In 1902, Charles Minshall, president of the Standard Wheel Company of Terre Haute, Indiana, supplier of wheels to many early automakers, decided to get into the car business himself. He hired a young engineer named Claude Cox to design his new car, dubbed the Overland, after the famous Overland stagecoach. The first Overland, the Model 13 runabout, was fairly advanced for the time, having a single-cylinder, water-cooled 5-hp engine mounted vertically up front rather than horizontally under the seat, and a two-speed planetary transmission. The frame was solid oak, a tiller was used for steering, and styling was simple but quite attractive. The first car was tested February 12, 1903.
There are conflicting reports regarding exactly how many were built that first year, but it was probably about 12 cars,…