The Rise and Set of Moon: 1922 Moon Six 40 Touring

Unusual marques are often seen at the major Concours d’Elegance, but what is the chance of seeing a little-known marque at a car show established by a local museum in a relatively small town in Georgia?  That’s exactly what happened at “The Gathering,” a car show arranged by the Savoy Museum (savoymuseum.org) in Cartersville, Georgia – a Moon was there.  The best way to find out a little about Moon cars is to research it in “The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile,” a two volume compendium of 1792 pages that covers every marque from A.A.A. to Zwickau.  There, you can learn the basics about the company and the cars, but it takes quite a bit more research to find out the complete story.  Hopefully, I’ve condensed in it an understandable way here.

Moon Rise

Automobiles were becoming a thing of interest at the end of the Nineteenth and beginning of the Twentieth Centuries.  They caught the attention of a number of manufacturers of other forms of transportation, like bicycles and wagons.  One such manufacturer was Joseph W. Moon.  He and his brother, John Croyden Moon, established the Moon Brothers Carriage Company in mid-18th century. They chose St. Louis, Missouri, as a logical place for their company, since it was one of the staging areas for settlers moving west.  After their relationship soured, Joseph sold his half-interest in the Moon Brothers Carriage Company to his brother and established his own company, the Joseph W. Moon Buggy Company, in 1893.  The brothers remained isolated from each other for the rest of their lives.