Delphi Body Works.

• Author: Nelson, Eric
• Position: Regional Report: North Central - Company profile

Delphi Body Works

There are few manufacturing companies in Indiana, perhaps even in the United States, that can claim a direct influence on historical advancements as varied as mail delivery, education, national defense, social welfare and urban growth. And even fewer Indiana companies can claim to have used that influence while prospering for 143 years.

Delphi Body Works - the state's oldest manufacturing company still operating at the same site and building essentially the same product - can make those claims. But it won't make them too loudly. That would be inconsistent with the company's personality.

Located in Delphi, just one block east of its namesake city's lone stoplight near the intersection of Indiana 25 and U.S. 421, the quiet manufacturer of utility equipment doesn't credit its longevity to technology, sophisticated marketing or aggressive innovation. The key, says its president, Richard Bradshaw, simply has been commitment, customer responsiveness and the ability to change.

"Any company that has existed a long time has either had a perfect product or has had the ability to adapt," explains Bradshaw, the fourth generation of his family to head the privately held business. "And this company has had a lot of people who have looked at what was needed in the market and found a way to meet those needs."

The seeds of that philosophy were planted by the company's founders, a pair of blacksmiths named Dunkle and Kilgore who in 1848 began building steam engines. When their customers expressed a need for wagons and specialized equipment to help mount and transport the steam engines, Bradshaw explains, the founders responded. And as demand for the Indiana-built wagons grew, he says, production of steam engines was phased out and the company was renamed Delphi Wagon Works.

The change of direction proved successful, and the company enjoyed modest growth through the late 1880s. But when competitors began invading the wagon industry, a local farmer and landowner named William Bradshaw was brought into the business for financial support and eventually assumed sole ownership.

As competition grew fiercer, the elder Bradshaw began seeking new markets, his great-grandson says. Among those he discovered was the federal government, which asked Delphi Wagon Works to develop a "buggy" for the delivery of mail to rural areas. The prototype, which was manufactured in the early 1890s, had specially reinforced axles and large wheels for traversing the...