The Globe Body Company was a small Ohio automobile body manufacturer that supplied coachwork to the Fostoria-built Seneca and Tiffin-built Vogue automobiles.

The firm was organized in 1918 and capitalized at $100,000 by its incorporators: Raymond W. Miller; J.A. Manecke; W.S. Patterson; J.C. Carter; G.A. Goetschins.

Miller was the President of the Vogue Motor Car Co., Tiffin, Ohio, which was a reorganization of the Economy Motor Car Co. and W.S. (Pat) Patterson was associated with the Seneca Automobile Co. which was a reorganization of the Fostoria Automobile Co., Fostoria, Ohio.

The firm’s factory was located at the southwest corner of S. Union and Sycamore Sts. In a factory that later became the home of the Atlas Crankshaft Co.

Chilton’s Directory listed the firm as follows:

“Globe Body Co. Union and Sycamore Sts. (Pas) (M) R. W. Miller, pres.; John Manecke, treas. C. Arnoldi, General Manager.”

As Globe was essentially a captive production body supplier, little of its activities appeared in the automotive trades, the sole reference I found was the following item that appeared in the April 8, 1920 Automotive Industries:

“Globe Body Co., Fostoria, Ohio will build addition to plant to assemble wooden portion of bodies instead of having work done outside.”

Globe utilized sheet metal parts that were supplied by the Fostoria Pressed Steel Co., a Fostoria firm organized on April 2, 1917 by W.O. Allen, C.D. Pifer, Henry Rothrock, E.C. Wolfe and George Schroth.

Early on Fostoria Pressed Steel was closely associated with W.O. Allens’ Allen Motor Co., also of Fostoria, Ohio, for whom they supplied fenders, hoods, gas tanks and dust shields. Soon afterwards the began supplying sheet metal parts for regional automakers who included: the Maibohn Motor Car Co., Sandusky, Ohio; The Economy Motor Car Co. and its successor, the Vogue Motor Car Co., in Tiffin, Ohio; and the Seneca Motor Car Co. of Fostoria.

Although their early clients went out of business in the early- to mid-Twenties, by that time Fostoria Pressed Steel was producing steel fenders (their specialty) to numerous firms and by 1934 were manufacturing 339 different fenders for Buick, Chrysler, Chevrolet, Desoto, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Plymouth, Pontiac, Studebaker, Whippet and Willys.

In 1939 the firm introduced infrared drying systems (used to dry paint, etc.) that proved useful in speeding up the manufacture of military vehicles during the Second World War. The firm’s infrared ovens and localized lighting systems were eventually adopted by numerous industries that required heat or light to cure, dry, bake, dehydrate or pre-heat a wide range of materials ranging from automobile manufacturers to food processors.

Their infrared business quickly eclipsed the manufacture of automobile fenders which was dropped after the War and the firm was subsequently reorganized as Fostoria Industries, Inc. The firm branched out into the manufacture of specialty lighting and process heating equipment and was purchased by TPI Corporation in 1973 – T.P.I. designs and specializes in electrical space heating equipment, air ventilation products, lighting and switches and controls. T.P.I. Corp. closed its Fostoria factory in 2008 and consolidated its operation at its main facility in Johnson City, Tennessee. 

Both Seneca and Vogue went out of business in 1923 and with them, Globe Body Co.

© 2013 Mark Theobald for Coachbuilt.com

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