Charles T. Jeffery

Who was Charles T. Jeffery?

Charles Thomas Jeffery was an American businessman. He was the son of Thomas B. Jeffery, founder of Thomas B. Jeffery Company, an automobile manufacturer.

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 I. 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.

Jeffery was totally committed to the company and its success before he became a passenger on the ill-fated passenger ship RMS 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." The Jeffery Company was for sale and Charles Nash was interested. Charles Nash purchased the Thomas B Jeffery Company and Charles T Jeffery's lakeside property at 6221 Third Avenue, Kenosha.