This roadster was made by the Velie Motors Corporation in Moline, Illinois in 1922. Before the creation of Velie automobiles, Willard Lamb Velie, Sr., founded the Velie Carriage Company in 1902. After nearly six years in the buggy business, Velie, a grandson of John Deere, decided to make automobiles, incorporating the Velie Motor Vehicle Company in 1908. Up until 1915, Velie advertised his factory’s cars in the John Deere Plow Company catalog and through Deere implement dealers.
During World War I, however, Velie prospered from government contracts and reorganized his company as the Velie Motors Corporation. In 1924, Willard took ill, and Edwin McEwen essentially ran the company. By 1927, Willard, Sr. returned to running the company and appointed his son, Willard Lamb Velie, Jr. as vice-president and general manager. Willard, Sr. died on October 24, 1928 of an embolism, and Willard, Jr. died on March 20, 1929 of heart disease. With the death of the two Velies, the Moline factory became part of Deere and Company, and the Velie automobile ceased to be produced.
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| From Automobile Trade Journal, vol. XXVI, no. 7 (Jan. 1, 1922), p. 177. |
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