Frank Ballou Stearns built his first automobile in the
basement of his family's Cleveland, OH home at the age of seventeen. His first
production model auto was a buggy-style, one cylinder came in 1897. Throughout
the early 1900's, the F. B. Stearns Company focused on performance automobiles,
introducing a 60hp four cylinder touring car with five or seven seats. Barney
Oldfield won the Mount Wilson Hillclimb in a Stearns Six at Brighton Beach in 1910,
a vehicle believed to be the most powerful of its era.
Eventually Stearns turned its attention toward the consumer
market and by 1914 when this ad ran the company was introducing its Knight
sleeve engine. The company's founder
retired in 1925, selling out to J. N. Willys who operated the company until
1929 before liquidating it and sending the legacy of Stearns to the automotive
graveyard.
This ad comes from a 1914 issue of Life Magazine.
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