Most pioneering car manufacturers started out by building carriages. This was also the case with regard to Messrs Henry Mitchell and William T. Lewis who built their first motorcar in 1903. They first introduced a number of two-person runabouts with air-cooled two-cylinder engines. In 1906, a few models with four-cylinder engines followed and in 1910 the model S was produced which had a six-cylinder side-valve engine delivering 50 bhp. Mitchell and Lewis never managed to sell many cars.
In 1912, for example, around 6,000 were sold. After 1916, the company in Racine, Wisconsin stopped producing cars with four-cylinder engines. An experiment with an eight -cylinder engine did not really turn out to be successful so after that they focused exclusively on six-cylinder cars. In the '20s, competition between the various car manufacturers was cut-throat. Mitchell rode the storm bravely. In 1919, he even sold slightly more than 10,000 cars. However, he still ended up worse off. In 1923, the company was sold to Charles Nash.
The complete encyclopedia of Vintage Cars - Rob de la Rive Box