Ransom Eli Olds holds an essential, if sometimes understated, place in the story of early American motoring. Born in 1864 in Geneva, Ohio, and raised in Lansing, Michigan, he grew from a mechanically gifted tinkerer into an entrepreneur who proved that an automobile could be built in meaningful numbers and sold to an emerging public eager for mobility.
He became known—arguably with good reason—as both “the schoolmaster of motordom” and the “father of the popular-priced car.”
