E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency
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| Bicycle Manufacturing | |
| Industry | Bicycle production |
| Genre | Bicycles |
| Fate | Merged with the American Bicycle Company of Chicago |
| Founded | 1893 |
| Founder | Edward Carl Stearns |
| Defunct | 1899 |
| Headquarters | Syracuse, New York, United States |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
|
Herbert E. Maslin |
| Products | Yellow Fellow |
|
Number of employees
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2,000 |
| Parent | E. C. Stearns & Company |
E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency was established in 1893 by industrialist Edward C. Stearns, who began business as a hardware manufacturer and branched our into bicycle production from 1893 through 1899.
Stearns manufactured the popular model Yellow Fellow by 1895. This model was manufactured by the thousands at the Syracuse, New York, plant and "made the name of the city familiar in almost every corner of the world." The slogan read "The Yellow Fellow from Syracuse."
E. C. Stearns & Company began business as a hardware manufacturer and branched into bicycle production from 1893 through 1899 after Edward C. Stearns brought the industry to Syracuse in 1888 and transformed his father's hardware and wagon factory in Oneida, New York, to a bicycle plant.
Stearns, president and founder of E. C. Stearns Bicycle Agency, established several other manufacturing plants in Syracuse including E. C. Stearns & Company, Wholesale Bi-steam Carriage Company and Stearns Automobile Company or Stearns Steam Carriage Company.
The company motto was "ridden in every civilized country on the globe"
When the bicycle first became popular, it was natural that Edward C. Stearns should take it up "first as a sport and then as a business." After becoming one of the best riders in this "section" he decided to manufacture the new vehicles in his shop at 224 Oneida Street where he had moved the business after his father's death. He soon developed several of the "best selling models of the bicycle era. He employed "noted" riders to "race his product", few of them any better riders than he. His models became so popular they were in demand throughout the world.
At one time, the company had four plants in Syracuse and 3,500 employees. Additionally, the company had another plant in Toronto, Ontario and one in Germany.
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Wikipedia