Rider-Lewis Motor Car Company

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The Rider-Lewis Motor Car Company was an Indiana brass-era automaker active from 1908 to 1911. Ralph Lewis designed its overhead-valve, overhead-cam six-cylinder engine, while George D. Rider financed the enterprise. The firm introduced its automobile at the Indianapolis Motor Show in March 1908, selling the six-cylinder car for a lofty $2,500. Subtle? Absolutely not.

Production began in Muncie before Rider-Lewis shifted operations to Anderson in 1909. There, a new brick plant rose on West Second Street at Sycamore Street, built for roughly $35,000. By June 1910, the Anderson works reportedly produced four-cylinder cars at a rate of 30 to 40 per week and employed about 150 people.

The catalog expanded beyond the Excellent Six with the less expensive Model Four for 1910, but the good times developed a distinctly mechanical knock. Financial trouble brought receivership in 1910; creditors operated the factory from mid-September through January 1911. A court-ordered sale followed, and Henry Nyberg took possession of the Anderson plant on March 7, 1911, continuing automobile production under the Nyberg name.

Our Rider-Lewis Motor Car Company collection celebrates a short-lived Indiana machine builder that aimed high, built handsome early automobiles, and left behind more than a few brick walls and glorious old ads. Big six-cylinder ambition, four-cylinder hustle, and a very brief ride before the creditors grabbed the wheel.