The John Stephenson Car Company was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 manufacturer of carriage

Carriage

A carriage is a wheeled vehicle for people, usually horse-drawn; litters and sedan chairs are excluded, since they are wheelless vehicles. The carriage is especially designed for private passenger use and for comfort or elegance, though some are also used to transport goods. It may be light,...

s, horsecar

Horsecar

A horsecar or horse-drawn tram is an animal-powered streetcar or tram.These early forms of public transport developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s, using the newly improved iron or steel...

s, cable car

Cable car (railway)

A cable car or cable railway is a mass transit system using rail cars that are hauled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed. Individual cars stop and start by releasing and gripping this cable as required...

s, and streetcar

Tram

A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...

s, based in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. It was founded by John Stephenson

John Stephenson (coachbuilder)

John G. Stephenson , an American coachbuilder, invented and patented the first streetcar to run on rails in the United States. On 26 November 1832, the New York and Harlem Railroad was formally opened...

 in 1831. John Stephenson invented the first streetcar to run on rails, building this in 1832, for the New York and Harlem Railroad

New York and Harlem Railroad

The New York and Harlem Railroad was one of the first railroads in the United States, and possibly also the world's first street railway. Designed by John Stephenson, it was opened in stages between 1832 and 1852 between Lower Manhattan to and beyond Harlem...

. A reorganization in 1867 included shortening of the company's name to the John Stephenson Company. In the latter part of the 19th century, the company was a major builder of streetcars, constructing some 25,000 cars in the period 1876–1891 alone, including ones for export.

Its customers included many systems, in the US and other countries. Among the foreign ones were the Toronto Street Railways

Toronto Street Railways

After the Williams Omnibus Bus Line had become heavily loaded in 1861, the city of Toronto issued a transit franchise for a horse-drawn street railway. The winner was Alexander Easton's Toronto Street Railway which opened the first street railway line in Canada on September 11, 1861, operating...

, Montreal Street Railway Company

Société de transport de Montréal

The Société de transport de Montréal is a public transport agency that operates transit bus, and rapid transit services in Montreal, Quebec, Canada...

, Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

's Empresa de los Ferrocarriles del Distrito Federal, and Lisbon

Lisbon

Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

's CCFL (Carris)

Carris

Carris is a public transportation company in Lisbon, Portugal. Carris operates Lisbon's buses, trams, and funiculars. It does not operate the Lisbon Metro. Carris was founded September 18, 1872. A total of 234.4 million passenger boardings were recorded in 2008.As of Dec...

.
Stephenson's factory was located in Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth, New Jersey

Elizabeth is a city in Union County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city had a total population of 124,969, retaining its ranking as New Jersey's fourth largest city with an increase of 4,401 residents from its 2000 Census population of 120,568...

 after 1898. The company was acquired by the J.G. Brill Company in 1904 and continued to operate under the Stephenson name until 1917, when the plant was sold to the Standard Aero Corporation for production of airplanes, and the corporation was liquidated in 1919.

External links

• John Stephenson Company history, by the Mid-Continent Railway Museum
  Mid-Continent Railway Museum
  The Mid-Continent Railway Museum is a railroad museum in North Freedom, Wisconsin.-Collection:Three steam locomotives are currently under restoration to federal guidelines. The museum has 14 steam and 6 diesel locomotives including Chicago & North Western # 1385 and over 100 other pieces of...