Grandpa's Hudson dealership

Unknown
Unknown
edited November -1 in HUDSON
Hello everyone,

Growing up, I always heard stories about my Grandfather selling Hudson's in rural NW Indiana. As I get older, (43) I'm more and more interested in Hudson's and their connection with my family history. Oh, and I'd also like to own one! :)

Since I still live nearby, I've begun the search locally to find out just when and where he sold Hudson's in our area. From my discussions with family and friends I know of two locations (both buildings still stand) with a possible third location in a neighboring town, but I'd love to know what years exactly.

I found this site but was unable to locate his name or the towns...

http://home.comcast.net/~sarahdyoung/hudsondealerships2.html#in

From what I've read, in those days there were hundreds of dealers across the country many of them in small towns. I'm in the process of looking at old records in local libraries and town halls.

I'd just love to find out the facts and help accurately preserve our family history.

I've just joined the HET club and hope to get connected with it's members online and locally.

Any help or ideas would be great!

thanks

brad

Comments

  • Jon B
    Jon B Administrator
    You might want to get in contact with either Ed or Hal Souers, who live near Ft. Wayne. While that's not what you'd call "northwest" Indiana, the Souers family has been involved with Hudsons for decades, and I'd be surprised if they (or one of their Hudson friends) had no information about your grandfather's dealership. Here's their webpage: http://hudsonmotorcarcompany.com/annualsouersmeet.html . You would probably enjoy driving over to their annual Souers Family Hudson meet next May. It's been going on for 45 years, more or less. You'll meet some Hudson people in the area, see a bunch of fine Hudson products, and maybe you'll even get a hot tip on a Hudson for sale!
  • MikeWA
    MikeWA Senior Contributor
    Pulic libraries will generally have a collection of old Polk's Directories- All businesses (and most people) will be listed, and will also show where the business was located. You might be able to narrow down the years by looking at several years of them.
  • hudsontech
    hudsontech Senior Contributor
    When, and if, you find out anything Sheldon Rody would love to hear from you. He's just completed a massive listing of Hudson dealers world wide (most are also on the web site you found).

    Hudsonly,
    Alex Burr
    Memphis, TN
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    Are you attempting to find the name of his dealership? The only rural Hudson dealer I can think of in Northwest Indiana is Schreiber Sales of Lowell, IN.
  • oldhudsons
    oldhudsons Senior Contributor
    in no. central Indiana there was a dealership in Plymouth & one in Bourbon.
    Ft. Wayne is in northEAST Ind. not northwest.
    There may have been dealerships in LaPorte & Valparaiso, maybe Knox.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    Welcome to the world of Hudson's along with the greatest people who want to help. Is there a year or Model of car you are looking for?
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Thanks for all the help, guys!

    Jon B....Thanks, I'll get with those folks. I've got several friends in Fort Wayne, We only live about 2 hours west. Their Hudson event in May looks great!

    Mike (Wa)...Thanks, that's great advice. I'm planning trips to a couple local libraries next week. I hadn't heard of the Polk's Directories before. That's what I'm really digging for, what years he actually sold them and at which location.

    hudsonstech...Yeah, I'd love to help fill in some holes in that directory if I can. From what I've learned there were 100's of Hudson dealerships in those days, many in rural areas. Some of them even sold other farm equipment and/or offered other services, not like the modern dealerships.

    1049superg...The name of his dealership would have been "Crouch Sales & Service" or something like that. His name was Glen Crouch. I'm still digging through old family albums and keepsakes for more information.

    oldhudsons...Yeah, I found dealers all around the area. However, his stores (over the years) were located in Hebron and then at two locations in Kouts, Indiana. I originally thought he only sold them from the mid-40's up until the early 50's but I've found a couple things that hint that maybe he sold them in the late 30's, early 40's as well. This is all still speculation. :)

    hudsonsoul...Well, I'm not sure what model I'd like. ;) Part of the reason for doing the research is to discover what years he sold them to help me determine what year and make I'd like to track down. I certainly love the old timers (30s-40s) and the Hornet, Jet and Wasp are all great too!

    Thanks again everyone. I'll keep you all posted on what I discover as we go along. It's been a fun search. I welcome all the help I can get!

    Brad
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    Got a 52 hollywood hornet that I just posted to this forum if you are interested.
  • 37 CTS
    37 CTS Senior Contributor
    Hello Brad,

    Welcome to the Hudson forum.

