Term: Jeffery, Thomas B. 1845 - 1910

Definition: manufacturer, b. Stoke, Devonshire, England. He settled in Chicago in 1863, at first manufacturing telescopes, and after 1879, bicycles. In 1899 he sold the business to the American Bicycle Co., and in 1900 moved to Kenosha, Wis., where he purchased the Sterling Bicycle Co. and with his son, Charles, began to manufacture automobiles. In 1902 they put their first car, the "Rambler," on the market. In that year 1,500 Ramblers were built and sold, establishing Jeffery as the world's second mass producer of motor cars. Jeffery headed this firm until his death, and maintained other business interests in Kenosha and in Chicago. He died while vacationing in Pompeii, Italy, and the business was taken over by his son, who incorporated it as the T. B. Jeffery Co. F. H. Lyman, City of Kenosha . . . (2 vols., Chicago, 1916); Milwaukee Sentinel, Apr. 4, 1910; Kenosha Evening News, Apr. 4, 1910, Sept. 17, 1946.