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Eldon Hostetler’s dream of a home for his Hudson car collection has finally come true. Eldon is the owner of 46 restored Hudson cars, which will be displayed in the Hudson museum located in Shipshewana’s New Town Center. Along with the Hudson museum, the Town Center includes the LaGrange County Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, the Shipshewana Historical Society, Retail Merchant’s Association and indoor and outdoor event space.

The construction of the Town Center is scheduled to be completed by today. Then the moving in will begin and after that is finished the center will be opened.

Eldon, who is mechanically minded like his grandfather, fell in love with this unique car at the age of 14 when he worked with his grandfather, David Schrock, who owned three threshing machines he rented out to farmers all during threshing season. His grandfather lived 500 feet from Eldon’s home, and was a big influence in his life.

In 1925 David traded his steam engine for a 20-40 Huber tractor for a belt-powered threshing machine. They had to put heavy oil into the tractor, and when cold weather set in they were unable to start the tractor. His grandfather took a generator starter combination from a Buick car and bolted the flywheel onto the tractor flywheel, which on completion allowed Eldon, who was 4 or 5 years of age, to push a button to start the tractor. This was such a novelty that men came from the factory to investigate. Continuing to work with his grandfather fed his mechanical ability.

Growing up in an Amish family, Eldon was the eldest of 13 children born to Mahlon and Lizzie Hostetler, and he was taught early in life to help farm his family’s 90 acres and his grandfather’s 100 acres. They had horses, cows, pigs, chickens and sheep, so he was well acquainted with the care of all the animals on the farm. He never joined the Amish Church, but he did join a Conservative Mennonite Church.

Eldon attended a one-room schoolhouse, located at C.R. 1000 and Ind. 20, which housed all grades. Every morning the school bell rang twice before school, and Eldon lived so close that when the first bell rang he knew it was time to hurry. He could change his clothes, grab his dinner bucket, and get to school by the time the second bell rang.

After school, if he was to take a book home, he placed the book inside a culvert on his way home, because when he got home, his dad had work for him to do. Eldon said his life consisted of driving horses and hurrying to get his work done. The words he heard most often were: “whoa, giddy up, and hurry up” because time was at a premium.

Eldon stated that between 1930 and 1938 he earned his Ph.d, not in higher education but in working all summer to get feed for the animals, and in the winter hauling it out in another form. He said his degree was in “pile it higher and deeper.”

At a very young age he would drive a three-horse plow, and once remembered hitting a rock that catapulted him into the air and landed him in a furrow. Although injured, he was put back on the plow to continue the job.

At 14, when he worked on the threshing machines for his grandfather, Eldon’s father employed Erwin Yoder, who had a new Hudson Terraplane with a semi-automatic gearshift lever under the steering wheel.

Eldon said he was permitted to drive the car from farm to farm where the threshing machines were working to see if they were working “OK.” Eldon was enamored with this new mechanical machine, and in 1940, at age 18, his grandfather offered him $350 to purchase his first car, a 1938 Hudson.

Although it was time for the military draft, Eldon was deferred because he worked on his dad’s farm. Once his brother was old enough for the draft, he had to look for a job so his brother could be deferred as a farmer. He found a job in Warsaw with Crieghton Brothers, on a large farm where they raised hogs and chickens.

His job was watering and feeding the chickens. This job established his life’s vocation.

He worked for 20 years at Chore-Time Brock in Milford developing feed and watering systems for farm animals. Then he began his own company, Ziggity Systems.

He said of his life’s achievements, “I have been very fortunate in life.”

During his life, Eldon developed 60 patents, which are used in America and worldwide. He developed automatic feeding and watering troughs, and meatier chickens. The development of these patents provided him the funds for his hobby, of finding and restoring Hudson cars.

The first Hudson car was made in 1909 and the last Hudson built was in 1956, when Nash American Motors bought out the company.

The museum, officially named Hostetler’s Hudson Auto Museum, will have 46 beautifully restored cars, one from almost every year they were made.

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