THE STUDEBAKER BROTHERS ESTABLISH WAGON MAKING COMPANY

With the passion of youth, $68 and two sets of smithy tools, they established H & C Studebaker on February 16, 1852.  The first day of business grossed 25 cents for shoeing a horse.  A few weeks later they received their first wagon order from a Mr. Earl.  The wagon was constructed and sold for $175.  Business was slow though and they did whatever they could to make ends meet.  The end of the first year would bring just one more wagon order5.  At this time the third son, John Mohler, had come of age.  He, like his brothers, had learned smithing and wagon making but his immediate desires lay west in the gold fields of California.  When a wagon train passed through South Bend early in 1853, he proposed an arrangement wherein he would give them a new wagon in exchange for passage and board.  It was agreed and his brothers helped him build the wagon in ten days.