Lemay
Read More1909 Hudson Model 20, first year of Hudson production. Per Wiki: The name "Hudson" came from Joseph L. Hudson, a Detroit department store entrepreneur and founder of Hudson's department store, who provided the necessary capital and gave permission for the company to be named after him. A total of eight Detroit businessmen formed the company on February 20, 1909,[1] to produce an automobile which would sell for less than US$1,000 (equivalent to approximately $26,248 in today's funds[2]). One of the chief "car men" and organizer of the company was Roy D. Chapin, Sr., a young executive who had worked with Ransom E. Olds. (Chapin's son, Roy Jr., would later be president of Hudson-Nash descendant American Motors Corp. in the 1960s). The company quickly started production, with the first car driven out of a small factory in Detroit on July 3, 1909. The new Hudson "Twenty" was one of the first low-priced cars on the American market and very successful with more than 4,000 sold the first year.