Private company

Brush Motor Car Company

Michigan automobile manufacturer active 1907-1913

Brush Motor Car Company (1907-1909), later the Brush Runabout Company (1909-1913), was based in Highland Park, Michigan.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1907Founded1
En av Stockholms första automobiler, en Brush Runabout, med förare på Apelbergsgatan - Nordiska Museet - NMA.0042174
Photo: J. P. Brandt, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons4

Brush Motor Car Company (1907-1909), later the Brush Runabout Company (1909-1913), was based in Highland Park, Michigan.2

The story

The company was founded by Alanson Partridge Brush (February 10, 1878, Michigan – March 6, 1952, Michigan). He was a self-taught prolific designer, working with Henry Leland at Oldsmobile, and went on to help design the original one-cylinder Cadillac engine. Although there were many makes of small runabouts of similar size and one to four cylinders at this time (before the Model T Ford dominated the low-price market), the Brush has many unusual design details showing the inventiveness of its creator. The Brush Runabout Company, along with Maxwell-Briscoe, Stoddard-Dayton, and others formed Benjamin Briscoe's United States Motor Company(USMC) from 1910, ending when that company failed in 1913. Runabouts, in general, fell out of vogue quickly, partly due to the lack of protection from the weather.

After Brush and the other companies of the USMC folded into Maxwell Motor Company, President Walter Flanders wrote in 1913 document "Why We Did Not Use All Our Plants", the Brush factory in Detroit (along with the Flanders and Sampson Plants) were to remain open and running as factories. The modern successor is Stellantis North America/Chrysler.

From Wikipedia’s article on Brush Motor Car Company, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Timeline

  1. 1907Founded Founded1

Sources

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