In 1895, the first U.S. patent for a gasoline-driven automobile by a U.S. inventor was issued to Charles E. Duryea (No. 540,648). Early in 1896, the Duryea Motor Wagon Co. set up shop in Springfield, Mass. to manufacture multiple units to a gasoline-powered vehicle that he built with his brother, Frank. The company's assembly of 13 identical machines that year is considered to be the first instance of serial production of American cars. The only surviving 1896 Duryea is on exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum. As this is the first U.S. automobile company, and the first to produce any quantity, the Duryea brothers are considered “Fathers of the American Automobile Industry” more Carriages Without Horses: J. Frank Duryea and the Birth of the American Automobile Industry, by Richard P. Scharchburg. - book suggestion.