Nash was founded in 1916 by former GM president Charles W. Nash who acquired the Thomas B. Jeffery Company. Nash Motors was an automobile manufacturer based in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the United States from 1916 to 1938. From 1938 to 1954, Nash was the automotive division of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. Nash production continued from 1954 to 1957 after the creation of AMC.
The words “Nash truck” may conjure up images of the four-wheel drive Quads.
The Nash Quad was first manufactured in 1914 by the Thomas B. Jeffrey Company, which was located in Kenosha, Wisconsin. It became quite popular during World War I and was used by the armed forces of not only the United States, but also Russia, France and Britain.
Thomas B. Jeffery died in 1910 and his son Charles T. Jeffery changed the Rambler automobile name to Jeffery in honor of his father.
In 1914 the Rambler name is replaced with the Jeffery moniker in honor of the founder. . In 1914 the Rambler name is replaced with the Jeffery moniker in honor of the founder. But in 1916, Charles, following a close brush with death in the sinking of the Lusitania a year earlier, sells the company to former General Motors Corp. President Charles W. Nash, who renames it after himself in 1917.
On 10 June 1910, Charles (Jeffery) incorporated the Thomas B. Jeffery Company as a $3 million (US$70,478,571 in 2011 dollars) public stock company. Charles T. Jeffery was the president and general manager, and H. W. Jeffery was vice president and treasurer. Under Charles’ leadership, the car company continued to prosper. In 1914, Charles renamed the Rambler “Jeffery” in honor of his father and produced 10,283 of them.
A significant success for the company were the large number of heavy-duty trucks Jeffery manufactured, which attracted the interest of the United States Army. The U.S. Army became Jeffery’s best customer during World War I. Jeffery was also selling his trucks to the French and Russian armies.
During World War I, Jeffery designed a four wheel, chain drive truck, known as the Jeffery “Quad” (later Nash Quad) that assisted the Allied effort. Approximately 11,500 Jeffery and Nash Quads were built. The Quad not only had four-wheel drive and four-wheel brakes, but also had four-wheel steering. The Jeffery Quad eventually became the workhorse of the Allied Expeditionary Force. These vehicles saw heavy service under General John J. Pershing.
In August 1916, Charles Nash, co-founder of Buick and former general manager of General Motors, purchased the Jeffery Company and Jeffery’s property at 6221 Third Avenue. The automotive company was renamed Nash Motors. Thus, the Jeffery Company can be said to be the forerunner of Nash Motors and the American Motors Corporation (AMC), the latter of which formed with the 1954 merger of Nash-Kelvinator and the Hudson Motor Car Company. AMC was purchased by Chrysler in 1987, which was rebranded Eagle and then retired in 1998.
The “Quad” in the Jefferys and Nash Quad tells exactly what it was: a four wheel drive vehicle, one of the first successful ones ever to be made. There were other four wheel drive vehicles made at the time, but none enjoyed the reputation or success of the Jefferys Quad.The company responsible for the Quad was built, from the ground up, by Thomas Jeffery.
The Nash-Quad chassis and drivetrain mechanisms
The Four-Wheel-Drive Jeffery Quad, Built in Kenosha, Wisconsin In 1916 Charles T. Jeffery announced the sale of the company to Charles W. Nash and the Lee, Higginson & Company and the Jeffery Quad then went on to become the Nash Quad. This was after Jeffery as a passenger, had survived the sinking of the Lusitania and decided to retire at the age of forty to pursue other interests.
Jeffrey_Quad .
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