Elmer

Elmer F. Johnson founded a bicycle shop on Cedar Street in Kalkaska, Michigan, in 1863. Thirty-five years later, in 1898, he built his first automobile there and named it the Elmer. It was a gasoline-powered buggy fitted with a two-speed transmission, wire-spoke wheels, and a frame assembled from tubular bicycle parts. The car saw heavy use and was rebuilt twice, once in 1901 and again in 1905, when its worn-out…