Ransom Eli Olds was born in Geneva, OH, in 1864. As a young adult, he moved to Lansing, MI, and married his wife Metta in 1889. Eight years later, in 1897, he founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, and quickly created many prototypes of cars, including the Oldsmobile. We mostly know vehicles to run on gasoline, but early in the development of cars, designers experimented with steam, electricity, and gasoline. Olds is the only American designer to create and sell models of cars that ran on all three modes of power!

In 1904, Olds left Oldsmobile to found REO Motor Car Company, using his initials as the title of the car brand. Olds developed a delivery truck that would go on to inspire the vehicle that we now know as the pickup truck. The name of the vehicle was the REO Speed Wagon, which is where the rock and roll band REO Speed Wagon got its name!

Olds purchased 37,547 acres of land in Florida in 1916. He traded the land in 1926 for the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, FL. Olds owned and operated the hotel until his death in 1950. The land that he traded is now the city of Oldsmar, located just outside Tampa, FL.

The REO Motor Car Company Plant is now a National Historic Landmark that you can visit in Lansing, MI. In 1914, Olds began the R. E. Olds Foundation, to provides grants to the Lansing, MI area to support community-based education programs. The Foundation still provides grants today.

*Today is my parents' wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary Mrs. & Mr. Donahue!

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