Fuller (automobile)

From 1907 to 1909 Angus Nebraska was the home of the Angus Automobile Company, employing forty craftsmen that produced over six hundred Fuller Cars in its short life. Only one car is known to have survived the scrap metal drives of WW II.

The car was designed by Charles M. Fuller. Fuller left Angus in 1902 to work for the St. Louis Motor Company and afterwards for the Buckeye Manufacturing Company of Anderson, Indiana, where he was instrumental in building the Lambert car. Fuller returned home to Angus with two Lambert cars. The townspeople were so impressed by the car and by Fuller's confidence that he could build a better car that they raised $50,000.00 by investing in $10.00 shares of the company's stock. Production of the first Fuller car started on February 16, 1907.

There were four models of the Fuller car that sold for $1000.00 to $3500.00. The best seller was a five-seater touring car that sold for $2,500. The Fuller car used only genuine leather upholstery, had sixteen to eighteen coats of paint, and the best engine then available. Its brass needed to be cleaned frequently, and owners noted that when cleaned, the car shined "bright as gold in the sun."

Unfortunately the success of the Fuller car was short-lived. In 1908 a demonstration was held at the Nuckolls County Fair in which a Fuller car completed two laps of the fairgrounds racetrack in sixty seconds, averaging sixty miles per hour. The performance was so exceptional that a group of Omaha businessmen offered to buy the Angus Automobile Company. Charles Fuller wanted to accept the offer, but the other stockholders did not. The resulting dispute resulted in Fuller's decision to sever all ties with the company. Without his inventive ability and drive, the business did not long survive.

References

Nebraska State Historical Society.