When The Buggy Company Made Mail Trucks, in Mifflinburg

Prior to 1897,  Mifflinburg was known as "buggy town" - a reference to the  17 Buggy Manufacturers in the town. In 1897, those 17 manufacturers consolidated into one, The Mifflinburg Buggy Company.

Then in 1911, that Buggy Consortium purchased the Mifflinburg Body and Gear Company., which had been founded in 1911 to produce running gears and other parts for buggies. All of Buggy town was now consolidated into one large buggy making company. But already, people were trading in their buggies for automobiles.

The first car was invented in 1886, but they really  weren't widely available until the early twentieth century. Buggies continued to be  manufactured into the  mid 1930s, but  by 1915, they were no longer as  common as automobiles. The Mifflinburg Buggy Co. changed  with the times. In 1917 they became the  Mifflinburg Body Company, signifying their switch from Buggy Makers, to Car Body makers.

The car bodies would be built in the eighth street facility that had been the Body & Gear Works building.  (Today, this is the Rusty Rail)  Once built, they would be taken to the original 4th street facility, and painted.  That continued until 1920 when the fourth street plant was destroyed in a fire.

From The Miltonian, November 13, 1930 - The American Austin

"Described by the company as being the embodiment of nonchalant luxury, and by being priced as their halo car; the Bantam station wagon was anything but a little economy car. It was a useful, utilitarian, piece of art. The maple wood body was manufactured by the Mifflinburg Body Company. "

Those automobile bodies were then used on Ford & Chevy automobiles, and for awhile, on the new "American Austin",   Although the body line at Mifflinburg produced as many as 20 bodies a day from 1927-1929, was poorly conceived, and not standardized.  There were no blueprints for the designs, and there was an appalling waste of both time and material. It was their detailed, beautiful, catalogs that helped save them.  The truck bodies the company produced were easy to ship, and the catalogs made them easy to sell.  At least it did, until the early 30's, when the Depression necessitated factories make their own automobile bodies on site to save money.  In 1932 the Mifflinburg Station Wagon Bodies were discontinued, and only produced on a special order basis.

Fortunately, the government still needed vehicles, and was placing orders.  Mifflinburg produced more than 1,000 bodies for the US Post office  in 1932.  Five different companies made the bodies for these Ford Mail trucks, with Mifflinburg being one of them.  The trucks were made to last a lot longer than originally planned, due to the depression and war.  Today there are only known to be about 55 left in existence.

In 1933, the company switched to furniture making, but it wasn't enough to save them.  They filed for bankruptcy in 1940. Again, it was government contracts to the rescue.  The British Army needed large numbers of truck bodies, and that kept the Mifflinburg Body Company in business for a couple more years.

 In 1942, Mifflinburg Body Company sold out to the American Bowling Alley Co, becoming Mifflinburg Body Works.  A subtle name change, for a company that now made bowling alleys, pool tables, strollers, scooters, and even prefab houses.

Today you can not only see one of the Mifflinburg Body Works Cars,  but you can also sit inside the factory where they were made, for dinner or drinks at the Rusty Rail Brewing Co..

Just a few blocks away from the Rusty Rail is the Mifflinburg Buggy Museum.

William Heiss was one of Mifflinburgs many buggy makers.  When he died in 1931, his shop was forgotten.  Nearly 50 years later the doors were opened to reveal his entire building just as he had left it -  stocked with tools, machinery, forges and parts, everything in place and ready to be used, as if he had just stepped out for a bit and would be right back.

  Today you can tour his workshop, and a museum across the street.

http://www.buggymuseum.org/index.html#history

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Find More Local History Here

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/p/history.html

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Read More:
http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/m/mifflinburg/mifflinburg.htm
https://www.keystoneedge.com/2016/08/02/rusty-rail-brewing-mifflinburg/