“High Wheels Travel All Roads Because All Roads Were Made To Be Traveled By High Wheels”

The first known advertising was a 2 ½”  x 2” lettered ad under the name of THE HOLSMAN AUTOMOBILE WORKS, Y.M.C.A Building, Chicago, Ill. It appeared in the October 8, 1902 issue of THE HORSELESS AGE, Vol. 10, #5 on page XVII. This same ad continued, without change, for several issues and was replaced by a similar ad, but it included a drawing of the early Model 3 car. It appeared in the October 29th, 1902 issue of the same publication on page XXII. The last ad of this series appearing in this publication was on November 26, 1902. Other various ads were then placed in many other publications for all the years that Holsman Automobile Company was in business.

By 1909 they were using catch and factual word advertising. High wheels travel all roads, because all roads are made to be traveled by high wheels, and, The oldest and largest makers of carriage automobiles, then, The oldest and largest makers of high wheeled automobiles in the world.

Throughout their advertising, Holsman, as did other automobile manufacturers, dwelt on the various contests in which their cars performed within the top one to three positions. For further information on these contests, see the next section entitled: The Chicago 100 Mile Endurance Contest of 2 August 1902 & Other Contests.

Even in this early advertising period, some ads did not always appear factual. This is apparent in their ads of 1908 & 1909 in which they advertised that they had sold over $600,000 worth of vehicles each previous year. Prior information shown in this history makes this claim questionable.

Around 1907 their foreign sales had increased to such an extent that they began advertising using the slogan: The Holsman is in use in every state in the United States, and in almost every foreign country. The sun never sets on the horizon of the Holsman.

Holsman even used the name of several of the overseas owners: John Coles, of Christ Church, New Zealand; H. Monceaux of Cumato, Island of Trinidad BWI; His Highness the Thakore, Sahib of Morvi and J.W. Wayka of Glasgow, Scotland, to name a few.