A dapper young engineer-developer-entrepreneur came to Orange as World War I was ending to set up the Blumberg Motor Manufacturing Company branch. A century later, only mysteries remain.
Where was the Blumberg Motor Manufacturing Company? Did it ever get off the ground here? Did anyone work there?
Even though the Texas Transportation Museum lists the Blumberg Manufacturing Company as being in San Antonio and Orange, don’t look for an automobile named the Blumberg. The company made tractors.
“Tractor Co. For Orange Planned” read the headline of the July 2, 1918, Orange Daily.
“Through the influence of the chamber of commerce the Blumber Motor Manufacturing Company of San Antonio has been practically induced to open a plant in Orange.” W.A. Barry of the company’s San Antonio headquarters was in Orange looking for investors. He said the town was perfect for manufacturing because of its railroad lines and port.
The company’s founder was Hamilton Blumberg. A link on Ancestry.com shows Hamilton Gustave Blumberg was born on October 26, 1886. He would have been 32 years old in the summer of 1918 when he was looking to build in Orange.
The company was also looking for investors. At that time, Orange would have been a good place to look for capital. The period was still during the heyday of the timber industries and the lumber barons looked for new opportunities.
On July 10, 1918, the newspaper had a half-page ad for Blumberg Motor which was seeking investors. The top of the ad had the words “Orange Chamber of Commerce Endorses Proposition.” The ad touted how farmers would soon be relying on tractors and investors could buy a share for $100 ($1,750 in 2017).
The paper on December 8, 1918, reported “A.D. Fisher and son of San Antonio are now unloading a car of machinery at the Blumberg Motor Company. We have authority to state that the new motor company will begin active business by January 1.”
No location is listed for the new plant, but the “car” likely referred to a railroad car, meaning the facility would have been near tracks.
The Orange Public Library has old city directories to research for locations and addresses. The oldest in the library is from 1917 and then the collection skips to 1928, missing the years when Blumberg Motor Company would have been in operations.
The founder of the company came to Orange and apparently had a house here. The newspaper in December 1918 reported “Mr. and Mrs. H.G. Blumberg and little daughter Minnie Francis returned from a trip to San Antonion last week accompanied by Miss Erin McGowan. The party spent several days at the New Holland Hotel but are now at their home on Ninth Street.”
The transportation museum reports Blumberg was in operations from 1915-1922. The October 1920 edition of the publication Tractor Word says “The Blumberg Motor Manufacturing Company San Antonio is now in production on its Blumber Stead-Pull tractor, which is of the four-wheel type, 12-24 horsepower.”
The San Antonio Express in an for an industrial show on May 22, 1920, wrote “The Blumberg Motor Manufacturing Company, manufacturers of the famous Blumberg Tractors, is a San Antonio company and has a branch plant at Orange, Texas.
“The four years’ business career of the company has demonstrated its tractors to be the most popular on the market and to have features possess by no other tractors. Among thesse are: A perfected non-heating motor, a four-wheel drive tractor, especially adapted to rice fields and boggy ground, and a steady-pull tractor, which meets the needs of the farmers of Texas.
“The company is a going concern and has as officers and among its directorate some of the best known business men and bankers of this city.
“The Blumberg Motor Company has at its door, so to speak, the greatest potential market for tractors in the United States and has orders booked to keep a factory twice the size of the present one busy for the next five years.
“The motor, which is shown in the Industrial Exhibit, is manufactured by the Blumberg Company, which also manufactures all working parts in its tractors and is not an assembly proposition as is the case with so many tractor companies.”
Blumberg may have had a good product, but apparently he didn’t have enough money to keep going. By 1920, he was paying for full-page newspaper ads seeking investors and selling stock for $100 a share. The ads, which appeared in the San Antonio and Lockhart, Texas, newspapers lists 11 businessmen who were on the board of directors. Only one of the 11 was listed from Orange.
The Orange director was W.E. McCorquodale, listed as a manufacturer and banker. McCorquodale was the founder of the Little Giant Manufacturing plant. The 1917 Orange city directory listed him under the category of “Investors.” The “Capitalists” in the directory were W.H. Stark and E.W. Brown.
Something happened to Blumberg Motor Manufacturing and it ceased. Three years after the Daily Leader enthusiastically wrote about the new company ready to begin, Blumberg owed taxes.
The December 24, 1921, edition of the paper had several pages of lists of people who owed delinquent taxes. (A strange way to mark a holiday.) The Blumberg Company owned $44.28 on each of two lots. (A total of $1,142 in today’s money.)
Blumberg died in San Antonio in April 1951 at the age of 64. He is buried in San Antonio. He was born in Schumannsville in Guadalupe County, Texas. The Portal to Texas History has a genealogy paper that shows he was a descendent of pioneer German immigrants in the Texas Hill Country.
If anyone has information about the Blumberg Motor Manufacturing Company, please contact me at me.toal2002@gmail.com
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