The Hatfield Automobile & The Hatfield Motor Vehicle Co.

The Hatfield automobile was first known as the Buggyabout or the Unique. After 1906 it was called the Hatfield. The Hatfield's took an ordinary high grade buggy and turned it into an automobile by removing the thill coupling from the front axle and attaching the motor and other mechanisms, including the sprocket and chain steering gear by which the fifth-wheel front axle is moved by a steering wheel.

The Hatfield was then equipped with a two cylinder four cycle air cooled engine rated at 8-10 horsepower, driving through a friction transmission. Ten speeds forward were possible and three backwards all controlled by a single lever. There was no differential gearing, the rear wheels being each driven through a chain and ratchet drive. The Hatfield was capable of speeds from three to twenty five miles per hour.

The Hatfield Motor Vehicle Company failed in 1908 due to lack of sales and an over saturated high wheeler automobile market. W.R. Craven was named receiver of The Hatfield Motor Vehicle Company, of Miamisburg, Ohio. In 1909 The Hatfield Motor Vehicle Company and Kauffman Buggy Company merged to form The Advance Motor Car Corp. and this new company produced an American Automobile called the Advance.

Typical Early 1900s Runabout