1910 Maytag Mason

[Narrator] The name Maytag is synonymous with washing machines. The company operated in Newton, Iowa for over 100 years. But for a brief moment in history, Maytag shifted gears into the emerging automobile industry.

In 1910, August and Fred Duesenberg were building automobiles in Des Moines under the Mason name when Frederick Maytag, president of the Maytag Washing Machine Company,  stepped in and changed the company's course. The result was a car like this one, a 1910 Maytag Mason now housed at  the State Historical Society of Iowa.

(The car has a deep burgundy body complemented by red wooden spoked wheels. Its front features two large brass lamps, enhancing its early automotive charm. The car has a convertible top made of a light fabric that is partially folded back, revealing a black leather interior with tufted seats.)

[Leo Landis, Historian] The Maytag automobile is generally called the Maytag Mason, because the Maytag family had purchased the Mason Car Company out of Des Moines, moved it up to Waterloo. They were really hopeful and optimistic that it was going to be a great endeavor in Waterloo and Blackhawk County and had ideas of turning out about 2,000 cars a year. In the four year history, they made about 1,000 cars. And it really showed  the challenges that Iowa car makers had. They were competing against companies that were on the Great Lakes in Michigan and Ohio, and getting supplies and producing at the level that the assembly line would do was a real challenge for Iowa car makers.

[Narrator] Competition led to the demise of Maytag’s Automobile Adventure. Only five years after beginning operations, the Waterloo factory was sold and the production of Maytag cars ended.

However, when you observe the 1907 Mason and the 1910 Maytag Mason automobiles side by side, you can see how a couple of advancements were made in a short amount of time. Fred and August Duesenberg started their careers as bicycle designers, so using a bike chain on the first car they  engineered, the Mason, made sense to them. By the time they designed this vehicle, the 1910 Maytag Mason, they added an enclosure around the bike chain to keep it free from mud and other obstructions.

This artifact marks the intersection of two remarkable journeys, Maytag's unexpected venture into automobiles, and the Duesenberg brothers rise as automotive innovators.