Kissel Motor Car Company

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Manufacturer	Kissel Motor Car Company
Production	1906-30

The Kissel Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturing company founded by Louis Kissel and his sons, George and William, on June 5, 1906 in Hartford, Wisconsin. The company custom built high-quality automobiles, hearses, fire trucks, taxicabs, and utility vehicles from their plant at 123 Kissel Avenue, Hartford.^[1] They offered trucks of 1½, 2, 3, 4, and 5 tons.^[2] During World War I the company produced trucks for the military and prospered after the war but with stiff competition and the Great Depression, mounting losses, and an attempted hostile take-over by New Era Motors' president Archie Andrews forced Kissel to file for receivership protection in November, 1930.

Often called "Kissel Kars," of the 35,000 automobiles the company produced, only 150 are known to exist today. The most famous car was one the company donated to Hollywood actress Anita King for her trans-continental trip in 1915 that marked the first-ever such trip by a female driving alone. The most popular Kissel model was the 1919 Speedster, nicknamed the Gold Bug. The two passenger Gold Bug was owned by famous personalities of the time such as actor Fatty Arbuckle and aviatrix Amelia Earhart. Beginning in 1927, Kissel also produced the sporty White Eagle Speedster.

Kissel used Mercury as its logo. In the late 1930s, Henry Ford requested use of the logo for a new marque the Ford Motor Company was planning to introduce, and permission was granted.

In 1935, the Kissels manufactured outboard motors and were major suppliers of Sears, Roebuck. In 1942 the business was sold to the West Bend Aluminum Company.

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[edit] Sources

• Clymer, Floyd. Treasury of Early American Automobiles, 1877-1925. New York: Bonanza Books, 1950.