    I have the Crouch Hudson Sales & Service listed in Kouts from 1948-1954
    and did not have the information for Hebron.

    If you have the addresss please send it to me as I am keep a list of dealership names, owners, address and years of operation.

    Thanks
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    37 CTS wrote:
    Hello Brad,

    Welcome to the Hudson forum.

    I have the Crouch Hudson Sales & Service listed in Kouts from 1948-1954
    and did not have the information for Hebron.

    If you have the addresss please send it to me as I am keep a list of dealership names, owners, address and years of operation.

    Thanks

    Great, that helps a great deal!

    I'll do some more digging here locally on addresses and let you know what else I find out.

    thanks!

    Brad
  • StillOutThere
    StillOutThere Expert Adviser
    If we are talking Lowell, IN, I have a print pic I can scan of my '49 Super 6 sedan in front of the building with the Hudson dealer sign still there. I was one of multiple people who bought quantities of parts from the closed location.
  • [Deleted User]
    [Deleted User]
    I too took a picture of my 1953 Wasp, that was also originally sold by Schreiber Sales, in front of the Brunswick, IN Hudson building. That was back in June of 1981 and I also met Mr. Schreiber himself at the same time. He told me that the recession of 1957-58 is what forced him out of business. Just about four years ago I stopped again at the Bruswick Hudson building and this time I met the son-in-law of Mr. Schreiber who was mowing the lawn at the home next door where Mrs. Schreiber still lived at the time (92 year old!). He invited me in the old building and there were still three stepdowns inside in various states of repair (they all looked pretty rough). Anyway, nothing left much in the way of parts although the son-in-law gave me a NOS chrome Schreiber Sales dealership badge just like the one that use to be on the trunk lid of my '53 Wasp.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Talking about spare parts, in my search I ran into a mechanic that worked for the man who my Grandfather sold his garage to in the 70's. He said that the storage area above the garage was full of Hudson parts when he bought the building. Anything you can think of, "enough to build an entire Hudson" was what he said.

    In those days, they couldn't find anyone to take the parts. They even ran an ad in the local newspaper with no takers. They couldn't give them away! Finally, some guy from California arrived with a semi-trailer and took them all. He's probably one of the guys selling fenders on eBay now for $500! :lol:
  • oldhudsons
    oldhudsons Senior Contributor
    It was my understanding that the Hudson dealers could return inventory to AMC but how much they "got on the dollar" I don't know. Most of the many that I visited in the '60s & '70s had not done that. Some, needing space, had just taken the new parts to the dump; others moved them into a corner of the building or put it in the rafters which is what was done at Wayne Love Motors in Bourbon, Ind. (where I worked part time when in h.s.).
    Also in re returning the parts it would have been time consuming therefore expensive for them to have to box the stuff up & ship so just didn't bother + they would have had old customers coming in for years, as Wayne did, needing work. Dad kept his '53 Hornet sd. "on the road" for probably 10 years after he bought it from Wayne.
  • hudsontech
    hudsontech Senior Contributor
    edited September 2011
    Larry Wellman, of Groveland and (later) Newburyport, MA, was one of those who spent the 60's and 70's combing the northeast (New England, New York, eastern Pennsylvania) for old Hudson dealers.

    At one time Larry had a 3 story house in Newburyport - the attic was filled with shelves of Hudson parts, 4 of the 2nd story bedrooms were filled with Hudson parts (the 4th bedroom was his - and there were parts in there), on the first floor were the kitchen, living room, sitting room where his parents slept, and a couple other rooms - those two rooms were filled with parts. In the cellar were rows upon rows of shelves with Hudson parts.

    And if that wasn't enough there was a huge 3 story barn with 3 levels - all filled with either parts or cars. The cars were jammed in so close you couldn't open the doors. There were cars on all three levels - how he got the cars to the top would defy enginering principles. I really think all those cars kept the barn from collapsing!!!!

    Larry would go into an old dealer ship and offer something like $5 a box for small parts and bargain for the rest. He sold most of it off before he died - about all that was left were hard to move parts like steering knuckles and other heavy duty front end parts, for example.

    And, yeah, he knew where everything was - ask him for a part and he'd go right to it.

    I wound up buying what he had left in Hudson literature. For a long while the books occupied one of those book racks you see in parts stores - mine ran about 8 feet. I wish I had those books now.

    Hudsonly,
    Alex Burr
    Memphis, TN
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