Boom to bust: Hillsdale's auto "glory days" over

By: David Steffen

Posted: 12/4/08

In the 20th Century, Hillsdale County boasted a robust automotive industry that featured Jonesville-made cars recognized nationwide.

"In the village of Jonesville, they manufactured cars at the Deal car company. At the turn of the 1900s, they made cars that were successful for a long time," said Howard Turner, executive director of the Hillsdale County Industrial Development Commission.

George V. Deal was Hillsdale County's answer to Henry Ford. Jonesville's Deal Motor Vehicle Company, a buggy shop turned car maker, employed around 100 area employees in 1906.

Today, vestiges of Hillsdale's automotive golden age are limited to a few historical artifacts.

The brick structure behind Jonesville's Marcella's café once housed the Deal Motor Company Factory, and a vintage Deal car sits on display in the village hall. Both are distant memories of the area's prosperous manufacturing era.

Hillsdale County's own car line eventually passed on and faded into obscurity, but its position as an automotive supply center endured until the turn of the 20th century.

Turner said Simpson Industries and Hillsdale Tool were major automotive component producers until 1998. Both have been considerably downsized. Bose audio also produced stereos for Cadillacs and Corvettes until 2000.

But Turner said 2001 was the end of an era and job outsourcing took a major blow to Hillsdale County's manufacturing industry.

"2001 was the end of the glory days of automotive parts of Hillsdale County," Turner said. "Then after that, jobs went offshore to Mexico and China."

In 2001, he said, one-third of Hillsdale's work force - 8,000 employees out of a 24,000-person workforce - worked in the manufacturing sector. Today, the number is 6,000 and it is dwindling quickly.

In November, SKD Automotive Group, based in Troy, Mich., laid off around 300 employees in its Jonesville stamping plant. It produces stampings and welded components for the automotive industry, according to its Web site.

SKD joined a litany of Hillsdale County automotive component suppliers laying off workers. With 2,000 lost jobs in the past seven years and 300 more last month, Hillsdale County will feel the implications, Turner said.

"That is going to be a big impact on the community," he said. "[Those 300 employees] have been shopping at the grocery store and paying taxes. When you lose 300 jobs, you're talking about a big change."

He said automotive manufacturing is still an important force in the county, comprising around 50 percent of the industrial workforce.

He said the Big Three's impending problems in Detroit will have huge implications in Hillsdale. 2009 will not be a friendly year to the county, Turner said.