Original cost: $825.00
On loan from: John Nikodym, Red Cloud, NE
Previous owner(s): NA
Number made: Possibly up to thirty; this car may be the only one to still exist
Engine, etc.: 2 cyl., 20 hp.; 2-cycle; 2- forward speed selective transmission, one reverse gear; 80 in. wheelbase
Charles Chester Jones, the first automobile dealer in Beatrice, Nebraska, opened his Jackson Automobile Agency on March 16, 1907. One of the earliest mentions of his name was in 1906 when he was arrested in Beatrice for breaking the speed limit of 6 miles per hour.
Charles Jones filed a patent application on Oct. 24, 1908 for a “new and useful gasolene engine.” It was granted on July 12, 1910.
His interest and success in the auto business prompted him to build a factory in Beatrice in 1908, months before he applied for the engine patent. The business was called the Jonz Automobile Company. He hoped to make and sell his superior “interior” cooled engine. It was advertised as the “tranquil Jonz” because it was so quiet. There were no valves, springs, gears, pumps, radiator, or water.
The engine was advertised as having but five movable parts. It was vapor and air cooled from inside the cylinders. The base was cast of aluminum and one piece cylinder “jugs” were ported (not sleeved) and had an integral head. They were made of iron, wrapped with a wire form which held many “V” shaped copper shims around the cylinder for good cooling. A fan at the front of the engine and baffles riveted to the underside of the hood drove air past the cylinders. The large flywheel is also fan shaped to help pull air through the engine compartment. Four bolts at the base of each cylinder hold them to the engine base.
Gas and spark are on the steering column with clutch and brake pedals on the floor. The gear shift and hand brake levers are on the driver’s right. The small oval gas tank is behind the seats and supplied gas by gravity feed. Ignition was provided by a magneto with an on/off switch behind the driver’s feet.
Charles and his brother Ellsworth, a druggist, operated the company. A third brother, Carey C. was also a stockholder.
Despite high hopes, by early 1909 the company was in financial trouble and threatened to leave Beatrice if more local capital couldn’t be raised. The Jonz Company was mortgaged to a loan company and later merged with the Beatrice Automobile Company and Beatrice Lawn Mower Co. These efforts failed by 1910 and it was taken over by outside capitalists and renamed the American Automobile Manufacturing Company. By December, 1910, Jonz in Beatrice was finished and the owners moved the machinery to New Albany, Indiana.
American Auto offered eight Jonz models on three chassis with three different motors. It tried selling stock to raise money in order to fulfill existing orders for Jonz cars which it renamed the “American”.
The efforts were not successful and in March, 1912, American Automobile Manufacturing Company went into receivership. A 1917 cyclone destroyed most of the company’s buildings in New Albany.
Sources: “Jim McKee: Beatrice’s Almost Answer to Detroit”, Jim McKee, Lincoln (NE) Journal Star, Feb. 17, 2013, http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/misc/jim-mckee-beatrice-s-almost-answer-to-detroit/article_a87aa561-9c5a-53b9-b81a-23693bd23645.html
“Fact or Fiction? Jonz Motor Cars”, Frank T. Snyder, Jr., Antique Automobile, Nov. – Dec., 1970, pgs 33 – 35.
“Jonz Motor Cars: Fact NOT Fiction!”, Charles Perry, Antique Automobile, Jan. – Feb, 1974, pgs. 27 – 29 (copy of article not complete)