Littlemac Truckette / Thompson Motor Co. 1930's

[normanbakerscord]

Hi: I'm a "newbie" to this forum & really need some help. I'm trying to find any info. regarding the "Littlemac" and/or "Littlemac Truckette" manufactured by the Thompson Motor Co. in Muscatine, Iowa in the early 1930's. I have been through many WEB searches and haven't found much. I would like whatever you have.. Photos, specs., leads to original parts, or the Holy Grail (for me)

one complete vehicle, still in existence.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Jay

[Peter J.Heizmann]

Jay...Welcome to the AACA Forum.

You certainly posted an interesting question. There are many knowledgeable members of the AACA on this forum.

Another source of address to your investigation is the AACA Library & Research Center. AACA Membership is not required. The L&RC maintains an enormous amount of research data collected/donated over many years. Guaranteed, the club retains rare automotive research data not to be found elsewhere.

Go to the AACA Homepage, scroll down to the Library & Research Center. There is a form you can fill out with your query. Follow the instructions.

Contact: AACA Library & Research Center

ATTN: Kim Miller

501 W. Governer Road

P.O. Box 417

Hershey, PA 17033-0417

Ph: 717/534-1910

(Thank you Kim for the update)

Regards, Peter J. <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Thompson1930]

Hi, I am Gary Thompson, Great Grandson of H.G. Thompson president of Thompson Motor. Jack Micheals of HNI in Muscatine has sparked my interest in the car. I have little info, but would like to be in contact with you on the car....

[Mika Jaakkola]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Hi, I am Gary Thompson, Great Grandson of H.G. Thompson president of Thompson Motor. Jack Micheals of HNI in Muscatine has sparked my interest in the car. I have little info, but would like to be in contact with you on the car.... </div></div>

!! Now you guys are starting to wake my interest! What kind of truck are we talking about? Can you Gary post pics if you have any? Any production figures?

Thanks !

[DLynskey]

I've seen pictures of the LittleMac and it looked much like a 1930 era Austin Bantam panel truck. The Oscar Grossheim Collection of photos at the Muscatine, Iowa Public Library includes a few excellent publicity photos of the original truck. Oscar Grossheim was a local professional photographer from around the turn of the 20th century who saved all his plates. The Muscatine Public Library now owns all 55,000 plates and volunteers have reproduced and indexed several thousand including some of the Littlemac. The photos are not yet online, but the library has a website, www.muscatinelibrary.us If you're in the Muscatine area it's worth it to spend a few hours browsing through the photos just to see typical scenes from that era.

[Thompson1930]

Sorry I havnt' checked this posting sooner... I have some picture files from the Grossheim collection I will post You can see several more at the Musser libraries website. The one picture is the car, the other is of the plant with a truckette in the lower right of picture and the last is inside the plant and you can see several Truckettes in production. We know of one serial number that ends in 242, either they started at 001 or 101. An order for 250 was placed from mexico and another order from egypt for another 250, but we don't know if the order was ever fulfilled on either. There were at least 12 registered in Iowa. If you can identify old car parts let me know as we have pictures of the chasis bare and I am trying to identify the front and rear axels. The frame and engine/transmission is a modified either star(durant) or Durant 4-40 frame and continential red seal engine. Any the man replicating the truckette is doing well, but I can use all the help I can get in building the Coupe!!!!

Thanks

Gary Thompson

[Thompson1930]

Next picture.

GT

[Thompson1930]

Last Photo

[Mika Jaakkola]

Well Gary,

You guys have lots of work ahead. Didn't you / your parents ever had the change to interview H.G. Thompson about this Littlemac Factory? Is there any more info out there about this company?

You don't have any leads to existing parts or a car (or even to the people who have owned them)?

[Thompson1930]

Hi mike, the only living member of the family left from that era is an aunt that was born in 1932, she barely remembers the car from when she was about three. Grandpa (HG) Thompson passed in 1942. One man that rode in one with my grandfather (Bruce) is still alive (George Lindle) and one guy (now age 94+) who worked at the plant for a short time is also still alive. The information we do have is what has been put together by Virginia Cooper (George lindle's daughter) at the muscatine historical museum. This is largely marketing materials from the company and the photos from the grossheim collection. The photos do include all angles of a chasis without a body on it!!! big help. It is very clear that the frame is the frame of a star (durant) that the modified and the engine and running gear is also the same as the star (we know TMC bought their parts stock from Durant. We also have the drawings and patents on the suspention set-up. The front axel (at least on the prototype) appears to be a narrowed Model T front axel. I need help identifing the rear axel as it appears to be a more modern looking cast unit with modern style rear cove, not a split set-up like the Star or at least the early Star had. For years Viginia and Jack Micheals have been chasing leads on the existence of possible cars to no avail. Also if someone who stumbles across this has the rolling chasis of a star, less the body I need it!!! to progress, I can buy complete Star cars fairly readily for around 2,500 USD But I really don't want to destroy a complete car of that era to replicate ours!

GT

[Guest orphanbaby]

Gary,

I just stumbled across your posting. Two years ago, I received permission from the library in Muscatine to reproduce their entire Littlemac photo archive in my upcoming book, "ORPHAN BABIES: America's Forgotten Economy Cars". I've noticed a few discrepancies in materials that have been published in more recent magazines, etc. and would be interested in communicating directly with you to be sure my coverage of the Thompson Motor Company is accurate. The book should be published by January 2006. You can contact me at:

Cunningham.Bob@Principal.com