The Overland Story
In 1902, Charles Minshall, president of Standard Wheel of Terre Haute, Indiana, decided he'd want to add a car to his company's offering. Knowing he would need an engineer to develop this new project he hired Claude Cox, fresh out of engineering school in 1902, to create a marketable automobile for Standard Wheel to sell. Over coffee they had decided that “Overland” would be its name, and by 1903 Minshall had started the company and Cox had a car to show for it. Over the next few years, and unbeknownst to me as to why, Minshall lost interest in the car business and sold the business rights to one of his clients, David Parry in 1906. Cox stayed with Parry and would continue to develop, and improve the car. Unfortunately for David Parry, the Panic of 1907 swooped in and trashed his dream of owning an automobile company. He would be totally bankrupted, even losing his home.
Enter John North Willys
Meanwhile, Overland was in full stoppage when its chief car dealer, John North Willys, decided to visit the factory in late 1907 to see why his orders weren’t being fulfilled and why no one was answering the phone at the Overland factory. Arriving there, and seeing nothing but an empty factory and scattered parts, Willys, a take-charge kind of personality, decided to do just that. He wired for money to rehire the help, calmed disgruntled creditors to keep them at bay, set up a circus tent to operate an assembly line, and got to work making Overlands to fulfill his customers’ orders. 1907 production turned out five Overlands, but in 1908, 465 were produced. By 1909, Willys had turned the company around, and it produced 4,907! Willys then reorganized Overland, which he now owned, into the Willys-Overland Company in October of 1909. 1910 to 1915 was a time for runabouts and roadsters as a core component of any successful car company, as this model was used extensively for business professionals, doctors, and singles who wanted a gadabout to get in and go. Overland provided!
In late 1913, the 79 series would issue a Model 79-R roadster with almost identical dimensions when compared to the Model 71-R. However, not listed in the general sales brochures, but nevertheless in the model lineup, was a special model known as the 79-S, or “Speedster.” Its appearance was similar to the 79-R, except it had no enclosed passenger compartment. Given other Overland practices, we can assume that it had the same specs as its 79-series kin. How come the 79-S was not promoted? Who knows….Overland experts speculate that only 50 or fewer Model 79-S’s were made. Two or three are presently known to exist, and the one pictured above is one of those examples.
Willys-Overland had expanded to two factory locations, and both were sorely needed to fulfill the demand for Overlands. By 1914, and a little known fact, Overland was the second largest producers of cars in the US automobile industry following Ford. By 1915, the two factories had increased sales to 93,724, a very meaningful number!
The story of the Overland speedster ends with the Model 79-S, but Overland as a company flourished and crashed, flourished again, and crashed again. This routine played out through two world wars, several recessions, and the Great Depression.
John North Willys gave his full measure to Overland, and in turn, Overland took its last piece of Willys’ heart on August 26, 1935, when J.N. died of a heart attack while serving his last term as Overland’s president.
Overland itself (the car) would peter out over the next several years, but the Willys-Overland Company did not. Rather, it was tasked to produce American Bantam’s design for an Army personnel transport, affectionately known as the Jeep, for the duration of WWII. Then from 1948 - 1950 the very successful, and today, very collectible Jeepster was developed, and sold. And, arguably around that time, the first 4 wheel drive sport utility (UTE/SUV) was created and sold.
Postwar, the history connecting Overland, Willys, and the U.S. Army’s Jeep would motor on through mergers and acquisitions. In 1953 the company changed hands one more time and it was purchased by the Kaiser Car Company. And today, the Jeep continues to live on, but only after several more changes in ownership. First when American Motors bought Jeep from Kaiser, and that would be followed by Chrysler Corp's purchase of AMC, and now most recently by the acquisition of Chrysler by Stellantis in 2021.
Ronald Sieber, Classicspeedster.com
edited, and modified some by me
