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- - - INDUSTRIES - - -
Shelby Motor Car Company
(Beardsley and Hubbs Manufacturing)
 
 
 
 
The Beardsley & Hubbs Company to be Incorporated
 
Active Work to begin at once and 150 vehicles to be turned out before Spring-
The Beardsley & Hubbs Factory and Coss Plant to be used.
 
Mansfield's new automobile company will be known as the Beardsley and Hubbs Manufacturing Company.
 
The Beardsley & Hubbs Manufactoring Company will manufacture the automobile known as
the Darling patent a sample of which has been exhibited on the streets of Mansfield for the
past two months.
 
The Beardsley & Hubbs Buggy Company has been in operation for about five years and it is
now the intention to disontinue the manufacture of buggies entirely and turn attention
exclusively to the building of automobiles.
 
Mansfield News - November 14, 1900
 
 
 
 
 
Automobile Manufacturing
 
Will Begin In Mansfield at once On a Large Scale.
 
The Beardsley and Hubbs Company which will engage in the manufacture of a gasoline automobile in this city, was launched here yesterday and will now take place among the manufacturing entereprises of Mansfield.
 
 
Mansfield News - November 20, 1900
 
 
 

The Daily Globe December 23, 1901
 
 
The factory location was in the former Rib Manufacturing building on the south side of Smiley Avenue
just west of the B & O railroad tracks. This building had been constructed specifically for the Rib Manufacturing
Company and when it was bought out in the Spring of 1901, the building became available and was contracted
for use by the Beardsley & Hubbs Company.
 
 
 

The Beardsley & Hubbs - Darling Patent Gasoline Engined Auto c. 1902
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Daily Globe December 27, 1901
 
 
The death of Col. Cockley was to be a major factor in the life of the soon to be named
Shelby Motor Car Company. He had been the organizer and sparkplug of this infant
and fast growing company.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
"THE AUTOMOBILE - FACTORY WILL DOUBLE ITS CAPACITY AT ONCE - The demand for the Darling automobiles manufactured by the Beardsley & Hubbs company, has been so great, that the company have concluded they would be justified in enlarging their capacity from 2 or 3 per week to 6 per week. This will necessitate more room and an increase of the force from 40 men to 150. Our Shelby men have promptly taken enough stock to guarantee the enterprise plenty of cash to swing the business and everything looks exceedingly favorable for a big winter's work. The factories of Shelby without exception are all very busy. Orders are plenty and if the coal strike does not compel a shut down, the winter of 1902-03 will be one eminently satisfactory to all our enterprises."
 
SHELBY NEWS, October 17, 1902.
 
 
 
Beardsley & Hubbs becomes The Shelby Motor Car Company.
 
 
 
The Daily Globe November 11, 1902
 
 
 
 
Advertising card - 1902
 
 
 
 
 
 
"SHELBY MOTOR CAR COMPANY - HAS ALREADY BEGUN THE WORK ON ITS NEW ADDITION AT THE PLANT - The Shelby motor car company has already begun it new addition and expects to have it completed within the next 30 days. The new addition is to be used in testing out the engines. The Shelby stove company has already placed its order for lumber and will push the work on its new factory as soon as possible. The Brubaker lumber company secured the contract for furnishing the lumber for the new addition. Both factories hope to have the additions ready for occupancy at the earliest possible moment."
 
THE DAILY GLOBE, November 15, 1902.
 
 
 
In December of 1902 it was announced that The Shelby Motor Car Company would show several of their
1903 model cars at the Cleveland Automobile Show to be held in February, 1903. In 1903 there were only
three auto shows in the country. New York, Chicago, and the show in Cleveland, Ohio.
 
There were at least three different models built in 1903.
 
Model No. 3
The Shelby Combination - Two or Four Passenger Car
 
Model No. 5
The Shelby Touring Car
Would seat four and had options of extra long wheel base and / or
with high back panels behind front and rear seats.
 
Model No. 7
The Shelby Light Delivery Car
The rear seat could be removed for extra storage space and
there was a top covering for the front as well as the rear compartment.
This made the car have the appearance as well as the attributes of a delivery truck
 
The sportest of the three was the Model No. 3 Shelby Combination.
With the two rear seats folded forward and inward, this vehicle was a sporty two seater.
 
 
 
 
New Addition
 
Now, thanks to the kind generosity of John and Kathy Trumble we can see some of the Shelby Motor Car
sales literature that was probably composed for and distributed at the Cleveland Automobile Show in 1903.
 
