Kissel Motor Car Company
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The Kissel Motor Car Company custom built high-quality automobiles, hearses, firetrucks, taxicabs, and utility vehicles from a plant in Hartford, Wisconsin, United States between 1906 and 1931. Of the 35,000 automobiles the company produced, only 150 are known to exist today. The most famous Kissel model was the 1919 "Speedster" model, 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. Kissel also produced the 1927 White Eagle.
The Kissel company used Mercury, the winged messenger, as its logo. In the late 1930's, Henry Ford requested use of the logo for a new marque the Ford Motor Company was planning to introduce, and permission was granted by William Kissel.
Kissel's production peaked in 1921, and over the next ten years, the company underwent a decline, shutting its doors to automobile manufacturing in 1931. Following that, the factory manufactured marine engines for Sears Roebuck and Company before being sold to West Bend Aluminum.