SHIPSHEWANA -- "Not in my wildest dreams as a young Amish kid" began Eldon Hostetler, an 84-year-old farmer and agriculture industrial entrepreneur, as he recalled events that led to the donation of a Hudson Automobile collection valued at more than $4 million.
Hostetler and his wife, Esta, greeted the press and community residents Friday at Shipshewana Town Center, where the collection of 52 vehicles is displayed.
It's the largest collection of Hudsons in the world, and features many rare and one-of-a-kind vehicles.
The Hostetlers also donated land valued at more than $500,000 and created an endowment for preservation and maintenance of the collection with an additional $500,000, according to Shipshewana Town Center General Manager Dean Morgan.
Shipshewana Town Center and Hostetler's Hudson Auto Museum, 760 S. VanBuren St., officially will open to the public at 9 a.m. Sept. 4. The Town Center also houses the offices of the LaGrange County Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Shipshewana Area Historical Society.
Growing up on an Amish farm a mile-and-a-half west of the Town Center, Hostetler was the oldest boy and one of 13 kids.
"I realized young in life that I had a mechanical talent which allowed me to do certain things," said Hostetler.
Hostetler held the wrenches as a neighbor would repair threshing machines. As time went by and "knowing the need for an automatic feeder" in the poultry industry, "I made one and started making money to buy antique Hudsons," said Hostetler.
Hostetler designed the automatic feeding and watering system for fowl after having worked for three years at Creighton Brothers in Warsaw. The company was the largest egg-producing farm in the country.
In 1977, Hostetler founded Ziggity Systems Inc., a Middlebury company that builds poultry watering systems. Hostetler/Ziggity accumulated more than 60 patents covering developments in automatic feeding and watering systems.
"The company had done very well which has allowed me to collect and restore unusual Hudson cars dating from 1909 to 1956," states Hostetler in museum literature.
Hostetler had always enjoyed watching automobiles as they cruised along the rural roads near his home, and he became enamored by a two-tone brown 1936 Hudson Terraplane which a neighbor had returned home with after a trip out west.
The innovative electric hand shift on the automobile fascinated him.
"They were ahead in a leadership position when it came to innovation and that's what I did in the poultry industry," said Hostetler.
After returning to his "not in my wildest dreams" phrase at the end of his remarks, Hostetler told those in attendance about the plaque in his office.
The plaque states, "The dictionary is the only place success comes in front of work."