The Milwaukee steam car used a 5 hp vertical 2-cylinder engine, and single chain drive. Various body styles were available, including a four-passenger surrey steered from the rear seat.[1]
This photograph is dated both 1898 and 1897 on its reverse. C. F. Jears is showm. probably the driver and his son Roy Mears is seated to the rear. C. F. Mears was a prominent jeweler in Silver City, IA.
The Automobile brought information to the public about the Milwaukee Automobile Company in its February 1900 issue, p. 29. Elsewhere, it also carried this advertisement. John A. Conde Collection.
This image and the five below are single sheets promoting the various Milwaukee Automobile Company models. They are file stamped with the address of the Company's Chicago office. They may have been used at Chicago automobile shows. John A. Conde Collection.
These two Milwaukee Automobile Advertisements appeared in May and June 1900 respectively. Each is on the reverse of a full page Locomobile Company of America advertisement.
The Automobile of July 1900 carried this Milwaukee Automobile Company advertisement. John A. Conde Collection.
The Horseless Age of October 1900 carried this Milwaukee Automobile Company advertisement on page 5.
The Automobile of November 1900 carried this Milwaukee Automobile Company advertisement. John A. Conde Collection.
The Milwaukee Automobile Company was prominently featured in Gardner D. Hiscox's 1900 book entitied Horseless Vehicles.[4] John A. Conde Collection.
The Milwaukee Automobile Company placed this advertisement in The Horseless Age on March 13, 1901. This image came from another steam publication.
The Milwaukee Automobile Company placed this advertisement in The American Monthly Review of Reviews sometime in 1901. It lists the Company's London office on King Street.
On December 20, 1901, the Shipper Brothers, Ltd. London agents for the Milwaukee Automobile Company, placed this advertisement in Colliers Magazine.
The Milwaukee Automobile Company produced this trade catalogue in 1901. The John A. Conde Collection also contains a photocopy with the Company's Chicago agency stamped inside, Frank Illsley.
The following four pieces of Milwaukee Automobile Company literature came together as a lot.
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OUR BEST SALESMAN Forty Reasons Why illustrates the company's different models. The Company's August 15, 1901 price list was included.
Milwaukee Automobile Company Instructions for the Care and Management of Milwaukee Automobiles. This undated manual includes handwritten notes by an owner on the reverse. The company tipped in a single sheet at the front of the booklet entitled Setting Up, that instructs the buyer how to assemble the car.
The company included a folded sheet of instructions tucked into the instruction manual. It is entitled Detailed Description.
The Horseless Age carried this Milwaukee Automobile Company advertisement on January 15, 1902. John A. Conde Collection.
In March 1902, the Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal ran this Milwaukee Automobile Company article. John A. Conde Collection.
On July 19, 1902, the Automobile and Motor Reveiw reported that the Milwaukee Automobile Company had failed and its Chicago agency had a few to sell once the company's affairs were settled. John A. Conde Collection.
The Milwaukee Automobile Company was mentioned twice in this 1925 retrospective article about early automobile trade shows. The Company exhibited in Chicago. John A. Conde Collection.
This Milwaukee Automobile Company Steamer is apparently in the London to Brighton Run in 1968.
Walter Wray published this short article in June 1984 for the Wisconsin Chapter of the Society of Automotive Historians. It appeared in "SPARK," the Wisconsin Chapter's newsletter. John A. Conde Collection.
RM Auctions kindly provided these images of a 1900 Milwaukee Steamer, photoS by Theo Civitello.
This "linen" postcard dates from the mid 1930s to about 1950. It shows Mr. Albert M. Brooking and [his?] Milwaukee Automobile Co. Steam Car. The inscriptoin on the reverse states that the car was located at the House of Yesterday" Museum in Hastings, Nebraska. This is now the Hastings Museum.
The Horseless Carriage Foundation newsletter carried this article on the survival of the Milwaukee Automobile Company's race car.
Autmobile historian, Tad Burness, created this newspaper feature that is copywritten 1992. It appeared in the Times Review, which was published in an unknown (at this time) city.
This drawing is found in Floyd Clymer's Steam Car Scrapbook, ( p. 34). As with almost all of the illustrations and material in his Scrapbook, (a very appropriate description) Clymer lists no sources. It overlays another illustration.[2]
This postcard probably dates to about 1907 - 1910. It is a "Milwaukee Steamer" with an unusual boiler and fuel source.
This is another Milwaukee Steamer. This postcard was postmarked in Rockford, IL on at 6:30 PM on October 14, 190?. The last numeral is unreadable. Miss G. K. was headed back to Beloit, WI and wanted Mr. Virgil Leonard or Rockford to know How Dry I Am.[3]
As early as 1910, the first versions of this comic Milwaukee Steamer postcard were in circulation.
As late as 1933, versions of this comic Milwaukee Steamer postcard were still being mailed.
More Silliness!.
Still More Silliness!
No End To Silliness?
John Conde's Milwaukee Automobile Company File Folder. John A. Conde Collection.
[1]Georgano, G. N., Encyclopedia of American Automobile, (New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1968), p. 134.
[2] Floyd Clymer's Steam Car Scrapbook 1945, Bonanza Books, Crown Publishers, Inc.), p. 34.
[3] The webmaster attended Beloit College in the early 1970s, and members of his Sigma Pi fraternity regularly made booze runs across the state line into Illinois.
[4] The webmaster attended Beloit College in the early 1970s, and members of his Sigma Pi fraternity regularly made booze runs across the state line into Illinois.
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