Charles Wisner’s “Buzz-Wagon” debuts in Flint - Sep 03, 1900 - HISTORY.com

On September 3, 1900, the first car ever made in Flint, Michigan makes its debut in the town’s Labor Day parade. Designed and built by a county judge and weekend tinkerer named Charles H. Wisner, the car was one of the only cars built in Flint that did not end up being produced by General Motors. In the end, only three of the Wisner machines were ever built.

Wisner’s car, nicknamed the “Buzz-Wagon,” was a somewhat ridiculous contraption: it was “very noisy,” according to The Flint Journal; its only door was in the rear; and it had no brakes. In order to stop, Wisner had to collide with something sturdy, usually the side wall of his machine shop. At the Labor Day parade, however, he didn’t have a problem with the brakes; instead, in front of 10,000 spectators, the car stalled and had to be pushed off the parade route.

Wisner’s lemon notwithstanding, Flint soon became the cradle of the American auto industry. GM was formed there in 1908, and the city quickly became known for all the Chevrolets and Buicks–not to mention the engine parts and electronics–produced and assembled there. The sit-down strikes at Flint’s GM plants in 1936 and 1937 won union recognition for autoworkers along with a 30-hour workweek and a 6-hour day, overtime pay, seniority rights, and “a minimum rate of pay commensurate with an American standard of living.” These victories guaranteed a middle-class existence for generations of autoworkers. In fact, for a long time, Flint had the highest average per-household income of any city in the United States.