During the 2022 Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Eastern Fall Nationals in Hershey, Pa., I came across the featured 1919 Dodge Bros. truck with a Graham Bros. 1-1/2-ton Truck-Builder conversion and its caretaker, Doug Walters. As I walked around the stunning blue truck and studied its many unique details, my curiosity was piqued when the emblem attached to the radiator grille identified the truck as a Dodge Brothers model, but in a twist, there was a Graham Bros. Truck-Builder nameplate on the wooden header above the truck’s windshield. Yet attached to the passenger side floorboard was the builder’s plate with the serial number verifying Dodge Brothers as the manufacturer. Walters explained this truck was a joint effort between Dodge Brothers and Graham Bros. Each had made a mark in industry with their respective products, and upon combining their efforts, they produced this truck in 1919.
The Dodge Brothers
John Dodge and his younger brother, Horace Dodge, established the Dodge Brothers Co. in 1900 to manufacture parts for the expanding automobile industry. In particular, the company provided parts for the Olds Motor Works (led by Ransom Eli Olds) and the Ford Motor Co. As part of its arrangement to build engines for Ford, the Dodge brothers became Ford shareholders. In 1910, the brothers built Model Ts for Ford when demand outpaced Ford’s production capacity.
In 1913, as Ford expanded its factories, the Dodge brothers decided not to renew their contract with Ford, with John Dodge also stepping down as Ford Motor Co. vice president. Their goal was to manufacture their own automobiles. The brothers established the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Co. and delivered their first car on Dec. 4, 1914. On Nov. 15, 1919, the five-year-old company celebrated delivery of its 400,000th car. The original Dodge Brothers factory complex covered 20 acres and by 1919, it covered 90 acres and employed 18,000 people.
Among its marketing plans, Dodge Brothers marketed vehicles to farmers. For example, a cartoon advertisement featuring a winking farmer holding up a gas can had text that declared; “Dodge Bros. Farmers Car saves money because the operating cost is low weather (sic) it is running empty or loaded.” Say goodbye to the horse that needs feeding weather (sic) working or idle.”
However, early Dodge Brothers models were all passenger cars, not trucks, making a partnership with Graham Bros. a seemingly perfect union.
The Graham Brothers
The Graham family operated a large farm in southern Indiana, and from this farm, three Graham brothers would prosper. Joseph Graham sought success as a businessman, Robert Graham had an interest in “the practical application of theories” and Ray Graham was interested in becoming a modern scientific farmer.
Joseph and Robert Graham eventually acquired a bottle-making business where Joseph invented a machine that solved the frequent problem of broken bottle necks. As a result, the Grahams became the nation’s largest supplier of glass bottles to Coca-Cola. The lucrative glass business moved to Evansville, Ind., in 1912 with additional factory operations in Oklahoma.
Meanwhile, Ray Graham devoted his efforts to make the family farm business more productive using scientific-based methods and technology. That included the use of gasoline-fueled tractors and related implements. In their mechanical progress, Ray and a team developed a unique farm truck that turned a Ford Model T passenger car into a light-duty farm truck by attaching longer and heavier frame rails to the existing Model T frame with a heavier rear axle, differential, wheels, tires and cab.
By 1914, Ray was manufacturing and selling these Truck-Builder units, especially to farmers. During the process, he assembled a team of engineers, led by George Durham, to ensure quality. The same year, 1914, the Graham brothers also built a factory in Evansville to assemble and produce its Truck-Builder under the name Graham Bros. Truck Builder Co.
A 1916 advertisement featured an illustration of the cab, chain-drive unit (consisting of the frame rails, rear axle, and differential) and Express body---all for $350 and “all ready to attach to a Ford chassis---an extra value and savings of $75-$125 in body equipment.” The advertisement also featured an illustration of a stake body-equipped version of a one-ton Graham unit attached to a Ford for the same price. Graham Bros. subsequently replaced the chain drive with the Torbensen internal gear drive rear axle from the Torbenson Axle Co. of Cleveland, Ohio.
The Graham Truck-Builder unit became available for many different brands of automobiles, including those manufactured by the Dodge Brothers, and at least one advertisement for the Truck-Builder on a Dodge Brothers chassis featured an illustration along with the caption, “The Truck Complete, Graham Bros. Truck-Builder combined with a Dodge Bros. Motor Car.” The ad argued, “It would be impossible to buy for truck purposes a better power plant than those built by Dodge Bros.” The advertisement noted that its Truck-Builder units were used by Bell Telephone, United Cigar Stores, Coca-Cola and many other customers.
Logically, Graham Bros. emphasized it offered the Truck-Builder for Ford Model Ts and Dodge Brothers cars at the time since the brands ranked first and second in sales. Graham Bros. offered the Truck-Builder for car chassis in 1-ton, 1-1/2-ton and 2-ton capacities. The company also initially manufactured 3- and 5-ton Traction Truck-Builder units for fifth-wheel and semi-trailer applications.
The Commercial Car Journal of April 15, 1918, included an advertisement for the Graham Bros. Universal Truck-Builder that noted the company offered a special for the Dodge Brothers truck. Specifically, it produced complete 1-1/2-ton to 2-ton trucks “by combining a Graham Bros. and Dodge Bros. chassis. This Truck-Builder, made to fit the Dodge only, combines the worth of the Dodge Bros. power plant with the truck quality of Graham Bros. chassis.”
