Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Elwood Haynes (1857-1925) was a brilliant metallurgist and industrialist who developed an alloy he named Stellite, co-invented stainless steel, and in 1894 invented one of America’s first automobiles.
According to his biographer, Ralph Gray, in his book titled “Alloys and Automobiles: The Life of Elwood Haynes,” Haynes was an elder in the Presbyterian church and supported a number of religious and charitable causes.
Gray says, “His greatest interest and activity outside of his own church, however, related to the Winona Lake Bible Conference and its evangelical work. Haynes served as a trustee of the Winona Assembly, which was located in Kosciusko County, Indiana, near Warsaw, and in 1924 he was elected as its second vice-president. Haynes attended summer programs and occasionally spoke on various aspects of Christian life and stewardship at Winona, sharing the speaker’s platform with such men as William Jennings Bryan and ‘Billy’ Sunday.” (p. 205)
Haynes was also an advocate of Prohibition, and ran an unsuccessful campaign for U.S. Senate on the Prohibition ticket in 1916.
Haynes was born in Portland, Indiana, and was educated in the eastern U.S. at Worcester Technical Institute and Johns Hopkins University. He began his career as a schoolteacher and principal, but then moved to the natural gas industry, which brought him to Kokomo in 1892, where he lived until his death in 1925.
Haynes is best known for his invention of the Pioneer, America’s first auto powered by a one-horsepower marine upright gasoline engine. Recognized throughout his life as the inventor of the automobile in America, Haynes was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in May 2015.
The files and archives in the Elwood Haynes Museum, housed in his former residence in Kokomo, Indiana, contain a significant amount of correspondence between Haynes and various officers and leaders of the Winona Assembly and Bible Conference.
Haynes’ name first appears listed as a “director” of the Assembly in 1918, and by 1921 he was being listed on the Assembly’s letterhead as First Vice President. Haynes apparently spoke or moderated debates at Winona with some frequency. A telegram to him from Winona General Manager Sol Dickey dated Aug. 5, 1920, indicates that the Democratic and Republican National Committees had selected senators to represent them in a debate at Winona regarding the League of Nations. Dickey says to Haynes, “the committee earnestly invites you to preside. Will you do it? I hope so.”
It is generally believed that Haynes owned a summer home only two doors from the Billy Sunday home on Ludlow Avenue, since renamed Billy Sunday Lane. Haynes traveled widely, but records indicate he was present for most directors’ meetings and maintained a strong personal interest in the work of Winona. In a letter to Mrs. W. A. Sunday, dated Jan. 31, 1921, Haynes said, “I do not believe there is a place in the United States, and perhaps in the world, where one can obtain so much good at so little cost as at Winona.” Referring to the Assembly, he said, “I have been impressed with the great good it has accomplished and is accomplishing.”
In a letter dated Aug. 9, 1918, Sol Dickey reminds Haynes that “Tuesday the 20th we have designated as Temperance Day. Mr. [William Jennings] Bryan will speak in the afternoon …. We want you to preside, also to give us an address on Temperance.”
Of course, the Winona directors were well aware that Haynes was a man of significant financial means, and therefore much of their correspondence has to do with soliciting gifts from Haynes to help finance the building of the new tabernacle, or encouraging Haynes’ investment in bonds and notes for the Assembly, with security guarantees naming various buildings and assets as security.
One interesting letter is a plea from an investor whose investment in the Winona Railroad was lost when the utility declared bankruptcy. He asks Haynes’ help in recovering his investment. Haynes replies kindly, but explains that “the [railway] line paid well at first, but as the automobile came into more extensive use, the railway line not only failed to pay, but sustained heavy losses, which finally compelled the Assembly to make an assignment and pass through a receivership.”
The Winona Assembly and Bible conference was only one of many charities that Haynes supported. Haynes’ automobiles sold well, reaching annual sales of 1,000 cars in 1910. Haynes donated his first vehicle, the Pioneer, to the United States Government in 1910 to be placed in the Smithsonian Institution where it is still on display in the National Museum of American History. His investments in metallurgical products such as Stellite and stainless steel paid well, also, making Haynes a wealthy man.
Haynes’ daughter and family donated the Haynes family mansion in Kokomo to the city of Kokomo in October 1965. The museum, located at 1915 S. Webster St., Kokomo, is open to the public six days a week, but is closed on Mondays.
