Howard County's Automotive Heritage

Howard County's Automotive Heritage. began in Kokomo here on Main Street. , Between 1893 and 1925, over sixty auto parts manufacturers came to Kokomo to support the local transportation industry created by Elwood Haynes and the Apperson Brothers., In 1893, Elwood Haynes hired Elmer Apperson, the owner of the Riverside Machine Works on South Main Street in Kokomo and his employees (including his brother Edgar and Jonathan Maxwell) to help him develop and build a "Horseless Carriage"., On July 4th 1894, Elwood Haynes test drove the "Pioneer". Elmer Apperson and one other rode along. Traveling non-stop from Pumpkinville Pike to the Machine Works building, the vehicle reached a top-speed of seven miles per hour., An early Haynes-Apperson Motor Carriage had an average speed of seventeen miles per hour. In 1898, improved performance from new models and publicity from racing led to the formation of the Haynes-Apperson Corporation., In 1901, the Apperson brothers left the partnership and moved back into the Riverside Machine Works building. They began building their own models., After their Riverside Machine Works building burned down in 1905, the brothers built a new three-story factory on the site at 306 South Main Street in 1906., In 1907, The brothers introduced their Apperson Jack Rabbit model with a seventy-five mile per hour guarantee. In 1911, Elmer entered a car in the first Indianapolis 500.