Smith Automobile Company

A Kansas Portrait

To many, the automobile made its first appearance in Kansas in August 1900, when Topekan Terry Stafford completed an automobile which was simply a buggy driven by a seven horsepower gasoline engine. Stafford, who had operated a bicycle shop, was an inventor not an entrepreneur. He had neither the capital nor the experience to organize a corporation geared to the production of automobiles. He therefore turned to Anton and Clement Smith - two brothers active in producing trusses, a product designed for the treatment of hernias. The Smith brothers also produced artificial limbs, bows and arrows and concert "grand harps."

Initially, automobiles were manufactured in inadequate quarters behind the truss factory. In 1903, the automobile department was moved to a new building located at Tenth and Jefferson. This long, narrow building was soon outgrown and a smaller building was added for painting, furnishing and upholstering. The total number of vehicles produced by the Smith corporation is unknown, but it is safe to assume not more than 1,200. Although the production target was 300 units per year 100 to 125 would be a better estimate. By 1910, 150 workers were on the payroll. Even with the larger number of employees and expanded facilities, the company was unable to increase significantly its output of automobiles.

The Great Smith remained at the top of the line from the time of its introduction in 1907 until the company took bankruptcy and finally went out of business in 1912. Terry Stafford, the inventor and plant superintendent, had already left the firm in 1907, moving to Kansas City and establishing a factory for production of his own Stafford automobile.

At least three other automobiles companies were located in Kansas. The Jones Motor Company of Wichita, the Cloughley Motor Vehicle Company of Parsons and Sellers Motor Car Company of Hutchinson. All three had ceased business by 1920, doomed to failure because they did not have the capitalization or the efficiency of production to complete with the larger manufacturers like Ford and General Motors.