Back before the World War, it was common in the Eastern States, for some mail list companies to publish and sell Automobile Owner names to other automobile owners. One such company was Motor Register Company in Rochester, New York. The majority of the names that follow came from "Who’s Who In Autos" that covers pleasure cars that were registered during the first ten months of 1914 in Western New York State. The subscription price was only $1.50 per year. What makes this little book interesting is the Factory Number of Car as recorded in state record, is documented here.

    Motor Register also custom printed mail list for the automobile dealers so that the sales manager could instantly place his finger upon anything he may wish to find in his territory. That is, it was possible to buy a list of every Chevrolet by Factory Car Number registered in a selected dealer’s territory. The reader can see the usefulness today for this data, since it documents what Chevrolet models were really built, and when sold, during the early years of this company. While this is not quite as good as actual factory production, shipping, and sales records, that Chevrolet claim they no longer have, it is still better then what’s been available up to now.

    One of my objectives in the next ten years is to expand this database to include all 1,000,000 Chevrolets built by February 22, 1923. If you have copies of similar registration list, or records from your state motor vehicle department, please let me know.

    There are 326 Little Four listed on this database, which is 10 % of the estimate 3249 built. The western part of New York State contributed 169 registrations, after the duplicate ones were deleted, with the Buffalo Branch store, Joe Rath, selling about 134 Little Fours for a remarkable 80% of Western NY totals.

    Joe Rath was sort of a legend when it came to promotion the early Chevrolets. As mentioned in the August 1987 REVIEW, Joe, who was the Buffalo Buick Branch Sales Manager, opened up the first Little Branch Store in mid June 1912. It was reported Joe Rath, who was listed in newspaper advertising simply as the Factory Representative, sold 43 Little Fours during his first 30 days, with over 100 Little Fours sold in Buffalo by the end of December 1912. I count 134 cars sold in Buffalo and vicinity towns, with 44 being 1912 models with serial numbers up to 500. It was reported in the February 1991 REVIEW that the first Little did not arrive in Buffalo until late in June 1912, so it checks out that the first batch of 500 Little Fours were built and sold by mid July to late July.

    I sorted only the 134 Buffalo and vicinity cars by serial numbers, and it was interesting to find tight groups of six cars each that represents at least 22 railroad boxcar shipment.

    As a point of interest, four of these Littles exist today, being Factory # 56, 152, 640, and 1613. I have seen the last three of these Littles in person and have a 12x14-inch photo of #56 in Australia that hangs on my bedroom wall.

    Notice, there were seven cars registered as #A285, two as #A256, and one as #A825, which were not engine numbers. #A256 was the casting part number of the oil filler cap. The serial number was stamped on the crankcase right side at the bottom of the front cylinder. Eight cars were registered under the Republic name as the manufacture. This confusion came from the fact that the Little was marketed and distributed by the Republic Motor Company of Detroit. Six cars were also registered as Chevrolets or Little Chevrolet. These cars were probably sold as used cars after Little was absorbed by Chevrolet in June 1913, and it was announced that Little’s name was to be changed to Chevrolet.

    The biggest find from Buffalo registrations is the last two serials #4294 and 4295. Both were registered at the SAE horsepower rating of 19 hp, which was correct for the Little 3½-inch bore engine. Factory #4294 was listed as a Little Four Roadster and #4295 was a Little Runabout, so they couldn’t be mistaken for a 1914 Royal Mail Roadster. In my Little Four Production estimates in the August 1996 REVIEW, I figured NYC built Little Fours started at #3001 and continued up to 3249. Now, it is more likely that they started in NYC at #4001 and built an estimate 300 units that ended at #4299.