Denver, History of Colorado, BIOS: FRITCHLE, Oliver Parker (published 1918) *********************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. *********************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Maggie Stewart-Zimmerman http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00015.html#0003643 December 2, 1999 *********************************************************************** "History of Colorado", edited by Wilbur Fisk Stone, published by The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co. (1918) Vol. II p. 428, 430 photo p. 429 OLIVER PARKER FRITCHLE. Oliver Parker Fritchle is the president of the Fritchle Automobile & Battery Company of Denver, makers of the 100-mile Fritchle electric, in which connection a business of very substantial proportions has been built up. The Fritchle car has solved many problems in connection with motor travel, has Introduced many Improvements and as the years have gone by its business has steadily increased until this has become one of the important industries of the character in the west. Mr. Fritchle is a native of Mount Hope, Holmes county, Ohio. He was born on the 15th of September, 1874, of the marriage of Augustus C. and Ann (Parker) Fritchle, who were also natives of the Buckeye state, where the father spent his entire life. In early manhood Augustus C. Fritchle engaged in merchandising at Mount Hope. During the period of the Civil war he enlisted for active service as a private in an Ohio regiment and participated in many of the hotly contested engagements which led up to the final victory that crowned the Union arms but was never wounded. He died at Mount Hope in 1899, at the age of fifty-four years. His widow is still living and now makes her home in Denver. In their family were four children, of whom one died in infancy, the others being: Oscar, living at Colorado Springs; Mrs. May Kipner, of Denver; and Oliver P., of this review. The last mentioned acquired his early education in the public schools of Ohio and subsequently attended the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, in which he remained as a student for five years. He next matriculated in the Ohio State University, in which he spent two years as a student, winning the Bachelor of Science degree on the 17th of June, 1896. He then took up chemical engineering with the National Steel Company, with which he remained for two years. In the meantime he was busily engaged in the development of a storage battery for automobiles and after painstaking labor and considerable experimenting he perfected his battery, on which he was granted patents on the 15th of August, 1903. He continued at electrical engineering work for a year longer and became chief chemist for the Henry E. Wood Company, with which he remained for two years. He was afterward with the Boston- Colorado Smelting Company as chief chemist and assayer at Argo, Colorado, for two years and at the end of that time established an electric garage and storage battery manufacturing business. In 1908 he organized the Fritchle Electric Storage Battery Company, which has developed into the Fritchle 100-Mile Electrics, manufacturers of electric cars of all kinds and of storage batteries. After bringing the storage battery to its highest state of perfection, Mr. Fritchle turned his attention to the machine itself, which he found had been much neglected, probably overlooked, in the clamor for an "inexhaustible storage battery." In the building of his first machine he reduced the power consumption to one-half that of any other make, thus consequently doubling the mileage capacity. Since that time the company has continued to Increase the capacity and life of its battery, and decrease the resistance and wear of the machinery, so that today the Fritchle electric stands supreme among all electric cars for long distance and durability. They have demonstrated the superiority of the car so often and so convincingly that it is said that there are no more electric auto races. In 1908, after perfecting the machine, Mr. Fritchle made a trip from Lincoln, Nebraska, to New York in order to test the car. The course taken was not through the larger towns nor over the best roads, for his preference was for a direct route regardless of road conditions or charging facilities. The Fritchle electric can run one hundred miles upon a charge and he completed a tour of twenty-one hundred and forty miles and thus was thoroughly tested to his own satisfaction the durability of his electric automobile, away from the factory on country roads, at a season of the year when highways could not be in -their best condition, and in cold weather when the battery is sluggish and does not give as high capacity as in the warmer period. In the building of the car several valuable devices have been introduced, superior to anything else in electric cars upon the market today. Every kind of car is made, including the Victoria phaeton, the four-passenger coupe, the roadster, the Stanhope runabout, the two-passenger torpedo runabout, the tour-passenger electric roadster and the one thousand pound commercial electric. Among the many valuable patented features in Fritchle electrics not found in any other make of electric automobiles may be mentioned the front, the child's seat, the controlling mechanism, the combination lock and safety brake ratchet. In Denver the company owns an extensive plant for the manufacture of its cars and a large garage and storage house. On the 22d of February, 1900, Mr. Fritchle was married in Denver to Miss Blanche Niswander, a daughter of Eugene and Lucy P. Niswander, of Columbus, Ohio. Mr. and Mrs. Fritchle have become parents of two children: Oliver E., who was born in Denver, March 31, 1905, and is attending school at Columbus, Ohio; and Stanton N., who was born in Denver, February 25, 1908, and is also in school. In politics Mr. Fritchle maintains an independent course. He is a member of many technical and learned societies, among which may be mentioned the Society of Automobile Engineers, of which he is a full member. What this infers may be gleaned from the fact that there are only two members of this society residing in Colorado, the qualifications for membership being the ability to design and manufacture a complete automobile. He also is a member of the American Chemical Society and belongs to the Rotary Club of Colorado. He is connected with the Denver Civic and Commercial Association and is identified with Alpha Tau Omega, a Greek letter fraternity. Among his latest inventions he now has perfected one for the development of electricity through the utilization of farmers' windmills for the purpose of lighting suburban and country houses, furnishing the power through this novel source. His first consideration, however, has always been the perfecting of the Fritchle electric, which he placed upon the market ten years ago and of which he has every reason to be proud. Through all the Intervening period the work of improvement has been carried steadily forward, maintaining him in a position of leadership as a manufacturer of electric cars and storage batteries, when tested for durability and long distance drives. His is a nature that could never be content with second place and he has therefore always striven for perfection, never stopping short of the successful accomplishment of his purpose.