Author: FFP Ai Bot

Peabody Buggy Co. workers, North Union Street, 1893

FOSTORIA — Before Detroit locked up the auto industry, dozens of small Ohio towns tried to become “motor cities.” Fostoria was one of them. The same family that ran the biggest buggy works in town switched to automobiles in 1913, and for about six years Allen cars were built, tested and shipped from four plants in and around Fostoria.

This installment of our local history series traces the Peabody Buggy Co. and the Allen Motor Co. Our main sources are 1980 and 1981 history columns republished by the Fostoria Area Historical Society, which quote Fostoria newspapers of the time, along with automotive history references and the Smithsonian. Where a detail rests only on local memory, we say so.

Quick timeline

Year	What happened
1877	A city directory lists five local wagon and carriage makers.
By 1890	The Fostoria Buggy Co. operates a factory on North Union Street.
1893	The Peabody Buggy Co., led by E.W. and W.O. Allen, takes over the North Union Street factory.
1899	After a hard decade, Peabody is one of only four local vehicle makers still in business.
Jan. 6, 1913	The Allen Motor Co. is announced.
January 1915	Allen shows four models at the New York auto show, with 3,000 cars on order.
1916	Peabody is listed as a vehicle manufacturer for the last time.
April 1917	Allen buys 70 acres on the north side to develop as Allendale.
1919	Columbus investors take over Allen; production moves to Columbus.
1921	The last Allen cars are built.

Buggy town

In the 1870s and 1880s, every farm family needed a wagon and a buggy, and Fostoria built plenty of them. An 1877 directory listed five wagon and carriage makers in town, according to a 1980 history column republished by the Fostoria Area Historical Society. By 1890 a newer firm, the Fostoria Buggy Co., had a well-equipped factory on North Union Street.

A photo reproduced in the 1976 bicentennial history “Fostoria ’76” shows teams of horses breaking ground for a buggy factory in about 1888. Given the dates in the city directories, it may show the start of the North Union Street building that the Peabody company later took over.

Groundbreaking for a buggy factory, North Union Street, late 1880s

The Peabody Buggy Co.

In 1893 the Peabody Buggy Co. took over the North Union Street factory. Automotive historians say the company was formed with James B. Peabody, who soon sold his interest, leaving brothers E.W. Allen, a local banker who served as president and treasurer, and W.O. Allen, vice president and sales manager, in charge. Peabody became the largest buggy and carriage maker in Fostoria, “perhaps the state,” the historical society column says. One of its carriages was built for President William McKinley’s mother.

The photo at the top of this story shows Peabody workers from every department lined up in front of the three-story brick factory in 1893, many holding their lunch pails. A railroad crossing sign stands at the left.

The 1890s depression hit the buggy trade hard, and by 1899 only four local makers survived, Peabody among them. But the automobile was coming. The column notes that 1916 was the last year Peabody was listed as a manufacturer.

The Allen Motor Co.

The Allen brothers saw the change coming. On Jan. 6, 1913, the Fostoria newspaper announced that Peabody had leased a factory at Wood and North streets to make auto parts as the Allen Motor Co. and would build a limited number of cars that year. The new company soon had four plants with about 250,000 square feet of space:

• Plant No. 1, at Wood and North streets, for final assembly and inspection.
• Plant No. 2, the former Atlas safe works on the west side of Wood Street between Center and North, for frames, chassis assembly and testing.
• Plant No. 3, in Bucyrus, where L.A. Sommers built the engines and transmissions.
• Plant No. 4, the old Peabody buggy works on North Union Street, for bodies and tops.

Residents got used to the sight of test drivers buzzing around town on bare chassis. The photo below shows a line of them on Wood Street at Plant No. 2.

Allen test car drivers on Wood Street at Plant No. 2, 1913-1919

At the New York auto show in January 1915, Allen displayed four models. W.O. Allen predicted the Model 34 touring car, priced at $895, would be a big seller; the line ran from $875 to $1,395, and the company reported orders for 3,000 cars. The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History holds an Allen Motor Co. radiator emblem in its collection.

Allen touring car, 1916

In April 1917 the company bought 70 acres bounded by North, Union, Culbertson and Main streets to develop as “Allendale,” and a body company was organized nearby. The column found no evidence the full expansion was ever completed.

Too good to last

A local antique car collector quoted in the 1981 column said Allens were well designed and well built, “more in the class of Cadillacs,” and priced accordingly, at a time when Ford sold some models for under $400. In 1919 a group of Columbus investors took over the company and moved production there. A 1919 Saturday Evening Post ad listed the Allen Motor Co. in Columbus, where cars were built through 1921. Automotive historians say the Fostoria body plant on North Union Street was sold to Willys in 1920, and estimates of total Allen production run to about 20,000 cars.

Allen Model 37, 1916

Then and now

• Plant No. 4 and the Peabody works (North Union Street): the site later became the Autolite spark plug plant, which closed in 2018 and now belongs to flooring maker Roppe. (See our companion story on the Autolite plant.)
• Plant No. 2 (Wood Street from Center to North): the buildings were demolished for the Fostoria Post Office, which opened in 1933 at 202 W. Center St., according to the historical society.
• Plant No. 1 (Wood and North): in 1981 the site was YMCA tennis courts and parking, the column notes.
• An Allen of our own: the Fostoria Area Historical Society museum acquired a 1918 Allen touring car, according to the 1981 column.

Does your family have a Peabody buggy story, or a relative who worked for Allen? We would like to hear from you.

More from FFP: Ode to a Home: 505 North Union Street and The “Hidden Tunnels” Beneath Fostoria.

Photo note: Photographs and images published before 1931 are in the public domain in the United States. Historical images in this article are shared for educational and historical purposes.

Sources

• Fostoria Area Historical Society, Rise and Fall of Buggy Business in Fostoria (1980): https://www.fostoriamuseum.org/rise-and-fall-of-buggy-business-in-fostoria/
• Fostoria Area Historical Society, Allen…City’s Other Car Plant (1981): https://www.fostoriamuseum.org/allen-citys-other-car-plant/
• Fostoria Area Historical Society, Post Office in New Home Since 1933: https://www.fostoriamuseum.org/post-office-in-new-home-since-1933/
• Coachbuilt.com, Dale Body Company / Allen Motor Company / Peabody Carriage Co.: http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/d/dale/dale.htm
• Wikipedia, Allen (1913 Ohio automobile): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allen_(1913_Ohio_automobile)
• Smithsonian National Museum of American History, Allen Motor Company Radiator Emblem: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_840435
• Wikimedia Commons, 1916 Allen Touring Car (public domain): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1916_Allen_Touring_Car.jpg
• Wikimedia Commons, Allen Model 37 (1916) (public domain): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Allen_Model_37_(1916).jpg