Bill Vance: Checker's history traced back to 1909 Seven Little Buffaloes
William De Schaum relocated to the Midwest and established De Schaum Motor Car Co. in Ecorse, Michigan to build a car called the Suburban. It was also not very successful, and Mr. De Schaum departed under a cloud. Suburban was taken over by ex-Cartercar executive Randall Palmer and reorganized as Palmer Motor Car Co. It soon joined with the Partin automobile sales agency in Chicago to become Partin-Palmer making cars of that name. Partin-Palmer reorganized into Commonwealth Motors Co. of Joliet, Ill, in 1915 and Partin-Palmers became Commonwealths in 1917. The Checker cab began to evolve w...
Source: timescolonist.com