TULSA (1)

Tulsa Automobile & Manufacturing Co. (1912-1916)

Tulsa, Oklahoma

This is a Tulsa truck hood side nameplate (c1914-1916)   alt
Size: Unknown

The Tulsa Automobile & Manufacturing Company was established in 1911 after buying the assets of J V Lindsley & Company, which had built the Lindsley automobile in Dowagiac, Michigan. The Company also bought out the Pioneer Car Company of Oklahoma City and set up a factory to build a "light delivery wagon for oil field work". 

The Tulsa company began production of the Tulsa and the Oilflyer in 1912 using rebranded, unfinished Pioneer cars and spare parts. The primary focus of the Company, however, was clearly advertised as "Manufacturers of good commercial motor trucks, that's all" and Tulsa automobile production is reported by the Standard Catalog to have ceased by 1913.

Tulsa truck production is reported to have included 3/4-ton, 1-ton and 1-1/2-ton capacity trucks. Tulsa trucks were mainly produced for local consumption and production numbers, although unknown, are likely to have been modest at best. There were management problems and the Tulsa Automobile & Manufacturing Company was finished in 1916.    

Emblem

There are few clear photos of Tulsa automobiles and motor trucks. However, the following photos appeared in Tulsa Automobile & Manufacturing Company newspaper advertisements in 1912:

First Tulsa made automobile (1912)    Tulsa World

This Tulsa automobile photo is most likely made using ex-Pioneer parts following the purchase of the Pioneer Car Company.

Tulsa Oil Flyer (1912)    The Tulsa Tribune

There is no evidence of a radiator emblem in either of the original photos shown above.

If you have details of any emblems used by the Tulsa Automobile & Manufacturing Company, please let me know in order to update this post. However, please note that Tulsa radiator emblems were made for the Tulsa Automobile Corporation in 1918-1922, see Tulsa (2).

The black painted Tulsa nameplate shown above at the top of this post is believed to be a hood side nameplate used on one of the Tulsa trucks and is very rare.