Morris Markin (russian: Морис Маркин) (July 15, 1893 – July 8, 1970) was a

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

businessman who founded the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company (which would later become the

Checker Motors Corporation Checker Motors Corporation was a Kalamazoo, Michigan, vehicle manufacturer and tier-one subcontractor that manufactured taxicabs used by Checker Taxi. Morris Markin established the company in 1922, initially named the Checker Cab Manufacturing ...

Early years

Born in to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

familyTime Magazine: "Business: Checkered Yellow"
September 22, 1930 in Smolensk, a city in western

, Morris Markin worked in a clothing factory during his young years. His determination and hard work got him promoted to a supervisor position by the age of nineteen, when he emigrated to the United States in November 1912. When he arrived at Ellis Island, he spoke no English and couldn't afford to pay the bond required to enter the country. A janitor at the facility loaned him the twenty-five dollars he needed for the bond. From

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Markin went to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

to live with his uncle. He held several jobs as an errand boy, the last for a tailor who taught him the trade. When the tailor died, Markin purchased the business on credit from the widow. He worked hard and saved enough money to bring seven brothers and two sisters to the States. Markin then teamed up with one of the brothers and opened a factory which made pants under government contracts during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. This company prospered after the war.

Formation of Checker Cab

In 1921, Markin entered the automobile business when he collected an auto body manufacturing company from an engineer named Lomberg. Markin had loaned fifteen-thousand-dollars to Lomberg earlier in an effort to keep the company afloat. When it failed, Lomberg returned to Markin to ask for more money. Markin refused and took over the company for his debt. He then picked up a failed automobile manufacturer, Commonwealth Motors, and with it the accountant, Ralph E. Oakland. Then, in a bold move, Markin purchased the defunct Handley-Knight chassis plant and the Dort body plant in

Kalamazoo, Michigan Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropolit ...

. He moved his entire operation to Kalamazoo and on February 2, 1922 formed the Checker Cab Manufacturing Company. In 1929, he purchased the

Yellow Cab Company The Yellow Cab Company was a taxicab company in Chicago which was founded in 1907 by John D. Hertz. In 1920 the Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company was formed to manufacture taxicabs. During the 1910s and 1920s the company was involved in cons ...

from John Hertz.

References

External links

Internet Checker Taxicab Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Markin, Morris 1893 births 1970 deaths American people of Russian-Jewish descent American founders of automobile manufacturers Businesspeople from Chicago People from Smolensk Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States Russian Jews Yellow Cab Company 20th-century American businesspeople