factory steps on our ’06 F-150. Or at least, they were farther away from the body (this was an offroad 4×4, as opposed to a “normal” 4×4, about 2 inches higher), so that cruddy brown-gray snow didn’t get packed in as much in the wintertime.
I felt bad haveing never heard of these ye gods you live there and didnt know a very obscure make, but nice to see they still exist making accessories.
That is a large truck and operator comfort was obviously not a priority a far cry from the European trucks I drive today which are more comfortable than any car, though I see on Friday night the lovely Scanias are being replaced with Navistar tractor units 8 wheelers pulling Quad trailers so with any sort of luck I could be back in a Cornbinder soon YAY.
I believe they moved to South Dakota because the taxes are lower than Minnesota.
Yeah, that’s probably true. MN is known internally as the “land of 10,000 laws,” with the kind of folks at the DMV who consider hail damage sufficient to give a salvaged title…
It was also because of available labor.
Cool. I knew about Luverne utility beds, etc. but never knew there were Luverne trucks. Local history… I know what I’ll be reading about tonight!
When I saw ‘State Fair trucks’, my mind went back to the stories my old man told me of the postwar rigs that were used at the Minnesota state fairgrounds back in the ’70s when he was working there. Seems many of them are still in use today – not on display, just doing their jobs. Gotta get some pics one of these years. Too bad the grounds are so heavily patrolled outside of fair-time… I’ve been escorted off the property more than once for simply looking around without purpose.
It’s ver similar here also. There is a late ’60’s Ford used as a water truck to hold down dust as well as an ’80 or ’81 C-30 that hauls around prisoners picking up trash. Not many miles on them, I’m sure, but they are tough ones.
Looking at that seat did the makers have shares in Preparation H or Anusol?
+1 for seeing Union, MO on anything!
Played Little League ball in the late 70’s for Foremost and Schulte Dairy…now out of business as far as I know.
Spartan ERV is the fire truck division of Spartan Motors.
Spartan is the spiritual successor to Dimond-Reo trucks. When D-R went bankrupt in the ’70s, one of their suppliers hired a group of D-R employees and started Spartan.