Barley Motor Car Co.

Barley Motor Car Co. was a manufacturer of automobiles in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Streator, Illinois. It manufactured the Roamer automobile (1916–29) and, briefly, the Barley (1922–24), and the Pennant (1924–25).

In 1913, Albert C. Barley bought the assets of the Streator Motor Car Company, which was put into receivership in 1911. Streator was itself the product of the Erie Motor Carriage Company and had been manufacturing the Halladay automobile since 1905. Barley's new company was called Barley Manufacturing Co. and he reopened the factory at Streator, Illinois, and continued to produce the Halladay for a few years.

Barley, Cloyd Y. Kenworthy, a New York auto dealer then selling only electric automobiles, and Karl H. Martin, who later developed the Wasp automobile, decided to build an upscale automobile, and incorporated Barley Motor Car Co. in New York State in September 1916 with a capitalization of $50K. It was established for the purpose of building motor trucks, cars, autos and accessories. Shortly thereafter, the company issued more classes of stock and was recapitalized with an additional $760K, obtaining the existing assets of Barley's manufacturing company. Manufacturing was soon moved to Kalamazoo, occupying the former Kalamazoo Buggy Co. factory.

The initial model introduced in 1916 was called the Roamer. The name was suggested by Kenworthy's chauffeur after a popular racing horse of the era. The car was very stylish and the grill was nickel-plated and modeled after the Rolls-Royce. The initial model, the Roamer Six, was a four-door tourer with a 24-hp (18 kW) 6-cylinder Continental engine. Several models were introduced over succeeding years. In 1918, the Model C6 succeeded the Six, with a 54-hp (40 kW) Continental 12XD engine and available in eight body styles from $2.2K to $4.9K. In 1920, the Model D4 Touring had a 75-hp (56 kW) four-cylinder Duesenberg engine went for $5.3K (4-passenger) and $5.4K (7-passenger); by contrast, the Lozier Big Six tourers and roadsters were $5K, American's lowest-price model was US$4.25K (its highest was US$5.25K). and a Colt Runabout was priced at US$1.5K, while the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout went for US$650. By 1922, only Roamer's Model 6-54 remained.

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