The Russell Car Company continued to expand, building sleek automobiles with larger engines - up to 50 horsepower in the 1908 models - and moved into the manufacture of new utility vehicles: fire trucks, buses, ambulances and delivery trucks, said Bill Vance. Receiving the full Canadian rights for Knight engines, Russell captured the market for quiet motors. Even American-built cars with the Knight engine were not permitted import in Canada due to his licence. Originally a branch of CCM, the business was so successful that CCM became a branch of the Russell Motor Car Company.
Canadian Company Built WWI Vehicles
Called to duty (in Canada) during WWI as automobile purchasing agent for the government in 1914, Russell returned to his booming business, now producing bicycles on the CCM side and "staff cars, trucks and even a bizarre squadron of armoured vehicles that could be driven from either end," under the Russell Motor Car Company. The business was also manufacturing munitions for the war effort.
Willys-Overland Needed Knight Engine
The era of the wholly-Canadian made car ended in 1915 when John Willys of the Willys-Overland Company, Toledo, Ohio, purchased the Russell Motor Car Company. He needed the rights to the Knight engine so that Willys could sell his vehicles in Canada.
Thomas Alexander Russell married Olive Lillian Brown in Toronto in 1903. He was 26 years old, she was 25. He moved to the Massey-Harris company as president in 1930, holding the post for ten years. Russell died at home on December 24, 1940 at age 63, having succeeded in manufacturing vehicles that were truly "Canadian-made".
Sources: Pitt, Steve, "Rolling Out the Russell," Legion Magazine, January 1, 2002 Vance, Bill, "Making Memories: A truly native Canadian car," Canadian Driver Magazine, March 19, 2000 Filey, Mike, Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Dundurn Press, Toronto 1999
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