by Paul R. Spitzzeri
It’s an innocuous enough looking artifact, a 4 June 1918 invoice for a bearing for a connecting rod linking a piston to a crankshaft, but the document is an entre into a little history of the Kissel Kar, which operated for a quarter-century and, though largely unknown today, was a major manufacturer of automobiles from 1906 to 1931.
Based in Hartford, Wisconsin, northwest of Milwaukee, the business was launched by Louis Kissel, born in 1839 in Prussia (Germany) and who migrated to the United States when he was 18 and became one member of the substantial German population of that area of Wisconsin. Louis, who was married to Catherine Frey, also of German parentage, was a farmer who also sold implements and machinery on his place, while, in 1883, he expanded into the hardware business.
With a capitalization of $50,000, Louis and his sons Adolph, George, Otto and William established the Kissel Motor Kar Company in June 1906 with manufacturing taking place in two small buildings with about 70 employees. The earliest advertisement located in Los Angeles for the business, apparently the first auto company to have a “factory branch” in town, was in April 1907, a decade after the first “horseless carriage” was seen in Los Angeles, as the Lord Motor Car Company telling readers of the Los Angeles Express of the 7th that the vehicle was “the greatest Automobile value ever shown” as the four-cylinder, 30-horsepower car had “nothing cheap but the price—$2000 delivered.”
Lord was located at Main north of 11th Street in an area that, moving to the west toward Olive and Figueroa streets, increasingly became the automotive district in a rapid expanding downtown of a burgeoning metropolis that quickly assume the mantle as America’s car capital. By the end of the first decade of the 20th century, Kissel Kar, under the name of the Kissel Automobile Company, had a showroom a couple blocks to the south on Pico at the southwest corner of the intersection with Main and it was reported to be the largest structure in the city devoted to auto sales. The two-story building had the phrase “The Kissel Kar Home” placed over the upper level’s windows as part of the design of its edifice.
With a motto of “Every inch the Car for You,” The Kissel Automobile Company was proud to say in an ad in the Los Angeles Herald of 18 September 1910 that it was “The Only Real Factory Branch on the Coast” and offering “The Secret of the Kissel Service.” Highlighted was the Kissel Kar Torpedo, which offered 60 horsepower with six cylinders and seating up to seven as “a distinct car of quality.” The piece expanded upon this by declaring,
Kissel Kars are built on a basis of quality—not quantity.
After a Kissel Kar is sold the factory keeps in touch with the owner, through its factory branches, in order that every owner may continue to be a satisfied user.
If you are in the market for a car let us demonstrate to you the features of this car of “Quality from Tires to Top.”
The Kissel Kar got a significant boost in local press coverage when the 8 November edition of the Herald reported that, in a race from Los Angeles to Phoenix, driver Harvey Herrick left thee former after 11 p.m. and got to the latter, not quite 450 miles away, in 15 hours and 44 minutes, about a half-hour faster than the nearest competitor, driving a Franklin, while seven others lagged behind and finished the race from 19 to 22 hours. Herrick snagged two trophies and $1,300 in what was deemed “a most spectacular, fate-defying automobile race.”
A separate piece observed that “the gallant little Kissel Kar” shaved four hours off the prior year’s winning time and was “more than two hours the best express time,” even though it was “not a specially prepared racer, but an actual stock car taken off the floor of the salesroom and stripped down to racing conditions.” Moreover, it was remarked, “it is a car that sells for only about half as much as its nearest competitors.
A Pasadena branch, operated by the Nolan Garage, soon opened and an advertisement in the city’s Star of 21 January 1911 promoted Kissel’s “mechanical refinement” through the smooth and quiet motor, as well as the fact that the vehicle was “luxurious in appointment and finish, extra roomy, [and] exceptionally comfortable.” Again emphasizing quality, the company observed that Kissel was “the kind of a car you will be proud to own, and in which you will realize the fullest pleasure of motoring.”
Three models were featured, from a four-cylinder, 30-horsepower model at $1650 to a 50-horsepower one for $2150 that broke that recent endurance record to Phoenix and then the top-of-the-line, six-cylinder, 60-horsepower F.11 that was pegged as “an aristocratic, powerful car with all the best values” and which fetched $2650. There was also a Kissel Kar Truck that was “the Commercial Truck of Reliability and Economy” as the ad concluded, “ride in a Kissel Kar—simply ride in one—and you will get the idea of what we are trying to describe.”
