"Bonanza" Question: "The Infernal Machine"

I caught this 1959 episode on METV-it concerns the story of an inventor(Pettibone) trying to develop an automobile in Virginia City. I know that the writers of “Bonanza” attempted to add a little pseudo history to their episodes, but wasn’t there actually a Pettibone Co. that manufactured cars, in the late 19th century? I could not find anything on such a firm , using Google.

All I could find.