The 1915 World’s Truthful (also referred to as the Panama-Pacific Worldwide Exposition) in San Francisco featured quite a lot of technological advances, together with the primary steam locomotive bought by Southern Pacific Railroad, a phone line to New York Metropolis and a five-acre working mannequin of the newly opened Panama Canal.
One of many stars of the exposition was the latest Willys-Overland automotive, the Mannequin 83. Willys-Overland was already the second-largest producer of vehicles within the U.S. after Ford Motor Co. However its entrance engine-rear drive vehicles, whereas reliable, had been a bit costly in contrast with its predominant competitor, the Mannequin T.
But the Overland Mannequin 83, with its decrease entry price ticket of $750, would quickly make the Willys-Overland automotive firm much more fashionable. Of the 1.5 million vehicles offered in 1916, 142,000 had been Willys-Overland fashions.
From the Steady to the Streets
For brand spanking new businessman Marion L. McDaniel Sr., the timing couldn’t have been higher. McDaniel, together with companions Bert E. Bumgarner and Ernest B. Bumgarner, opened an auto enterprise in a livery barn in Marion, Ohio, on January 26, 1916.
As a result of the Willys-Overland headquarters was simply 100 miles north, the Marion Overland Firm was ideally located to promote and repair Willys-Overland vehicles. The truth that Marion, Ohio—with its booming inhabitants of 28,000—was additionally a hub for a number of railroad strains, together with the Hocking Valley Railway, which introduced the vehicles down from Toledo, additional cemented the good enterprise transfer.
The Marion Overland Co. was successful from the beginning, stated grandson Mike McDaniel in a Marion Star interview concerning the firm’s one centesimal anniversary. “They offered their first new automotive three weeks after they began in enterprise. You didn’t know the place the way forward for the trade was at that time. It was actually early on. They used horses to tug the vehicles round that had been damaged down.”
Simply 5 months later, the corporate moved into a brand new constructing on S. Prospect Avenue. By 1920, McDaniel had purchased out his two companions and offered inventory in his new firm to Marion businessmen. In 1926, the corporate moved once more, this time to 309 W. Heart St., and a yr later, McDaniel modified the identify of the enterprise from The Marion Overland Co. to The McDaniel Motor Co.
Generations of Progress and Success
Whereas Willys-Overland went by way of its personal monetary difficulties within the late Twenties and early Nineteen Thirties, McDaniel Motor continued to develop and broaden, including Cadillacs, Pontiacs and Ramblers to its lineup. In 1947, Marion L. McDaniel Jr. joined the household enterprise, adopted by Mike McDaniel in 1977.
In 1983, Toyota reached out to the McDaniels to start out a Toyota franchise. They bought an current Toyota facility and commenced receiving shipments simply two months later. Extra acquisitions quickly adopted, main to 2 new dealerships on Mt. Vernon Avenue. By the early 2000s, McDaniel Motor was promoting vehicles from Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Nissan, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Toyota.
As we speak, after greater than 100 years in enterprise, McDaniel Automotive sells and companies Toyota, Buick, Chevrolet and GMC automobiles within the better Marion space. Assistant Basic Supervisor Scott McDaniel joined the corporate in 2013, turning into the fourth technology of McDaniels within the automotive enterprise and carrying on a household legacy that he’s reminded of each time he steps into the dealership.
“Lots of people are available that see that I’m a McDaniel, they usually acknowledge me from both my father or grandfather,” Scott advised the Marion Star. “They get an enormous smile or smirk on their face, and you’ll inform they’re wanting to inform me a narrative of some type alongside the strains that they’ve had with my household. A few of these individuals purchased vehicles off my great-grandfather they usually’re nonetheless shopping for vehicles right here, in order that’s fairly cool.”
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