The 13 April 1913 issue of the Times, under the headline of “Mighty Men of Motordom Form Immense Combine,” reported that,
One of the biggest companies ever formed in the West was organized yesterday with five of the leading manufacturers and motor car dealers in the corporation. George A. Kissel, designer of the Kissel Kar, is at the head of the combination, which includes W.L. Hughson and G.W. Emmons of San Francisco and H.K. Butterfield and E. Roger Stearns of Los Angeles. This quintette of hard-headed business men have joined forces to launch a campaign which promises to keep the whole motor world agog. The name of the new concern is The Pacific Kissel Kar Branch.
With the consortium, Kissel Kars were joined in the sales roster by Fords, Federal Trucks and the Baker electric (yes, electric cars were part of the early automotive industry before vehicles with internal combustion engines) with Kissel to be “the leader.” A headquarters was established in a three-story building in San Francisco and offices opened in Fresno, Portland, San Diego and Seattle, as well as one in the Angel City.
Hughson was the president of the Standard Motor Car Company and also a key officer in a gas engine firm and an accessories concern. Stearns was a Standard vice-president and was to preside over operations at the Standard location at Olive and 10th streets—this latter was changed to Olympic ahead of the 1932 summer games held in Los Angeles. He was previously a dealer in Fords, Bakers and Federal trucks. Emmons was another Standard Motor Car VP and ran its gas engine sister company, while also owning a moving firm and serving with a Bay Area land company.
As for George Kissel, it was stated that he was “the first big manufacturer of the East to become actively identified with the marketing of motor cars in the West.” Called the “actual manager” of Kissel, he was said to have been immediately impressed with the future of his industry in Los Angeles “after only a brief insight into the possibilities of the Pacific Coast.” The account added that “the young man is to become a leading spirit” of the new conglomerate and Butterfield, the Kissel Auto Company president, was credited as “the man who brought the Kissel Kar into a place of prominence in Southern California.”
The piece ended with the remark that,
The grouping of the five lines has already been done. The Kissel Kars will be marketed, with the Fords, the Federal trucks and the Baker Electrics, in the handsome building at Tenth and Olive streets, the former home of the Standard-Dayton. The present home of the Kissel Kar on West Pico street will be leased.
A half year later, in the 12 October issue of the Times, Hughson, having come down from San Francisco for a three-week visit, expressed satisfaction that 1913 was to be a banner year for sales, including a new Kissel model, while those of the Federal and Ford vehicles was also pleasing for the Branch chief.
Also featured in the article was the head of a Massachusetts manufacturing firm who traveled the country for business and “depends on a big six-cylinder Kissel-Kar” for what amounted to around 40,000 miles in just over a year. He mentioned taking family members on trips and that these helped his physical and social well-being, as well as the economic, and claimed that his employees were up to four times as efficient because of the car, while enjoying its personal benefits. This led the executive to proclaim, “yes sir, the automobile is a wonderful thing for the traveling man.”
Hughson, meanwhile, insisted that,
We have reached a time in the history of the automobile when it has become a necessity . . . The motor car has become practically a necessity to traveling salesmen whose territory covers the smaller towns and whose success consequently depends very largely upon the ability to cover ground. Where formerly, on account of limited railway service, but one or two points a day could be visited, the advent of the automobile has made it possible for them to reach five or six and often more markets.
In succeeding years, Kissel Kars continued to be featured in auto races, with Hughson playing a key role in spring 1915 in getting the Vanderbilt Cup and International Grand Prix to California as preparations were made for the Panama-Pacific Exposition to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal. He hoped to have the former event in San Francisco and the latter in Los Angeles, but local officials with the Western Automobile Association were not ready to take on the responsibility, so both were to be held in the northern metropolis, though the Association hoped to put in a successful bid for 1916.
