page_title: Mercer (automobile)
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Mercer (automobile) / Early history
caption_attribution_description: English: 1917 Mercer Raceabout Commercial photo taken on assignment, published circa 1917. PhotographerShipler Commercial Photographers; Shipler, Harry URL: http://content.lib.utah.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/USHS_Shipler&amp;CISOPTR=9388&amp;CISOBOX=1&amp;REC=4Photographer
context_page_description: Mercer was an American automobile manufacturer from 1909 until 1925. It was notable for its high-performance cars, especially the Type 35 Raceabout.
context_section_description: There was considerable talent and backing for the Mercer Automobile Company; Ferdinand Roebling, son of John A. Roebling, was the president, and his nephew Washington A. Roebling II was the general manager. The Roeblings had extensive success with wire rope manufacturing and suspension bridge design; engineering was not a recent concept for them. The secretary-treasurer was John L. Kuser, who, with his brothers Frederick and Anthony, had amassed a fortune from banking, bottling and brewing.
  Washington A. Roebling II was friends with William Walter, who had been making a small number of high-quality automobiles in New York City. The Kusers owned a vacant brewery in Hamilton, New Jersey, and brought Walter and his car factory there in 1906. However, Walter found himself deeply in debt by 1909, so the Roeblings and Kusers bought him out in a foreclosure sale. They changed the company name to Mercer, named after Mercer County, New Jersey. Talented designers and race drivers contributed to the new effort, and the focus became proving their product in competition.
caption: 1917 Mercer Raceabout
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