John and Kathy reside in Calico Rock, Arkansas. They contacted the Shelby Museum in early January, (2010)
and said they had a 1903 catalog that they received from John's grandfather Jack Funcheon of Youngstown, Ohio.
They saw this article on the Shelby Genealogy website and wondered if there would be an interest in this catalog.
They believe that Mr. Funcheon had gone to the Cleveland Automobile Show and was intrigued by the Shelby car
and picked up a catalog and kept it all these years. We have never seen a copy of this catalog and were of
course very interested in it. It just recently arrived safely in Shelby from their home in Arkansas and it
describes in pictures the models that were mentioned just previously in the above Globe article.
 
 
1903 Catalog Front Cover - courtesy of John & Kathy Trumble
 
 
The model featured in this cover artwork is the Model No. 5 Shelby Touring Car.
 
 
 
 
1903 catalog page - courtesy of John & Kathy Trumble
 
 
 
This is the Model No. 3 - Shelby Combination - Two or Four Passenger Car.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Model No. 5 - Shelby Touring Car.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Model No. 7 - Shelby Light Delivery Car.
 
 
 

 
 
 
Courtesy of John & Kathy Trumble
 
 
 
1903 Catalog Back Cover - courtesy of John & Kathy Trumble
 
 
Our thanks go to John and Kathy Trumble for considering the Shelby Museum as a home for their Shelby
Motor Car Company catalog memento and to John's grandfather Jack Funcheon for keeping it safe all these years.
Their catalog provides beautiful photos, illustrations, and descriptive text that was not available in the newspaper
articles. It will be a prized part of the Shelby Car Company archive.
 
 
 
 
In June of 1903 there were several articles (June17, and June 27) in The Daily Globe that reported on
Shelby Motor Car stockholders meetings. It revealed that there were problems of company indebtedness. The
meetings were an attempt to devise means of solving these problems. The debt was of the magnitude of $60, 000.
 
The overall cause of this indebtedness was (as stated by G. M. Skiles) mismanagement and the fact that the output
of the company was very uneven in its' quality. There had been many very good automobiles turned out, however
the factory seemed unable to manufacture a uniform machine. They made good ones but could not duplicate them
on a regular basis and customers would return them to the shop.
 
On July 3, 1903 an article appeared that indicated the Shelby Motor Car Company was closing down for a few days.
The shutdown was for experimental purposes, and a gasoline motor invented and patented (applied for) by James Leppo
of Mansfield was to be tried.
 
It appears at this time that perhaps the motor devised by Mr. Hubbs may have been responsible for some of
the car's unreliability. Mr. Hubbs had not been represented in The Shelby Motor Car Company as Mr. Beardsley
had been. Mr. Leppo had been called in to bring his new motor for trails in the car. This new motor was not
enough for the distressed company.
 
In September 1903 another article appeared in The Daily Globe indicating that The Shelby Motor Car Company
had assets of $43, 449.50 and debts of $84, 478.05.
 
Within six months of the 1903 Cleveland Auto Show, the following article appeared in the Globe.
 
 
 
 
"REPORT - OF RECEIVER OF THE SHELBY MOTOR CAR COMPANY FILED - J. C. Fish, receiver of the Shelby Motor Car company, has filed in common pleas court, his final report. Receiver's receipts $8,505.51, expenditures $8,502.86, balance $2.65. Liabilities: Amount due receiver $5,789.36. The receiver states that he believes the business under the receiver would have been profitable were it not for the fact that the marketing of products was greatly interfered with by the company being in the hands of a receiver. The receiver reports in addition to the $5,789.36 due him, $860.16 for other machines partially completed, etc., making the amount to balance $6,649.52. The receiver asks for authority to adjust the claim of Leppo Bros. and Hall."

THE DAILY GLOBE,, October 1, 1903.
 
 
Major creditors included the Leppo Brothers of Mansfield as well as B. F. Goodrich Co., of Akron,
The Strong Carlisle Company of Cleveland and Frausene and Williams Co. of Alliance, Ohio.
 
On December 10, 1903, it was reported that T. B. Jeffrey of Chicago, Ill., purchased the machinery of
The Shelby Motor Car Company. Mr. Jeffery had been vice president of the company.
 
On January 28, 1904, The Shelby Motor Car Company factory building that was originally built for the Rib
Manufacturing Company was sold to The Shelby Spring Hinge Company.
 
In 2008, the building that housed the Rib Manufacturing Company, The Shelby Motor Car Company, and
The Spring Hinge Company is currently the home of Glenn's Surplus.
 

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