In fall, the Broadway Automobile and Flower Show was held for a week, leading the Times columnist Al G. Waddell to remark that “it was like one of the Fiestas [de los Angeles] of the old days,” but that was when “Los Angeles was not the world’s greatest motor car center.” Actor Anita King, who became an auto enthusiast when she came west from Chicago in 1908 became a performer with Jesse Lasky’s company and then the newly formed Paramount Studios.
The 31 October edition of the paper reported that “one of the features of the closing night was the appearance of Miss Anita King, the Paramount Laskey [sic] Girl, who recently crossed the continent unaccompanied. Miss King is the first woman to ever drive across America alone and the feat has made her famous throughout the United States.” When the actor arrived in Los Angeles, she was met by owners of Kissel Kar and others in a caravan and then taken to the show “where she was crowned queen of the Kissel Kar exhibit.” Saying it was her first such event, King commented that “Los Angeles should have the greatest auto shows of any city in the country” as it had more cars than any city she’d visited on her solo excursion.
Jumping ahead to 1918, when this invoice was generated, another kind of driving record established by a Kissel Kar was more vertical than horizontal as, on 19 January, a Double Six model made the 9-mile one-way trip up to Mount Wilson in 27 minutes, 17 seconds, breaking by nearly two minutes the time of a Maxwell driver two years before. This was considered a wondrous feat because of the size of the Kissel, a seven-passenger vehicle with a 140-inch wheelbase, and it was added that the average speed was 20 miles per hour.
Other notable news, reflected on the invoice, concerned the fact, reported by the Times of 21 March that,
Abner Doble, whose steam automobile has created a great sensation throughout the East and in fact every section of the country in which it has been demonstrated, is in Los Angeles. He came to the Coast primarily for the purpose of looking over the scenery . . . but proposes to take the opportunity of meeting some of the Southern Californians who are interested in his machine and talk with them.
This included The Pacific Kissel Kar Branch, which soon became an agent for the vehicle, though there were serious problems with its motor and other mechanical issues. Doble, however, persevered, including through family problems with the business, and designed a Model E that, in 1924, drew attention, if not much in the way of sales, including further legal problems that led to a conviction, later reversed, over suspect stock manipulation. Until his death more than 35 years later, he continued to push the purported practicability of steam-powered autos.
Other news from 1918 included a bid by Kissel to supply the City of Los Angeles with vehicles, though the Los Angeles Express of 8 March reported that the home factory in Wisconsin raised prices and that the Branch could not fulfill its lowest-bid contract. Notably, several weeks prior, Paul S. Nichols, the commercial car manager for the Branch, returned home from the East Coast and reported that business was booming, though wartime fuel shortages were to affect the auto industry. There was, however, a forecast that, because railroads were being repurposed for the war effort, motor trucks would be in demand for short-hauling of goods.
The war ended a little over five months after this invoice was created, though the American economy went into a recession. Kissel rebounded and continued operations into the Roaring Twenties, though it never produced the number of vehicles as the big players like Ford, Chevrolet, Packard and others. When the Great Depression hit at the end of 1929, the firm struggled to stay afloat and closed its doors two years later, about a quarter-century from its start.
There may be 200 Kissel Kars vehicles known to have survived and very few people know the name, but it is a notable part of the early automotive history, including in the increasingly car-centric Los Angeles.
Loved this. My first roommate in college was a granddaughter of the Kissel Kar! I graduated in 1975. Keep all these interesting stories coming. I love them!
Hi Christine, we’re glad you found the post and have a connection to the Kissel family and we appreciate your interest!
While reading this post, I was struck by how low the horsepower (HP) of early vehicles was – typically between 30 and 50 – compared to today’s cars, which commonly exceed 250 HP. Most people associate horsepower with speed and the ability of rapid acceleration, but in fact, it influences several other aspects of vehicle performance as well. For example, higher HP increases towing capacity. Today’s average vehicle can tow between 5,000 and 6,000 pounds, and some models – such as Tesla’s Cybertruck – can handle more than double that, towing over 11,000 pounds. Horsepower also affects driving flexibility, including hill-climbing ability and downhill control.
Over the past century, automotive technology has advanced to a point where further improvements in horsepower may be possible, but not necessarily essential. As autonomous vehicles become more prevalent, many of the traditional considerations around horsepower may eventually become irrelevant.