Elijah M. Crapper

Elijah Crapper in 1963.

### Title

Founder of Crapper Motors, Owner of Crapper Motors (1926-1976)Founder of Crapper Motors Euro

### Children

William B. CrapperDiana C. Crapper

James H. Crapper

## 1st Owner of Crapper Motors

### Succeeded by

William B. Crapper

Elijah Crapper was the founder and owner of Crapper Motors, an Automobile Manufacturer.

## Early Life

In an interview with Elijah during his life, he recalled always being fascinated with his father's job in the carriage taxi business. He was fascinated with the carriage designs, how they moved, how they worked. With the invention of the automobile in the early 1900s, he knew he wanted to become an automobile maker. Elijah was around 10 at the time, in 1903. Thus this was also the start of a popular rival company in 1903, starting the sale of automobiles to people around the world, effectively ending the horse-drawn carriage era. This put Franciscus out of a job in 1904. Elijah and his father had a very good relationship, and his father helped him to get to his goal of becoming an automaker, and even collaborated on early designs of Elijah's automobiles, such as what would become the Crapper, Elijah's first automobile. Franciscus was very proud of Elijah.

The Crapper Motors Crapper was the first vehicle ever produced by Crapper Motors, from 1930 until 1937. The Crapper started its life in the shed owned by Elijah Crapper. He would work on the car, sometimes along with his father, as early as age 18, in 1911. Elijah would use old leftover carriage parts to assemble basic machines and structures.

Elijah went off to college in 1913, grieving his father’s death. He did poorly in school at first but then flourished, and graduated successfully.

During his time in college, a freak accident caused a fire at his shed, unfortunately destroying all of his and his father’s work at the time, as well as the early Crapper model.

After graduating in 1916, he met Edna R. (Rosetta) Miller (B. March 4, 1896, D. August 14, 1977, Age 81), the love of his life. At this time Elijah was regaining his overall happiness and restarted work on the Crapper, this time, restarting work, in 1917.

Elijah and Edna Married in February 1918. Elijah first thought about actually starting a car business in 1919, and took out a loan for his business in 1925, and fully founded Crapper Motors, effective July 18, 1926.

## Personal Life

Elijah had 3 children:

* William B. (Bernard) Crapper (B. July 11, 1919, D. January 17, 2001, Age 81)
* Diana C. (Clara) Crapper (B. November 22, 1921, D. October 18, 1995, Age 73)
* James H. (Henry) Crapper (B. March 23, 1922, D. December 16, 1993, Age 71)

While Elijah loved all of his kids, William, his first, seemed to be his favorite. His other kids also did not show as much if any interest in automobiles, unlike WIlliam, who did.

For much of his life, Elijah was destitute, and owed money to the bank from which he took out the loan for Crapper Motors for. Once production of the Crapper started in 1929 and the first car was sold in 1930, he started to be able to pay back the loan in 1930, a dangerous 5 years into the 7-year repayment period. He got into more debt during the 1930s due to the Great Depression but barely pulled through, being able to sell enough cars to support the loans and set aside some for himself and his family. He was able to fully pay off his debt in 1951.

In the very few, short times Elijah was able to relax he liked to play chess.

## Later Life & Death

Elijah Crapper signed a contract to start up a European Crapper Motors on August 15, 1959. Elijah Crapper was first known to become ill in 1961. He would later become weaker by 1970 and was hospitalized on April 30, 1975. He later recovered in Late February - Early March 1976.

Elijah M. Crapper's last authorized vehicle to roll off of the production line was the Disco, from 1970-1974. Elijah was in poor health at the time, hence the slowed down production time and fewer available models. The last vehicle that Elijah Crapper had planned to produce was the Punter, an SUV, which eventually ended up starting production in May 1980, taking 6 years to plan. Elijah originally wanted to finish plans for the Punter later that year, in 1976, or the year after, in 1977, then start production in 1978 regardless, releasing the vehicle to showrooms in 1979. Elijah was planning to release the car before the new decade. Elijah Crapper had a strange dislike for the idea of the 1980s, or at least the thought of still working then. After all, he would have been in his 90s by the time. The reason planning for the car took so long is because Elijah knew he was very ill and wanted to make an extraordinary car with all the latest technology. After his sudden death in 1976, William Crapper was thrust into the business. Even though he knew of his father’s poor health, no one was expecting Elijah to die so soon. Elijah was planning on having William be the next owner of Crapper Motors. Elijah planned on retiring in 1979 when the Punter would be released. He had been working on Crapper Motors for his entire life, and was ready for a break. Unfortunately, his break happened too soon, and he got a break from life. Elijah Crapper died peacefully in his bed, on June 22, 1976. This hurt the entire Crapper Family, as well as the public. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, William Crapper was hard at work trying to keep Crapper Motors afloat, as well as redo parts of the plans of the Punter, to keep up with the rapidly changing technology of the time. Sales of cars were hurt after Elijah’s death. Ultimately, this led to the new generation of the Flamingo in 1978.