In 1903, Claude Cox, new graduate of the Ross Polytechnic Institute, met Charles Minshall, the president of the Standard Wheel Company in Terra Haute, Indiana, who saw an opportunity to get into the young auto industry. Minshall funded the design and production, but stopped after a few years because the enterprise was losing money. Cox found a new funder and a new location in 1907 with David M. Parry in…
In 1903, Claude Cox, new graduate of the Ross Polytechnic Institute, met Charles Minshall, the president of the Standard Wheel Company in Terra Haute, Indiana, who saw an opportunity to get into the young auto industry. Minshall funded the design and production, but stopped after a few years because the enterprise was losing money. Cox found a new funder and a new location in 1907 with David M. Parry in Indianapolis, but financial and production problems continued. In 1908, one of the Overland dealers, John North Willys came to Indiana to understand the problem and gained control of the company. Using a circus tent as a factory and setting a seemingly frantic production pace, Overland produced 465 cars in 1908. The following year, production increased ten fold to almost 5000 cars. While Overland and Willys found success, Cox did not like how they did it and left the company in 1909. By the end of the year, Willys merged Overland with other car companies and renamed the company Willys-Overland.