In 1915 as The Warshawsky Company, began as a scrap metal yard on the South Side of Chicago. The company’s founder was Lithuanian immigrant Israel Warshawsky. Throughout World War I, Warshawsky bought failed auto manufacturers and added new parts to his inventory. The Warshawky Company continued to grow, even during the Great Depression. The company closed its Chicago location and opened a new location in LaSalle, Illinois, in 1997.
In 1934, Israel’s son Roy joined his father at the company after graduating from the University of Chicago. Roy proposed expanding from the Chicago area with a nationwide catalog and placed an ad in Popular Mechanics for sixty dollars. The ad offered readers a “giant auto parts catalog” for 25¢. Response to the ad was huge. In 1937, Roy expanded the catalog to include new parts and renamed the catalog J.C. Whitney & Co.
The add above is from a Warshawski & Co catalog. The car is a 1935 – 1937 Ford Coupe.
This trailer is the precursor to the Sears Woodbox Version 2 trailer and included the “Knee action” wheel assembly, the C channel frame, the tongue in groove floor, question mark shaped arms, and the body dimensions of 54″ X 42″ X 9 1/2″. The only structural difference is the frames C channel is bent at the rear instead of welded strait sections. How this design made it’s way from the J.C. Whitney catalog to the Sears catalogs has yet to be determined.