A History of Davis Cartage Co.
The Early Years - 1941 through 1970
By: William John Hartle
Things were going smoothly for the Davis Cartage Company for by 1946 when the company officially incorporated the gross reached $200,000.00 and the future looked very good. Nineteen hundred and forty-seven was a turning point in the history of Davis Cartage Company. It was during this year that tragedy struck the Davis family and the company when Lyle died in September of that year. With the death of Lyle, his wife Grace, became Vice-President of the company for the next two years.
Just before Lyle's death in 1947 the Davis Cartage Company signed an important agreement with the Huron Portland Cement Company located in Alpena, Michigan to haul cement in Michigan. Along with this the company also acquired four Huron bulk semi trailers.
These cement authorizations covered the transfer of cement from Alpena to the lower peninsula in Michigan. This was a big challenge to a small company. These authorizations alone would greatly increase the amount of equipment needed by the firm. Some of this equipment would be leased from the Huron Portland Cement Company over the next few years. This would bring changes to this firm and now it was up to only one man, Maurice R. Davis, to see that the company lived up to its promise before the death of his brother.
Nineteen forty-nine brought other problems which had not been foreseen by the Davis Cartage Company when it had acquired stock in the McNally Davis Construction Company. This had to do with the cement contracts with Huron Portland Cement Company and the fact that many competitors of McNally Davis complained that McNally Davis was getting its cement cheaper from the Davis Cartage Company than they were. Portland, because of this, put some pressure on the Davis Cartage Company to divest itself of the stock that it held in the McNally Davis Construction Company. Thus on October 5, 1949 it was decided at a Board of Director's meeting of the Davis Cartage Company to split these two companies up. At this time Grace Davis went with the McNally Construction Company and formed the William F. McNally Company and Maurice kept the Davis Cartage Company.
The split of the two companies made it necessary for the Davis Cartage Company to move its offices from 2522 Hess to a new building at 731 Walnut Street, Carrollton, Michigan. The new offices contained a much larger area for the care and repair of the tractors. This move put the company near two of its important suppliers, the Huron Portland Cement Carrollton plant and the Michigan Sugar Company in Carrollton whose authority the company had received in 1948. Along with this authority came those from the Monitor Sugar Company, Northeast Sugar Company and West Bay Sugar Company all of which are located in Bay City, Michigan. These uthorities stated that Davis Cartage Company could move sugar from their home plants to various points in Michigan.
Davis Cartage Company had gone through a transition period in the latter part of the 1940's and had acquired some important new authorities namely cement and sugar and was entering the 1950's with a new home and hopes for a brighter future. In accord with this the company's gross had now grown to $375,000.00 which was a marked increase over the $30,000.00 grossed in the first year of operation.
Though the major impetus of the company during the 1950's was going to be the development of the cement authorities Davis Cartage Company did not stand still, but pushed ahead in acquiring many other authorities covering a wide range of products. For by 1950 the Davis Cartage Company had grown from seven trucks in 1941 to 45 trucks. Naturally with this many rigs available they had to be utilized to be profitable.
Some of the permits or authorities acquired by Davis Cartage Company in the 1950's were these: the transportation of highway construction materials for Saginaw Asphalt in 1953; the movement of various construction materials to various points in Michigan along certain specified routes in 1951; the movement of fertilizer and fertilizer ingredients in bulk in and around Kalamazoo, Michigan and other various points in Michigan except in the counties of Kent, Ottawa and Allegan in 1959.
