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In 1917, Acme Motor Truck Company started to build a plant on Haynes Street, and in the early part of 1918, the factory was opened. Previous to that time, the company’s operations were housed in the Cadillac Machine Company building on Lake Street.
The first Acme truck was put in use by Charles Foster of Charles J. Foster Storage and Crating Co. in Cadillac. The truck purchased by Foster in December 1915 is shown with two employees and a load of crated goods at the corner of Mitchell and Pine Streets. This iconic photo, which is now hanging in the Wexford County Historical Society Museum, was printed in newspapers and magazines throughout the country to advertise the company.
The first trucks made by the company and designed by Walter Kysor were two tons in size. However, later on they made trucks that ranged in size from one to five tons. Trucks were used for various purposes, but a lot of them were used for highway maintenance because they were rugged and could stand up under heavy snow conditions.
Pictured is an aerial view of the Acme Motor Truck Company factory on Haynes Street, now the location of AAR Mobility Systems.
In 1917, Acme Motor Truck Company started to build a plant on Haynes Street, and in the early part of 1918, the factory was opened. Previous to that time, the company’s operations were housed in the Cadillac Machine Company building on Lake Street.
The first Acme truck was put in use by Charles Foster of Charles J. Foster Storage and Crating Co. in Cadillac. The truck purchased by Foster in December 1915 is shown with two employees and a load of crated goods at the corner of Mitchell and Pine Streets. This iconic photo, which is now hanging in the Wexford County Historical Society Museum, was printed in newspapers and magazines throughout the country to advertise the company.
The first trucks made by the company and designed by Walter Kysor were two tons in size. However, later on they made trucks that ranged in size from one to five tons. Trucks were used for various purposes, but a lot of them were used for highway maintenance because they were rugged and could stand up under heavy snow conditions.
Pictured is an aerial view of the Acme Motor Truck Company factory on Haynes Street, now the location of AAR Mobility Systems.
CADILLAC — Cadillac for many years has been integrally connected to the automobile industry.
Factories here today produce all manner of parts and components for major automobile manufacturers based in Detroit and elsewhere.
But it’s not just automobile parts that Cadillac has been known for in the last 150 years: when the Acme Motor Truck Co. was in the full swing during the 1920s, the city was pumping out finished automobile models at a remarkable rate.
The company started in 1915, when Walter A. Kysor suggested an auto-truck proposition for Cadillac at a meeting of the Cadillac Board of Trade. He said that practically all the people engaged in the business had been very successful and that Cadillac could handle a large facility. The company was officially organized on Sept. 1 and its first truck was turned out Dec. 15. The name of the concern was originally called Cadillac Motor Truck, but was changed as that named conflicted with the Cadillac Machine Company.
The first trucks made by the company and designed by Kysor were two tons in size. However, later on they made trucks that ranged in size from one to five tons. Trucks were used for various purposes, but a lot of them were used for highway maintenance because they were rugged and could stand up under heavy snow conditions.
The first Acme truck was put in use by Charles Foster of Charles J. Foster Storage and Crating Co. in Cadillac. The truck purchased by Foster in December 1915 is shown with two employees and a load of crated goods at the corner of Mitchell and Pine streets. This iconic photo, which is now hanging in the Wexford County Historical Society Museum, was printed in newspapers and magazines throughout the country to advertise the company.
By 1916, Acme trucks were being produced and shipped to areas throughout the country. The company’s slogan was “The truck of proven units.”
In 1917, the company started to build a plant on Haynes Street, and in the early part of 1918, the factory was opened. Previous to that time, the company’s operations were housed in the Cadillac Machine Company building on Lake Street.
As the company grew, it developed sales branches in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Canada, and agencies on the west coast.
Although the company’s main product was over-the-road trucks, it also produced a vehicle for fire departments. In May 1917, the Cadillac City Commission authorized the purchase of a two-ton Acme fire truck at the cost of $2,600 to replace one of the fire department’s teams of horses.
According to an article printed at the time in the Cadillac News, “The truck will fill a long-felt want in the department. Cadillac has one of the most efficient departments of any city in this class to be found in the country, and the securing of motor apparatus will be another step toward placing it on an even higher grade of efficiency.”
But fire department trucks were just the start.
When Mitchell Brothers ceased their operations at Jennings in 1922, many of the homes they owned were transported to Cadillac by Acme late that year and in 1923. Acme built a huge low-slung trailer, 20 by 40 feet, to move the houses from Jennings to various lots owned by Mitchell Brothers in Cadillac. After being located, the homes were remodeled and sold to various people in the city. Joe Karcher, local contractor, handled the job and later brought the Acme trailer to Mount Pleasant, where he moved some houses from Alma, and to Raco in the Upper Peninsula, where he moved some buildings to the Soo.
In the mid-1920s, Acme Motor Truck Co. expanded its product line to include buses.
L.B. Donnelly, of Cadillac, used an Acme coach to start a bus line between Cadillac and Manton and later operated a bus line from Cadillac to Traverse City on the north and to Howard City on the south. The 16-passenger coach that Donnelly bought from the company in 1925 was priced at $6,545.
The peak years of the company were reached in 1926 and 1927. At that time, the company employed about 500 people and produced about 2,000 trucks a year.
Just a few years later, however, in 1929, a receiver was named for the company, which had been experiencing financial difficulties due to changing market conditions.
Up to that time, heavy trucks were needed because of poor highways but with the advent of better roads and automotive industries manufacturing lightweight trucks, it was hard for Acme to compete.
Although it was hoped that the company could be reorganized and reopen operations, by 1932 Acme Motor Truck Co. was disbanded. Directors of the company at the time it dissolved were William Saunders, Charles Mitchell, Clarence Williams, L.J. Deming, J.C. Ford, George Brown and John Wilcox.
While the company itself is now defunct, the facility it built on Haynes Street lived on, first as the location of B.F. Goodrich Rubber Co., then as the location of the Brooks and Perkins plant. Eventually, the building was purchased by AAR Mobility Systems, which still owns it to this day.
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