Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
In this in-depth, full-length documentary, we explore the story of a Swiss watchmaker's son who built bicycles in a French wine town under an invented brand called Frontenac, crossed the Atlantic in nineteen hundred and beat Barney Oldfield in his first American race four years later, was handed fifty shares out of one thousand at the founding of the Chevrolet Motor Company, walked out over a cigar in nineteen thirteen, watched his surname buy General Motors two years later, and spent the last decade of his life selling cars and oil in Detroit while lying under a headstone about a foot tall.
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Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was born on Christmas Day, eighteen seventy-eight, in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel, the second of seven children of watchmaker Joseph-Félicien Chevrolet and Marie-Anne Angéline Mahon.
The family moved to Beaune in Burgundy in the late eighteen eighties, his father opened a watch store that failed, and Louis went to work at eleven repairing coaches and bicycles for a proprietor named Robin or Roblin.
He built bicycles of his own to sell under the name Frontenac, and on the sixteenth of July, eighteen ninety-five, the Journal de Beaune described the winner of a local cycling race as the fearless Louis Chevrolet.
He apprenticed at Darracq and de Dion-Bouton and Mors and Hotchkiss in Paris, crossed the Atlantic in nineteen hundred, and on the thirtieth of June, nineteen hundred and one, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported he had struck a cyclist while driving a de Dion-Bouton in New York.
On the twentieth of May, nineteen hundred and five, at Morris Park in New York, driving a ninety-horsepower Fiat, he entered his first automobile race and beat both Barney Oldfield and Walter Christie at sixty-eight miles an hour.
In nineteen hundred and seven the carriage salesman from Flint named William Crapo Durant invited both Chevrolet brothers to try out as his personal chauffeur, and by the twelfth of February, nineteen hundred and nine, he had joined the Buick racing team.
On the first of October, nineteen ten, on Old Country Road near Hicksville on Long Island, a steering knuckle broke at speed on the sixteenth lap of the Vanderbilt Cup, killing his riding mechanician Charles Miller.
On the thirtieth of May, nineteen eleven, at the first Indianapolis five hundred, he set the fastest qualification lap of anyone at the track but the team manager submitted his relief-driver entry after the deadline, and the other drivers refused to consent.
On the third of November, nineteen eleven, the Chevrolet Motor Company of Michigan was incorporated in Lansing with Doctor Edwin R. Campbell holding five hundred shares, William H. Little holding four hundred fifty, and Louis Chevrolet holding fifty.
The Classic Six went into production in the last month of nineteen twelve at above two thousand dollars while Henry Ford sold the Model T for a fraction of that.
On the sixteenth of September, nineteen thirteen, after a cigar-and-cigarette confrontation with Durant, Louis resigned, and on the twenty-ninth of September, nineteen thirteen, thirteen days later, William Durant filed the trademark application for the name Chevrolet.
The Chevrolet Four Ninety was announced on the first of June, nineteen fifteen, priced to fight the Model T, and it was designed by former Buick engineer Alfred Sturt.
On the sixteenth of September, nineteen fifteen, Durant retook control of General Motors with backing from the DuPonts and banker Louis Kaufman, and by June nineteen sixteen the Chevrolet Motor Company controlled fifty-four percent of the common stock of General Motors.
The Frontenac Motor Company was organized on the seventeenth of December, nineteen fifteen with Louis as principal shareholder, and on the thirty-first of May, nineteen twenty, his youngest brother Gaston won the Indianapolis five hundred without a single tire change at nearly eighty-nine miles an hour.
On the twenty-fifth of November, nineteen twenty, at the Beverly Hills board speedway in California, Gaston was killed at twenty-eight when his car made contact with Eddie O'Donnell's on the one hundred forty-sixth lap.
The Chevrolet Brothers Manufacturing Company produced Fronty-Ford overhead-valve cylinder heads for the Ford Model T from nineteen twenty to nineteen twenty-seven, the one commercially successful product of his later career.
On the twenty-second of November, nineteen twenty-eight, Glenn L. Martin bought ninety percent of the Chevrolet Aircraft Corporation.
On the twenty-ninth of May, nineteen thirty-four, on the eve of the Indianapolis five hundred, his eldest son Charles died at twenty-seven.
