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Old Montana Vehicle Badges

The emblems and badges which are displayed below with white backgrounds were all taken from vehicles that had been in Montana when they were removed from service. Only those with a shaded background were taken from other sources. The Montana emblems were collected by Bill Hartley during the years he lived in Great Falls and was active in automobile service businesses. Bill was the father of Shirley Wyckham, who is a member of the Bozeman Antique Auto Club. This collection is no longer in Montana. There were surely autos of other makes in Montana as well, but very few of these older vehicles still survive.

The emblems are all displayed in general alphabetical order regardless of years of production. The information about a particular make is taken from the Standard Catalog of American Cars published by Krause.

Home Badges

Anderson - Rock Hill, SC. 1916 - 1925. Previously buggies from 1889.

Apperson - Kokomo, IN. 1902 - 1926. Previously machine works.

Auburn - Auburn, IN 1900 - 1936. Previously wagons from 1874.

Beggs - Kansas CIty, MO 1919 - 1923. Previously circus buggies.

Biddle - Philadelphia, PA 1915 - 1922. Assembled car, emphasis was on good looks

Buick - Detroit, Flint, MI 1903, founded by plumber David Dunbar Buick

Chalmers - Detroit, MI 1908 - 1924. Previously cash registers. Became Maxwell in 1922, then became Chrysler in 1924.

Chandler - Cleveland, OH 1914 - 1929. Highly regarded auto. Came from Lozier, then became Hupp

Chevrolet - Detroit, Flint, MI 1912 Durant, Chevrolet, GM, Sloan, Knudsen, how many others were involved in Chevy's early years.

Chrysler - Detroit, MI 1924 Known as the "engineer's car", designed by people with background in locomotive's, Buick, Duesenberg, Willys. Studebaker, Maxwell, and others

Cleveland, Cleveland, OH 1914 - 1926. Chandler Co. From 1901 at least 8 other Cleveland Auto companies existed.

Cord

Crawford, Hagerstown, MD 1904 - 1923

Cunningham, Rochester, NY 1904 - 1936. Expensive and handsome. From 1882, various horse drawn type carriages and sleighs.

DeSoto, Detroit, MI 1929. Chrysler Corp. "A phenomenon." over 81,000 produced the first year, an industry record

Dodge Coronet

Dodge, Detroit, MI 1911 - 1930 Dodge Brothers had a solid machine background and the car was quality, quality. 1930 Chrysler Corp extended the reputation of Dodge autos into 2nd place sales!

Dorris, St. Louis, MO 1906 - 1926 From 1896 gasoline buggies.

Dort, Flint, MI 1915 - 1924 From 1886 road cart company Dort and Durant.

Duesenberg - Indianapolis, IN 1920 - 1937. "King of the American Road!" Gary Cooper had one

Durant - New York 1921 - 1932, The premiere auto of the new Durant empire

Elcar - Elkhart, IN 1916 - 1931 Taxicabs were a specialty.

Elgin - Argo, IL 1923 - 1924 "Built like a Watch" was the former clock makers ad

Erskine - South Bend, IN 1927 - 1930 Named for the President of Studebaker, it was to be the low priced line

Essex - Detroit, MI 1919 - 1932 Hudson Motor Company It became the Terraplane in 1933.

Flint - Long Island CIty, NY 1923 - 1926 Durant Motor Corp. this was the cheap "Locomobile" and was also a step below the Durant auto.

Ford - Dearborn, MI 1903. Henry Ford was the man who created the "American Dream" every man had a reliable car. He set the standard for the industry.

Frazer

Gardner - St. Louis, MO 1920 - 1931. 1879 on built buggies. A 1929 contract with Sears Roebuck vanished with the depression

GMCK

Graham-Paige - Dearborn, MI 1928 - 1941. Became just Graham in 1930

Hatfield - Sidney, NY 1916 - 1924. Carriages since the 1800's.

Haynes - Kokomo, IN 1904 - 1925. A V-12 was debuted in 1916. Haynes-Apperson for 1898-1904.

Henney - Freeport, IL 1921 - 1931. Known in the funeral car trade.

Hudson - Detroit, MI 1910. A record number of over 4000 cars were sold the first year. Company organizers were experienced auto makers, many from Olds. The "Super Six" arrived in 1916 and proceeded to set numerous records. Hudson continued to set performance records into the 1950's.

Huffman - Elkhart, IN 1920 - 1925 Huffman started with truck production.

Hupmobile - Detroit, MI 1909 - 1941 An 8 cylinder car was added in 1925, the 6 in 1926 and the 4 cylinder was gone from Hupmobile.

Imperial by Chrysler - Detroit, MI 1926 The Imperial was identified as model 80 starting in 1926.

International

Jewett - Detroit, MI 1922 - 1927. Part of Paige-Detroit.

Jordan - Cleveland, OH 1917 - 1931. Highest quality assembled car with emotional advertising. "Somewhere West of Laramie" was a famous line. One model was known as the "Jordan Playboy".

