Marathon Motor logo and history

Marathon Motor Works was an early automobile  manufacturer, based in Tennessee. It grew out of an earlier company called Southern Engine and Boiler Works, founded in 1889, which made industrial engines and boilers in Jackson. As such, the firm had metal-working and powerplant experience which could easily be transferred into the then-new and rapidly expanding automobile industry. It turned its attention in this direction shortly after the turn of the twentieth century. From 1911 to 1914 the company manufactured the Marathon automobile.

Then as now it was common for auto manufacturers to outsource some of their components, concentrating on assembly and marketing, and perhaps manufacture of a few major systems. Southern Engine took a different approach however, and rather audaciously decided to engineer and build every single part of its car inhouse. The company was fortunate to possess an exceptionally talented young engineer, William Henry Collier, who accepted the challenge and by 1906 had a prototype ready for inspection. It was not ready for much else, though, because the company's own newsletter drily remarked that the car "should move, but don't."

Rapid progress was made after that, though, and small production runs were achieved in 1907 and 1908. Outside investors were invited in the latter year, and 1909 saw a two-model lineup, roadster and touring car, powered by 35 HP 4-cylinder engines. Both were open bodies (tops were optional) and sold for about $1500. Sales volume reached about 400 units, a respectable figure at the time especially considering the firm was making virtually all the parts itself.

The vehicles had been marketed as Southerns at first, but another firm was using that name and a decision was made to rebadge the automaking operation and spin it off as a separate company at the same time. In 1910, Marathon Motor Works was created, named out of the enthusiasm for things Greek which had grown out of the 1904 Olympics. At the same time the company moved its operations to a larger facility in Nashville, whose finance and transport infrastructure could better support a growing company.

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