Thomas B. Jeffery Company of California - California 1910

Beautiful certificate #2 from the Thomas B. Jeffery Company of California issued in 1910. This historic document was printed by Pernau Publishing and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of an eagle. This item is hand signed by the Company's President, Charles T. Jeffery and Secretary, Alfred Altwood and is over 95 years old.






Certificate Vignette


Early Thomas B. Jeffery Ad

The original Rambler was an automobile produced by the Thomas B. Jeffery Company of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rambler is also a brand of car that produced by the Nash Kelvinator Corporation and its successor, American Motors Corporation between 1950 and 1969.

Rambler was a name employed by Thomas B. Jeffery, a wagon maker in Kenosha, Wisconsin, originally as the name of a line of bicycles. In 1900 Jeffery decided to go into the new business of automobile manufacturing. He started building experimental autos that year. He started commercially mass-producing automobiles in 1902, and by the end of the year had produced 1,500 motorcars, one-sixth of all existing in the USA at the time.

Rambler introduced such early technical innovations as interchangeable wheels and spare tires. Ramblers were briefly marketed under the brand name Jeffery.

Charles T. Jeffery was the son of Thomas B. Jeffery. When his father died in 1910, Charles Jeffery assumed control of the Thomas B. Jeffery Company. Under his guidance, the firm continued to prosper. His most significant success was in the large number of heavy-duty trucks he manufactured. The U.S. Army was Jeffery's best customer during the years of World War 1. The four-wheel, chain-drive Jeffery Quad became the workhorse of the Allied Expeditionary Force eventually. Jeffery also made impressive advances in sales of his automobile. He dropped the Rambler marque in 1914 in favor of "Jeffery" and produced 10,283 of them.

Charles Jeffery was totally committed to the company and its success before he became a passenger on the ill-fated passenger ship "Lusitania" in 1915. It was sunk by a German submarine off the Irish coast, with a heavy loss of life. Jeffery survived, but he lost interest in the company, or as one author put it, "re-evaluated his priorities." In 1916 Jeffery's firm was purchased by Charles W. Nash, and became part of Nash Motors. The Rambler brand name was dropped at the time of the merger and Jeffery assets were directed towards the manufacture of Nash brand automobiles.