From Small Town to Downtown

by Brough, Lawrence A.

• ISBN13: 9780253343697
• ISBN10: 0253343690
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-04-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

The Jewett Car Company was born in the heyday of the electric railway boom in the 1890s. The company gained an excellent reputation for its elegant, well-built wooden cars for street railway companies, interurban lines, and rapid transit service. Cities large and small used Jewett cars, including New York, Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco. Many Jewett cars found their way to Indiana and many of the interurban lines employed the graceful, arch-windowed wood interurban that Jewett was famous for.Automobile competition and the problems of competing with much larger car builders, such as J.G. Brill and the St. Louis Car Company, signaled the beginning of the end. The company was offered the opportunity to produce munitions for World War I, but refused. The reason: the major source of finance for Jewett was a German nationalist banker from Wheeling, West Virginia, who refused to have the company do anything to harm Germany. As a direct result of that action, the Jewett Car Company failed.

Author Biography

Lawrence A. Brough is a retired metallurgical engineer. He belongs to the Society of Automotive Historians and has written several articles for auto history publications as well as the book Autos on the Water. He lives in Newark, Ohio.

James H. Graebner has his own public transit consulting practice. He has been active in the American Public Transportation Association and served two terms as its president. He lives in Denver, Colorado.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
The Jewett Connection	p. 1
The Move to Newark	p. 10
The Boom Begins	p. 14
The Boom Continues	p. 30
Wright Leadership	p. 43
Car Building	p. 47
Suicides, Fires, and Attempted Murder	p. 56
The Beginning of the End	p. 60
The Survivors	p. 75
Photo Album	p. 81
Epilogue	p. 98
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