Elwood Haynes, born in Portland, Indiana, on October 14, 1857, was an educator, inventor, metallurgist, industrialist, and auto pioneer. The son of Jacob M. Haynes and Hilinda S. Haines Haynes, he attended Portland Community Schools, graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1881, taught at Portland High School, served as its principal, and later attended Johns Hopkins University. He managed the Portland Natural Gas and Oil Company from 1886 to 1890, became recognized as an authority on natural gas, and invented several devices important to the industry. In 1890 he supervised the design and construction of the first long-distance natural gas line built in the United States by the Indiana Natural Gas and Oil Company. After moving his family to Kokomo in 1892, he designed and constructed in 1894 one of the first gasoline engine-powered automobiles to be driven on a road in the United States; the Pioneer was test driven near Kokomo on July 4, 1894, at about 7 mph for several miles and is now displayed at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. That same year he joined Elmer and Edgar Apperson to create the Haynes-Apperson Company in Kokomo, and in 1905 he established the Haynes Automobile Company there, which by 1909 was building 650 cars priced between $2,500 and $5,500 before closing in 1925. In metallurgy, he patented in 1907 a metal he named Stellite, later worked on an alloy he called stainless steel and received a patent, and in 1912 founded the Haynes Stellite Company in Kokomo, which supplied Stellite for surgical instruments, later for airplanes and ammunition casings during World War I, and eventually as a component of American spacecraft because of its resistance to high temperatures. He married Bertha Lanterman in 1887, and two children, Bernice and March, survived. His achievements were recognized with the John Scott Legacy Medal in 1922 and a Gold Medal from the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce in 1925. He died in Kokomo on April 13, 1925, at age 67, and in 1944 the Liberty Ship SS Elwood Haynes was named in his honor.