The advertisement listed the following specifications for this Truck-Builder unit: 5-inch, 6-1/2-pound Illinois steel channel frame rails that attached completely to the existing frame; 14-spoke artillery wheels; Hess springs; Kinsler Bennett universal joints; Torbensen rear axle with external and internal brakes; and a 145-inch wheelbase. The Truck-Builder unit carried a base price of $490 or $585 complete with cab and choice of Express or Stake Body. The Truck-Builder made for other automobile manufacturers featured the same specifications with unit-only prices of $500, or $585 if adding a cab and either the Express or Stake Body. The Graham Bros. advertised, “Any good mechanic can quickly assemble the complete truck. Mechanical parts are assembled before shipping, bodies and cabs are fitted at the factory.” Dealers would benefit greatly by making a profit on each Truck-Builder, as well as profit in salvaging the parts replaced.
With the success of its Truck-Builder, the Graham brothers saw an opportunity to develop their own vehicles, and eventually did so with the purchase of Paige in June 1927.
Dodge Bros. + Graham Bros. = Truck
This stunning restored Graham Bros. Truck-Builder unit is based on a 1919 Dodge Brothers truck. According to The Commercial Car Journal of May 15, 1919, Dodge Brothers offered a 1,975-pound, half-ton-rated motor truck on a 144-inch wheelbase with a 24-hp, four-cylinder engine for $935. The vehicle came equipped with a three-speed transmission, Stewart carburetor, North East ignition system, wood wheels and Detroit springs, among other features. Interesting, North East Electric Co. was another early entry in the industry founded by brothers: Edward and Joseph Halbleib of Rochester, N.Y. They became big players in the industry, and in 1929, General Motors purchased North East and eventually transformed it into the Delco-Appliance Division of GM.
Based on research by the Cambridge, Ohio-based Dodge Brothers Club, the featured Dodge Brothers/Graham Bros. Truck-Builder was sold new in 1919 by Wallace Parry, the Dodge Brothers dealer in Aberdeen, S.D. Parry converted a half-ton, light-duty Dodge Brothers truck chassis (not an automobile car chassis) into this 1-1/2 -ton truck. It was built with the $540 1-1/2-ton Style 600 Graham Bros. chassis and assembled with the Style 601 Open Express Body (optional at $55 with flare boards), a Style 602 box seat ($25.90) and a Style 604 cab top with oval glass ($48). As with all Graham Bros. Truck-Builders, the truck includes a Torbensen Type A rear axle and 10-leaf springs. Graham Bros. also used 32x4-inch solid rear tires with each weighing 185 pounds.
Graham Bros. touted the quality of the Truck-Builder, explaining, “The cab and body are fitted at the factory before being knocked down and shipped. Each job is a perfect fit. No time is lost in set up. Many years of bodybuilding enable us to produce the finest construction and materials in cab and body, at a price unequal elsewhere within the industry.”
In 1999, Darrell Amberson, a Dodge Brothers Club member from Minnesota, bought the unrestored truck in Preston Lake, S.D. As documented by late Dodge authority Don Bunn, Amberson found the truck through friend and neighbor Skip Swanson. The truck’s owner had bought it at an estate sale. Bunn and Amberson made the 500-mile round trip together to Preston Lake to trailer it home. Restoration commenced shortly thereafter and the truck was completed in 2002.
The restoration involved recreating the wood cab and body. As Bunn noted, “The body from this truck was missing, but there was enough left of the cab for Darrell to duplicate. He built a new cab using oak for the corner posts and butternut for the boards.”
For the sheet metal, DuPont Automotive Paint Co. matched the cab’s exterior blue paint with dark blue striping.
“Darrell was given two engine blocks with the truck—one dated 1919 and the other 1921,” noted Bunn. “The 1919 was fully rebuilt. It was cleaned, machined, reassembled with many new parts and painted the correct Dodge Brothers colors. Club members played an important role as a source for parts and information.”
According to Past Club President Harry Reding, Amberson and his wife, Marge, decided to donate the vehicle to the Dodge Brothers Club in December 2005.
“Darrell called me after restoring the truck and indicated he and Marge wished to donate it to the Dodge Brothers Club,” Reding recalled.
Some days, you just can’t give away an old truck, though, and there were obstacles with the somewhat complicated transfer of ownership.
“At the time, our club was not a 501(c)(3) and could not issue a tax receipt, so I contacted the museum to inquire if we could accept the donation from Darrell with the provision we would be gifted the truck once we achieved 501(c)(3) status,” Reding said.
“As a result of this search, Michael Specia at the Gilmore Car Museum, in Hickory Corners, Michigan, agreed to take the truck and to gift us if we achieved status within two years.”
The club received 501(C)(3) status, and the Gilmore Museum transferred ownership. In 2014, the truck relocated to Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester Hills, Mich., and was shown at the English Tudor estate built in the 1920s by Matilda Dodge Wilson (widow of John Dodge) and her second husband, Alfred Wilson. Meadow Brook Hall’s small collection of vehicles also includes the last Dodge Brothers vehicle each brother owned at the time of his death.
Planned renovations for Meadow Brook Hall eventually required a new location for the truck. Enter Doug Walters, who accurately describes himself as the truck’s current custodian, and who has shared with us much of this truck’s story. He acknowledges his efforts have been up close and personal, “with many hours spent rolling on a creeper looking at the undercarriage and marveling at its construction.” An active member of the Dodge Brothers Club for nearly 20 years, Walters transported the truck from Meadow Brook Hall in 2022, after which it made a brief appearance at the Antique Automobile Club of America (AACA) Eastern Fall Nationals in Hershey, Pa., in October, where it earned its first Junior Award.
Following our photo-shoot of the truck, Walters transported the blue gem to its current location, the Washington County Rural Heritage Museum in Boonsboro, Md. The museum is an ideal venue given the Graham brothers’ rural roots and their innovative collaborative efforts with the Dodge brothers to improve the mechanization of farms.
To learn more about the Dodge Brothers Club, visit DodgeBrothersClub.org.
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