New member to site although I have used it for a reference for several years.
I was going through some things for sale on eBay and I have a pocket notebook as given out by service stations that I have had for years. It is red and has Crown oil on the cover so my mind (for no reason) just thinks Red Crown off the top of my head. I finally decided to look at it closely today and of course it has nothing to do with Standard Oil Co.
I looked up Crown Oil and Great Western Oil Company on this site and found a reference from last year to Great Western as probably being a little known regional oil company in the Midwest. The problem I have is that my notebook is from Great Western Oil Co. El Paso Texas with a 1917-1918 calendar on the back cover. It shows the same logos as shown in last years post so it is the same company. El Paso has been and is still a refinery center.
It seems to me that a company with as wide a distribution as Illinois, Wisconsin and Texas should have a little more history out there somewhere.
The digging I did turned up NoKarbo and Crown Motor Oils, Autoby Transmission Grease (non fluid), Krystal Gasoline, and several other products. There was also a period El Paso archive paper with a ad showing how to get to the local Great Western Service Station. A 1911 Reference shows the company as headquartered at 2855 E 37th St, Cleveland.
Does anybody know anything more about this company?