On Feb. 4, 1930, barely three months after the stock market crash triggered the Great Depression, The Lima News in a front-page story announced that “the most pretentious exhibition of products made and sold in Lima that has ever been held in the city” would open a four-day run the following day in the Hover Park armory.
Among the exhibitors the newspapers listed were many of the city’s long-standing industries – Lima Locomotive Works, Ohio Power Shovel Co., Ohio Steel Foundry, Solar Refinery – as well as a new and, for landlocked Lima, unlikely addition to the industrial lineup.
“An exact duplicate of the motor boat that was a prize winner at the recent National Boat Show in New York City, will be displayed by the Indian Boat Co.,” the News wrote.
The Lima boat manufacturer, which had recently undergone a reorganization and renaming, made quite a splash when it debuted five years earlier as the Indian Lake Boat Company, named after the nearby lake.
“With the recent growth of the Indian Lake Boat Co., affiliated with the S.S. Coon Lumber Co., Lima is becoming the boat center of Ohio,” the News proclaimed Aug. 9, 1925. “Although the company has been recently organized, its product is known from coast to coast, one of the boats having won the five-mile race at Hollywood, Florida, July 4 by making the distance in seven minutes. There were 15 hair pin turns in the course.
“Nathan Coon, of the S.S. Coon Lumber Co. and the boat company, said that they are receiving orders for their boats from all parts of the United States, having recently received a contract which will take approximately 12 months to fill,” the News wrote. “After putting one of the boats to the test, the state of Ohio has purchased two to be used for patrol and life-saving duty at Indian Lake.”
The Indian Lake Boat Company turned out rowboats and “dingy-type boats used for tenders and for larger vessels” from its shop in the lumber yard at 340 E. High St. But the boat that drew the attention and the buyers during the indulgent 1920s was a model named the Dart. Designed by Irving “Hocky” Holler, who was brought in from the East for the job, the Dart was a mahogany runabout equipped with an eight-cylinder Curtis aircraft engine converted for marine use. It could go more than 40 mph, according to the News.
“The boat is beautiful in design and is about 25 feet in length and built strong enough to undergo severe stormy weather,” the newspaper noted. “All owners of the Dart runabout are high in their praise of the speedy craft.”
In addition to boating enthusiasts, the Dart’s speed, sturdiness and maneuverability also made it a favorite among Prohibition-era bootleggers avoiding or outrunning Coast Guard cutters while “hauling the mail” in night-time runs across Lake Erie, according to the website Ohio’s Yesterdays.
Motor Boat magazine noted in an April 1926 article, “Production of the runabout was not rushed, but in August 1925, the first Dart was shipped to Florida and a sales and service branch was opened at the Atlantic Boat Yard, Miami, Fla. From the start the boat was popular, and orders for Florida delivery soon taxed the efforts of the builder.
“The Lima shops cover a large area and plans are under way for the immediate expansion of the original plant. When completed the Indian Lake Boat Company will have one of the largest plants in the United States devoted to the production of runabouts.”
In January 1927 the Indian Lake Boat Company was incorporated with a value of $150,000 with Nathan I. Coon, J.R. Tillotson, G.B. Coon, A.C. Johnston and Rex Maynard listed as incorporators.
“The corporation will take over the boat manufacturing business which has been conducted in Lima for several years in conjunction with the lumber business of S.S. Coon & Co., 340 E. High St.,” the News wrote.
By 1928, the Indian Lake Boat Company had moved just south of the Coon lumber yard into a new factory at 347-353 East Market Street — and the Dart line of boats had been sold.
In 1928, a group of Toledo investors, headed by Webb C. Hayes, grandson of former President Rutherford B. Hayes, purchased the right to build the Dart and moved its manufacture to Toledo. Around 1931, as the Great Depression settled over the country, the Dart company faltered and closed.
Meanwhile, in late December 1929, the Indian Lake Boat Company, also shuttered by the Depression, was revived.
“Re-opening of the Indian Lake Boat Factory, which has been shut down for the last 10 weeks and the reorganization of the concern under the name of the Indian Boat Co., with capital stock, listed at $50,000 with 750 shares of no par value, marks another step toward 1930 prosperity,” the News wrote Dec. 18, 1929. The reorganized company, the newspaper added, would specialize in building small fishing boats and outboard pleasure boats.
Lima financier A.W. Wheatley “will direct affairs of the company during the next five years and will serve without salary,” the News wrote. Principal stockholders were listed as Dr. J.R. Tillotson, Dr. O.S. Robuck, Nathan I. Coon, Addison Johnson and Wheatley.
On May 25, 1930, the News visited the East Market Street factory, which employed more than 50 people.
“Factory methods based on those developed by Henry Ford have contributed greatly to the rapid growth of the Indian Boat Co., Inc., one of Lima’s leading industries,” the newspaper wrote. “The plant, occupying two stories and including more than 30,000 square feet of floor space, has been laid out to eliminate as near as possible all lost motion in the building of boats for which the Lima firm has become famous.”
Indian Boat Co. numbered among its customers “persons and department stores from all extremities of the country, the News wrote, adding, “heaviest sales are in the eastern states – New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Maine – and in Michigan, Wisconsin and California.”
The 1942 Lima City Directory listed the Indian Boat Co., under the direction of longtime employee R.T. Leidner as a “dealer in boats of all kinds, marine supplies, paints and hardware” at its retail store at 304 E. Market St. The factory is listed at 341 E. Market St. The 1946 directory noted the addition of the Outdoor Equipment Company, also in the factory at 341 E. Market St.
In July 1950, the News announced the Mast-Foos Company, of Springfield, had purchased the Indian Boat Company from Sheldon Ackerman, of Lima. Ackerman had bought the firm from Leidner in 1947. The new owners told the News the company would produce a 12-foot boat. “At present Indian Boat makes 14- and 16-toot boats,” the newspaper noted.
Mast-Foos sold the building which housed the Indian Boat Company to a Lima realty company operated by Herbert U. Tuttle, Richard Hill, Mrs. Richard Hill and Thomas F. Tuttle in January 1951. Thomas Tuttle told the News that Mast-Foos would vacate the building, which he described as an investment.
By January 1952, the former boat factory had become a Sears warehouse.
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