By Daniel Human
Carburetors, stainless steel, canned tomato juice and, arguably, the country’s first car — they’re all reasons why Kokomo refers to itself as the City of Firsts.
Officially, Kokomo cites 15 inventions, innovations and discoveries that justify the city’s signature slogan, according to the Kokomo Visitors Bureau.
“As far as I know, [the phrase] began in the late ’40s, and it just cropped up,” Howard County Historian Fred Odiet said. “I think it was the thought of a woman who used to be curator of the [county historical society’s] museum when it used to be in the basement of the Howard County Courthouse.
“I don’t think it was used for marketing, but I think it was something they were trying to use to push Elwood Haynes’ invention.”
The first bullet on the visitors bureau’s timeline of inventions involves the godfather of Kokomo, Elwood Haynes, and his legendary 1894 road trip. A pamphlet for the City of Firsts leads in with “America’s First Car: Invented by Elwood Haynes and road tested July 4, 1894, on Pumpkinvine Pike.”
Haynes claimed that his Pioneer, which blazed along the pike at 7 to 8 m.p.h., was the first horseless carriage in the U.S.
It is a claim that historians debate the accuracy of — others, such as the Duryea brothers from Springfield, Ma., make the same claim — but it is what began the “folklore” of the City of Firsts, said Stew Lauderbach, the curator of the Howard County Historical Society’s museum.
Odiet said it is hard to know who was the real inventor of America’s first automobile because the dates are so close together.
“They all were developed about 1896, ’97, ’98,” he said. “I’m not sure who’s going to say that it happened exactly on such and such a date. I don’t think anybody can claim that. ... Since then, they’ve watered it down to call [Haynes] the ‘inventor of the first commercially-successful car.’”
Since Haynes’ Pumpkinvine Pike excursion, Kokomo has formally laid claim to more than a dozen other inventions and discoveries, many of which revolved around the auto industry.
“At one time, we were, more or less, a rival to Detroit,” Odiet said. “Of course, everything shifted.”
The first pneumatic rubber tire (1894), the first carburetor (1902), and several radio innovations, including the transistor radio (1957), from the Delco Radio division of General Motors are all “legitimate firsts” for Kokomo, Odiet said.
• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.
