Paragon Motor Oil Official 1929 Road Map of Michigan VG+++

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Paragon Motor Oil Official 1929 Road Map of Michigan VG+++ Original, authentic ‘Official 1929 Road Map of Michigan’ from Paragon Motor Oil…. Great 1920’s style graphics… Condition Exceptionally clean and fresh for an 80+ year old piece of ephemera…. Not faded, no water damage, no breaks along the folds. Minimal toning. VG++ Folded: 4” x 9” - opens large…. Includes a list of the cities where Paragon Gasolene might be obtained (a very short list!) Paragon Oil From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Paragon Oil was an American oil company, founded in 1925 in New York City by the Schwartz family, and sold to Texaco in the late 1950s. Paragon Oil was founded by brothers Henry, Irving, Robert, Benjamin, and Arnold Schwartz. The brothers, and their sister Bess Schwartz Levy, were first-generation Americans, all born between 1896 and 1909 in Brooklyn, New York. Their parents were Sam (Sholem) (née Chernofski) Schwartz, born circa June 1866, and Lena (Liba Chasia) Krakofsky, born circa March 1871, who were Jewish immigrants originally from the Mala Berezianka, Kivshovata, Tarascha, and Belaya Tserkov (Bila Tserkva) area, south of Kiev in Kiev oblast, Ukraine, who had immigrated to the United States between 1891 and 1895. The family's original surname had been spelled in various Russian Empire records as Chernofski, Cherninsky, Chernuavsky, and/or Chernyansky, derived from the Russian word for "black" and was changed to Schwartz, the German word for "black", upon emigration. Sam was the oldest or second oldest of seven Chernofski/Schwazrtz siblings, six of whom came to the US, and had originally been a leading blacksmith who owned many horses, wagons, and vast property in and around Belaya Tserkov. Despite this well-off background, the family was poor upon arrival in New York. Sam worked once again as a blacksmith, but now in eastern Brooklyn. When they were young, elder brothers Henry and Irving went door-to-door in Brooklyn carrying around sacks of coal on their backs, peddling it to the nearby homes and residential buildings to earn extra money for their family. At that time, some large commercial buildings had oil-fired furnaces, but residential buildings did not. A combination of factors, including the equipment available at their father's blacksmith shop and the experience of their relatives back in Ukraine who were involved in the whale oil business, led to the brothers experimenting, designing, and finally building the first oil heaters designed for residential buildings, which eventually earned the family several patents on the design. Growth of the company As time went on, Paragon Oil eventually switched its focus from building and selling these new residential oil burners to that of an oil distribution company, to supply the residential buildings that now had their new oil burners installed. They eventually won a major contract with New York City in the early 1930s to supply fuel oil to several city-run buildings. Despite this success, they still primarily remained a local operation in the New York area until the end of World War II. Europe was destroyed, and in desperate need of fuel oil. Because of their location close to the New York docks and their unique five gallon container packaging, Paragon Oil won the U.S. government contract as the only oil company to supply Europe with fuel oil during the post-war reconstruction. This contract catapulted the company into national prominence. Later, during the early days of the Cold War, Paragon supplied the U.S. government with oil for their submarines. The company operated a large fleet of fuel delivery trucks around the Northeastern United States, and eventually had several oil tankers. Toy versions of the fuel delivery trucks were even manufactured by the Corgi company. 082012 General Philosophy & Background: The items I am posting to ebay are largely items pulled from ‘the basement’ or ‘the garage’ – intere... read more

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