Shifting Gears

Before forming the St. Louis Gasoline Motor Company, Louis Langan traveled to Germany to visit auto manufacturers and learn about the production of “horseless carriages.” On his return, Langan, C. E. Brooks, and Henry Damon formed the St. Louis Gasoline Motor Company in 1897, St. Louis’s first auto company. H. F. Borbein joined shortly thereafter, overseeing the chassis department.

The company quickly prospered by specializing in “motor wagons,” as well as motors and transmission gears for carriage makers and others wanting to construct their own vehicles. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt almost as quickly as it prospered. Having received an order for 100 motors, transmissions, and chassis from the Elgin Motor Company of Chicago, the men quickly got to work. Despite many promises of “the check is in the mail,” the money for the order never arrived and the men were forced to shut down the business around 1900, having no more money left for wages.

1900 St. Louis Gasoline Motor Company Automobile

This St. Louis Gasoline Motor Company automobile was made around 1900, weighs roughly 390 pounds, and could travel at speeds up to 18 miles an hour. After many owners, all of whom worked to restore and repair the car in various ways, the vehicle came to the Missouri Historical Society in 1998 by way of its last owner, Mr. Charles McHanon of San Diego, who wanted the automobile returned to St. Louis.

Although this circa 1900 horseless carriage has a St. Louis Gasoline Motor Company engine inside, it is possible that this vehicle is the result of Borbein’s continued work in developing automobiles using the last of the parts purchased from the company at its closing.