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Thomas B. Jeffery
Thomas B. Jeffery was born in the United Kingdom on February 5, 1845. Jeffery Migrated to the United States in 1863, and founded a bicycle manufacturing company in Chicago with R. Phillip Gormully in 1876.
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Gormully and Jeffery Manufacturing factory
This factory was located in Chicago at N. Franklin and Pearson Streets. Jeffery first used the name Rambler on bicycles manufactured in this plant. The Rambler name would be used later on the automobiles he would build.
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1891 Rambler Bicycles
These scanned pages from a 1891 Rambler bicycle catalogue, shows a girls and boys version of the Rambler bicycles bult by Jeffery.
1891 Rambler boys bicycle
1891 Rambler girls bicycle
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1897 Rambler
In 1897 Thomas Jeffery produced his first Rambler automobile. This photo was taken at the Chicago factory with Thomas Jeffery at the tiller of his 5 hp 1897 Rambler.
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Sterling Bicycle Factory
In 1898, Jeffery decided to get out of the bicycle business, and start producing motor cars. Thomas Jeffery and his son Charles Jeffery, purchased the Sterling bicycle factory in Kenosha Wisconsin to produce their new Rambler automobiles.
Sterling Bicycle Factory
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1900 Rambler Stanhope
This 1900 Rambler Stanhope would be displayed at the first New York National Auto Show in Madison Square Garden in 1900. The two cylinder water cooled engine was mounted in the front of the vehicle while most American cars were mounting the engine under the seat.
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New York Automobile Parade 1901
This silent video shows scenes from an automobile parade in New York in 1901. This footage is over 100 years old, there is no soound track.
This parade started at Madison Square Garden at 11;00 on October 11, 1901, and was organized by Henry Sanderson, president of the New York Electric Vehicle Transportation Company, The parade had over one hundred vehicles, all of them electric, and carried some three hundred and fifty persons, most of them women. You can read more about this parade in our October 19, 1901 issue of Automobile Topics magazine.
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1900 New York Auto Show
On November 3, 1900, manufacturers presented 160 different vehicles at the first national automobile show in America. The event opened in Madison Square Garden, as a week long event. A reported 48,000 visitors paid fifty cents (about $13.00 in today's currency) each to attend the show.
Driving and maneuverability demonstrations were offered on a 20-foot-wide track that surrounded the exhibit as seen in this photo.
A wooden 200-foot ramp was used to demonstrate hill-climbing ability.
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1901 Rambler Model A
This photo shows the first experimental car built at kenosha. The water cooled engine mounted in the front of the car, a steering wheel, and left hand drive, were all innovative features in 1901. Charles Jeffery is behind the wheel in this photo.
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1901 Rambler Model B
The fifth experimental vehicle built by Jeffery in 1901. This is the model B series.
This factory photo shows the strength of a Rambler, towing a trailer loaded with heavy lumber and workers riding along.
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Jeffery and Company Automobile Plant
Production and sales of the Rambler will be ready for 1902. This vintage picture postcard shows the Jeffery plant as it looked when it produced motor vehicles.
