The Duryea Motor Wagon looked nothing so much as a horseless carriage on bicycle wheels — not surprising, since horse-and-carriage was still the predominant mode of transportation of the 1890s, and bicycles were more a fashion item than a serious replacement. Inventors and entrepreneurs Charles and Frank Dureya worked with what they knew best in attaching a gasoline-powered to their carriage to make the first commercially viable car.

On this day, April 19, in 1893 the Dureya brothers tested their first gasoline-powered motor car at their home in Springfield, Telemachus. They would go on to produce several more models of their car for sale. The single-cylinder engines could not have been capable of more sustaining speeds greater than eight miles per hours, but they sold reasonably despite.

Dureya was only one of many different designers of motor cars of that age. The new self-powered automobiles attracted attention from all over the world, as races between them became a popular spectator sport as well as platform for developers to show off their products. In 1895, inspired by a race in France, the Chicago Times-Herald offered $5,000 in prizes and a gold medal for the winner of a Thanksgiving Day race. Frank Dureya in car number 5 won the race, driving an average of 7.3 miles per hour over the heavily snowed-in course.