In this in-depth, full-length documentary, we explore the story of a Swiss watchmaker's son who built bicycles in a French wine town under an invented brand called Frontenac, crossed the Atlantic in nineteen hundred and beat Barney Oldfield in his first American race four years later, was handed fifty shares out of one thousand at the founding of the Chevrolet Motor Company, walked out over a cigar in nineteen thirteen, watched his surname buy General Motors two years later, and spent the last decade of his life selling cars and oil in Detroit while lying under a headstone about a foot tall.
----------------------------------------
Gain FREE access to secret full-length documentaries on wealthy families "too scandalous for YouTube" by joining our newsletter: substack.com/@oldmoneyluxury
----------------------------------------
Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was born on Christmas Day, eighteen seventy-eight, in La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel, the second of seven children of watchmaker Joseph-Félicien Chevrolet and Marie-Anne Angéline Mahon.
The family moved to Beaune in Burgundy in the late eighteen eighties, his father opened a watch store that failed, and Louis went to work at eleven repairing coaches and bicycles for a proprietor named Robin or Roblin.
He built bicycles of his own to sell under the name Frontenac, and on the sixteenth of July, eighteen ninety-five, the Journal de Beaune described the winner of a local cycling race as the fearless Louis Chevrolet.
He apprenticed at Darracq and de Dion-Bouton and Mors and Hotchkiss in Paris, crossed the Atlantic in nineteen hundred, and on the thirtieth of June, nineteen hundred and one, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported he had struck a cyclist while driving a de Dion-Bouton in New York.
On the twentieth of May, nineteen hundred and five, at Morris Park in New York, driving a ninety-horsepower Fiat, he entered his first automobile race and beat both Barney Oldfield and Walter Christie at sixty-eight miles an hour.
In nineteen hundred and seven the carriage salesman from Flint named William Crapo Durant invited both Chevrolet brothers to try out as his personal chauffeur, and by the twelfth of February, nineteen hundred and nine, he had joined the Buick racing team.
On the first of October, nineteen ten, on Old Country Road near Hicksville on Long Island, a steering knuckle broke at speed on the sixteenth lap of the Vanderbilt Cup, killing his riding mechanician Charles Miller.
On the thirtieth of May, nineteen eleven, at the first Indianapolis five hundred, he set the fastest qualification lap of anyone at the track but the team manager submitted his relief-driver entry after the deadline, and the other drivers refused to consent.
On the third of November, nineteen eleven, the Chevrolet Motor Company of Michigan was incorporated in Lansing with Doctor Edwin R. Campbell holding five hundred shares, William H. Little holding four hundred fifty, and Louis Chevrolet holding fifty.
The Classic Six went into production in the last month of nineteen twelve at above two thousand dollars while Henry Ford sold the Model T for a fraction of that.
On the sixteenth of September, nineteen thirteen, after a cigar-and-cigarette confrontation with Durant, Louis resigned, and on the twenty-ninth of September, nineteen thirteen, thirteen days later, William Durant filed the trademark application for the name Chevrolet.
The Chevrolet Four Ninety was announced on the first of June, nineteen fifteen, priced to fight the Model T, and it was designed by former Buick engineer Alfred Sturt.
On the sixteenth of September, nineteen fifteen, Durant retook control of General Motors with backing from the DuPonts and banker Louis Kaufman, and by June nineteen sixteen the Chevrolet Motor Company controlled fifty-four percent of the common stock of General Motors.
The Frontenac Motor Company was organized on the seventeenth of December, nineteen fifteen with Louis as principal shareholder, and on the thirty-first of May, nineteen twenty, his youngest brother Gaston won the Indianapolis five hundred without a single tire change at nearly eighty-nine miles an hour.
On the twenty-fifth of November, nineteen twenty, at the Beverly Hills board speedway in California, Gaston was killed at twenty-eight when his car made contact with Eddie O'Donnell's on the one hundred forty-sixth lap.
The Chevrolet Brothers Manufacturing Company produced Fronty-Ford overhead-valve cylinder heads for the Ford Model T from nineteen twenty to nineteen twenty-seven, the one commercially successful product of his later career.
On the twenty-second of November, nineteen twenty-eight, Glenn L. Martin bought ninety percent of the Chevrolet Aircraft Corporation.
On the twenty-ninth of May, nineteen thirty-four, on the eve of the Indianapolis five hundred, his eldest son Charles died at twenty-seven.