Kaiser - Willow Run, MI 1947 -1955. The shipbuilder.

Liberty - Detroit, MI 1916 - 1923. Acquired by Budd Wheel. Several companies were named "Liberty"

Lincoln - Detroit, MI 1920. Formed by Henry Leland (left Cadillac) to make Liberty aircraft engines in 1917. Bought by Ford in 1922 after slow auto production.

Luverne - Luverne, MN 1904 - 1916. Formerly Buggies. The 6 cylinder Model 50 was known as the Montana Special in 1913. Fire trucks today.

Madison - Anderson, IN 1915 - 1919.

Malbohm - Racine, WI 1916 - 1922.

Marmon - Indianapolis, IN 1902 - 1933. From flour milling to winning the 1st Indianapolis 500 in 1911.

Marquette - Flint, MI 1930 A second to Buick, like Pontiac was a second to Oakland.

Maxim - Middleboro, MA 1902 This might be a pretty rare emblem, its markings are clear! The huge publication says "whether he ever ~made a car~ is not known." This emblem made it to Montana!

Maxwell - Detroit, MI 1905 - 1925. Eventually moved to Chrysler.

McFarlan - Connersville, IN 1910 - 1928. Bought by Cord.

McLaughlin(-Buick) - Enniskillen, Ontario Canada 1907 - 1942. Carriages from 1876.

Mercer - Trenton, NJ 1910 - 1931. Famous for the "raceabout".

Meteor - Piqua, OH 1915 - 1930. Mostly hearses.

Metz - Waltham, MA 1909 - 1921. Bicycles, to motorcycles to cars.

Mitchell - Racine, WI 1903 - 1923.

Moon - St Louis, MO 1905 - 1929. Ended its corporate life building a few magnificent Ruxtons. Legal problems were not resolved until 1965

Nash - Kenosha, WI 1917 - 1957. A perfect rags to riches story. High quality cars, well run company.

Oakland - Pontiac, MI 1907 - 1931. Buggies, then a car, then Durant, then Sloan, then Pontiac in 1926, then no more Oakland.

Ogren - Waukegan, IL 1915 - 1923. Constant financial problems.

Oldsmobile - Lansing, MI 1897. RE Olds, 1908 Durant, and then it was General Motors

Overland - Terre Haute, IN 1903 - 1929. Willys took over in 1908. Chrysler came and went, the Whippet was coined, and the Willys Americar.

Packard - Warren, OH and Detroit, MI 1899 - 1958. The first of the Big 3 P's.

Paige-Detroit - Detroit, MI 1909 - 1928.

Peerless - Cleveland, OH 1900 - 1931. Grew into one of the Big 3 P's.

Peugeot

Piedmont - Lynchburg, VA 1917 - 1922

Pierce-Arrow - Buffalo, NY 1901 - 1938. The last of the Big 3 P's, it first made birdcages! First with fender headlamps in 1913.

Plymouth - Detroit, MI 1928 Chrysler's low price car. It had all kinds of engineering features that Ford and Chevy would not adopt for a full decade. It started as a 4 cylinder, had a 6 in 1932 which lasted almost through the 1950's.

Pontiac - Pontiac, MI 1926 It was the "companion car" of the Oakland. It became "the car"!

REO - Lansing, MI 1905 - 1936.

Rock Falls - Sterling, IL 1919 - 1925. Funeral coaches

Romer - Denvers, MA 1921. One year of cars, one ended up in Montana.

Triumph 1948 - 1972. British Leyland in Britain

Roosevelt

Standard - Pittsburgh, PA 1902 - 1903. Built very few cars, but rebuilt many other makes vehicles. There were at least 15 other Standard Companies.

Stanley - Watertown, MA 1897 - 1927. Identical twins, Francis and Freeland were persistent in development of the steam car. The White steam car was the major competitor until 1911 when they changed to only gas cars.

Star - Elizabeth, NJ 1922 - 1928. Durant Motors match for the Model T Ford. Over 100,000 were produced in the first year.

Studebaker - South Bend, IN 1902 - 1963. The largest wagon builder in the world. Solid cars, bad decisions wrecked havic.

Studley 52

Stutz - Indianapolis, IN 1911 - 1935. The "Bearcat" in 1932 was guaranteed t o exceed 100 mph

Talbot - London England 1903. Strong company in England.

Velie - Moline, IL 1909 - 1929. Velie was son-in-law of John Deere. Son, Velie married a Kelly girl from Kelly-Springfield tires.

Viking - Lansing, MI 1920 - 1930. The companion car to Oldsmobile. It was a V8, too good and too expensive.

Viking - Boston, MA 1907 - 1908. Very few cars produced.

Westcott - Richmond, IN Springfield, OH 1909 - 1925. Carriage maker in 1896

Willys - Toledo, OH 1914 - Jeeps in WWII, 1953 to Kaiser, then to American Motors, now Chrysler.

Winton - Cleveland, OH 1896 - 1924. Winton planned first production line.

Unknown