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Lauth-Juergens Motor Co. - 1910-1915 - Fremont, Ohio

LAUTH; LAUTH-JUERGENS (US) 1907-1914 (1) J. Lauth & Co., Chicago, In. 1908-1910

(2) Lauth.Juergens Motor Co., Fremont, Ohio 1910-1915

Magnus Hendrickson built the first trucks for Jacob Lauth & Co., a tanning plant. These were light, conventional, chain-driven, gasoline-powered vehicles with a closed delivery body and cab roof.

Theodore Juergens joined Lauth in.1908, and they built light cars and trucks on a limited scale. As their employee, Mr. Hendrickson, a talented inventor, designed the first hollow-spoke steel wheel (1906), a 3-speed transmission (1909), a quiet 2-speed bevel-gear transmission for chaindriven vehicles, a jaw-clutch transmission, and the first worm-drive axle. For a decade or so, worm drives became popular on trucks although only rarely on cars (Stutz was one).

In 1910 Lauth-Juergens moved their operations to Fremont, Ohio. to build trucks exclusively, at which time Lauth-Juergens became a stock company. Magnus Hendrickson was appointed chief engineer and designer, and his sons, George and Carl, also followed to the Fremont location.

Lauth-Juergens trucks and buses were assembled vehicles in one of the common fashions of the day, the cab-over type with chain-drive, artillery wheels, solid tir.es, and right-hand drive. These vehicles had full cabs, the truck having a flat vertical windshield area, while the bus had a windshield built like a 3-piece bay-window. This latter feature carried over into the design of Mr. Hendrickson's own trucks in 1913. Lauth-Juergens' 1913 models were offered in capacities of 1,2,3, and 5 tons, while the motor was guaranteed for life.

Robert Hendrickson, another son who had joined Lauth-Juergens, took charge of the plant for one year after Mr. Hendrickson and his other two sons left Fremont to form their own truck manufacturing company in Chicago.

In 1914 the name of the truck was changed to Fremont Mais; this lasted until 1915 when it was purchased by the H.G. Burford Co.

For more information please read:

Ed Strauss & Karen Strauss - The Bus World Encyclopedia of Buses

G.N. Georgano & G. Marshall Naul - The Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles

Albert Mroz - Illustrated Encyclopedia of American Trucks & Commercial Vehicles

Donald F. Wood - American Buses

Denis Miller - The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Trucks and Buses

Susan Meikle Mandell - A Historical Survey of Transit Buses in the United States

David Jacobs - American Buses, Greyhound, Trailways and Urban Transportation

William A. Luke & Linda L. Metler - Highway Buses of the 20th Century: A Photo Gallery

William A. Luke & Brian Grams - Buses of Motorcoach Industries 1932-2000 Photo Archive

William A. Luke - Greyhound Buses 1914-2000 Photo Archive