Francis E. Stanley and Freelan O. Stanley had invented a steam car. In 1899 they purchased a bicycle factory in Watertown, Massachusetts and began building their cars. John B. Walker, the owner of Cosmopolitan magazine, offered to buy half the company. The Stanley brothers said no. When Walker came back a few weeks later he offered to buy the whole car company. The brothers thought about it and set the price at $250,000 USD. The set the price high enough they thought nobody would pay it. But Walker did and the two Stanley brothers stayed on to run the factory. Walker's partner was Amzi L. Barber. They called the new company Locomobile.