Ferdinand Nickolas Kahler Sr. (November 20, 1864 – November 14, 1927) was an American inventor, entrepreneur and automobile pioneer who founded the Kahler Co. in New Albany, Indiana.
He was a manufacturer of wood and lumber products, founded two early American automobile companies and was granted patents by the United States Patent and Trademark Office for his inventions.
Biography Ferdinand Nickolas 'Ferd' Kahler Sr. was born November 20, 1864, at Hermsdorf, Bohemia, Austrian Empire (now Heřmánkovice, Česko). The first of Anton and Genowefa “Genevieve” (née Scholz) Kahler's five children, Kahler was baptized Catholic the next day.
At age 17, he immigrated to New York City, arriving on September 10, 1881, on the passenger ship SS Elbe. He traveled to Reading, Pennsylvania, visited Louisville, Kentucky, and moved to nearby New Albany, Indiana in 1884. Kahler's family followed him to New Albany five years later. Kahler married Mary Mathilde (née Leist) in New Albany, Indiana at St. Mark's Evangelical Church in New Albany on May 11, 1868.
Kahler built the last home constructed on Cedar Bough Place, after purchasing the two lots in 1901. In October, 1919 he obtained a building permit for "a bungalow in Cedar Bough". His home was built in the Airplane Bungalow style of American Craftsman architecture. In 2008 the house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (along with every house on the street). In 2011, the Kahler home earned a New Albany Historic Preservation Commission "Facelift Award" for "outstanding restoration and rehabilitation".
Kahler was naturalized a U.S. citizen on June 23, 1921.
Kahler died on November 14, 1927, was buried in the City Vault on November 17, and was reinterred in the Kahler family vault in New Albany's Fairview Cemetery on April 23, 1929. The Kahler family vault was built by the Peter & Burghard Stone Company of Louisville, Kentucky at a cost of $15,000 ().
Early career Kahler began his career as a bench carpenter, building railcars, streetcars, double-deck cars and their interiors at the American Car and Foundry Co. in nearby Jeffersonville, Indiana. Originally the Ohio Falls Car Manufacturing Co., this plant was responsible for most of American Car and Foundry Co.'s considerable interurban car production.
In January 1903, Kahler was one of three founders of the New Albany Table Manufacturing Company, incorporated with a $20,000 () capital investment. In 1904, Kahler was listed as manager and bookkeeper of the Henry Klerner Furniture Co. in the New Albany City Directory. By 1905, he was conducting business as "Ferdinand Kahler & Son", advertising "Woodworking Specialties".
He founded the Kahler Co. in New Albany, Indiana in August, 1907, incorporating with a $5,000 () capitalization. The Articles of Incorporation mention "manufacturing table tops and for doing interior work in residences and offices". The company also manufactured custom wooden case goods, ice boxes, folding tables and other products. Early advertising mentions "store fixtures, saloon fixtures, special furniture and anything in the wood line that has to be made to order".
In 1908, Kahler personally oversaw the installation of laboratory furniture the Kahler Co. manufactured in its New Albany plant for use in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Omaha, Nebraska and Nashville, Tennessee USDA Bureau of Chemistry food purity testing laboratories. The contracts were awarded several months earlier.
Kahler's success allowed him to build a new factory in New Albany in 1910 on Grant Line Road. It had its own power plant to generate electricity. The plant featured highly efficient direct-geared electric motors at each work station instead of the then-common belt-driven tools powered by overhead shafts. The Kahler Co. plant had its own dry kiln and a long rail siding, allowing both inbound and outbound freight to be handled under cover. The siding was connected to a rail line that carried freight for four railroad companies, allowing Kahler great flexibility in shipping. One reason the factory was considered "one of the model wood working plants in the city" was its "concrete construction".
In 1915, it was reported that Kahler had broken ground at the factory on a two-story addition to double its capacity.
In 1918, the Kahler Co. was awarded a contract by the US Army Quartermaster for 50 wooden saddle stitching horses.
In 1919, Kahler procured a building permit allowing a $5,000 addition () to the Grant Line Road factory.
Automobile pioneer Component manufacturer Kahler's entry in automobile manufacturing started in 1908 with the Kahler Co. providing the wooden frames and wooden body components for many automobile companies. The company successfully filled an early order for 6,000 automobile bodies earning Kahler credibility within the automobile industry.
In 1909 it was reported that "The Kahler Co. at Pearl and Oak streets, New Albany, will be operated at its fullest capacity for the next eighteen months, having received a contract from an Eastern automobile factory for a large number of automobile beds". The article claimed thirty men were working 13-hour days to fill the order.
Kahler won a contract from the Clark Motor Car Company of Shelbyville, Indiana, in 1909 to build 125 "small car bodies at $42 each" and "150 large car bodies at $44 each". After delivering the small car bodies, Kahler sent a representative to take measurements for the larger bodies. After a few of the larger bodies had been finished and delivered, the Clark company rejected them and denied that a contract had been negotiated. Kahler became another plaintiff against the company, suing in December 1911 for $6,600 in damages. The case was dismissed in September 1912.
In 1913, Kahler was the largest of seven Indiana based claimants against the Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Co. asking a Federal Court in Indianapolis to judge the company bankrupt so the claimants could be paid by a court-appointed receiver.
Component supplier In 1911, the Kahler Co. won a contract to build the frames and other wood components of the American Automobile Manufacturing Company automobile being assembled in New Albany, Indiana. Founded in Kansas CIty, Missouri, in 1908, the American Automobile Manufacturing Company acquired the Jonz Automobile Company of Beatrice, Nebraska. By August 1910, the company had moved its offices to Louisville, Kentucky, and its production across the Ohio River in Indiana, setting up its manufacturing equipment in the idle New Albany Woolen Mills factory. The factory buildings were two and three stories in height, located on a six-acre tract on Vincennes Street in New Albany. The factory was reported in 1914 to be "one of the very largest factories in the state of Indiana... and is equipped with machinery, tools, raw materials, parts and accessories for the manufacture of motor cars".
Promising huge potential profits, the company sold $900,000 () worth of stock. and produced a limited number of cars which were marketed as "The Jonz," named after the patented "Jonz 'Tranquil Motor'" developed by the three Jones brothers in Kansas. The American Automobile Manufacturing Company built the two-stroke engine American from 1911 to 1912 in New Albany.
The American Automobile Manufacturing Company was reincorporated as The American Automobile Corp. in Arizona on March 13, 1912, with a capitalization of $500,000.
In September 1912, the company heard a proposal to merge with the Advance Power Company, a Chicago, Illinois, manufacturer of automobile motors and transmission gears. The plans for the merger included changing the company name to "The Advance Motor Car Company" and the production of a 1,000 pound truck with a double-friction drive that was to sell for $400.00. The stockholders voted to leave the decision up to the board of directors.
The company was instead reorganized the third time under the name "New Albany Automobile Corporation". That corporation went bankrupt, and Kahler purchased its assets.
American Automobile Manufacturing Company
In December 1912, Kahler reorganized the company with a capitalization of $450,000 (), changing the name to Ohio Falls Motor Company, largely to protect the assets of his woodworking business.
In June 1913, the company owed the Kahler Co. $3,102. Kahler petitioned the Floyd County Circuit Court to appoint a receiver while allowing the company to continue production during receivership. A month later the Ohio Falls Motor Company was dissolved and reincorporated by Kahler and three other local businessmen as the Falls City Motor Company. The new corporation was capitalized at $50,000.
Kahler purchased the company in November 1913, paying $1,500 in cash and assuming $25,000 () in outstanding liens against the company. Kahler served as president of the new automobile company as well as president of the Kahler Co.
The Falls City Motor Company turned out two lines of hand-assembled "medium-priced gasoline runabout(s)", the Ohio Falls (1913–1914) and the Pilgrim (1913–1914), which retailed for $1,800 (). Total production of the Pilgrim was about 20 completed cars. The Pilgrim retained the unique hexagonal bonnet (hood) and radiator design from the Jonz automobile.
In 1914, the company was declared bankrupt. Kahler, named the receiver of the bankrupt automobile company, closed it and sold the plant for $50,000 () to the Crown Motor Car Company (later renamed the Hercules Motor Car Company) headquartered in Louisville. The sale was not without controversy. Two lawsuits were filed, alleging the sale of the plant was "'irregular' because the sale was made without the knowledge or consent of other creditors or stockholders, and the property was sold at $ 11,000 less than fair cash value".
On March 29, 1914, Kahler offered for sale "at less than half of the original cost" the four remaining new Pilgrim "5-passenger touring cars with 44 h.p. Continental engines" and a new "1 1/2 ton panel truck with a 32 h.p. engine". Two new engines with transmissions were offered for sale as well. Kahler also sold the remaining wooden chassis frame material on hand to the Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing Company of Louisville.
Resumption of component production A 1915 Chilton Automobile Directory lists the Kahler Co. as a component manufacturer in multiple categories, including "Dashes - wood, metal bound, veneered and solid, in the white (unfinished) and finished".
In 1922, it was reported that the Kahler Co. had been awarded a contract to produce car bodies for the Durant Star automobile. The Kahler Co. was still listed as a national source of automobile dashboards in 1925.
Supplier to Ford
In 1915, Kahler used his experience gained from manufacturing and assembling automobiles to become one of eight prime wooden component suppliers to the Ford Motor Company of Detroit, Michigan. The Kahler Co. provided Ford with wooden Model T car frames, floor boards, battery boxes and other components. A serial number preceded by the lhe letters "KA" stamped on a Ford Model T's firewall or front frame member indicates the frame assembly was manufactured at the Kahler Co.'s New Albany factory. Regardless of the manufacturer, all Model T bodies were interchangeable, however the individual parts in a body would not necessarily fit a similar-looking body if it was made by a different manufacturer.
It was reported in 1917 that Kahler's contract to produce 200 car bodies a day for Ford was "reputed to be the largest manufacturing order ever received by a New Albany concern". Over $7,500 () was reported to have been spent on new manufacturing equipment to meet the new contract's production.