City directory advertisement for the Chattanooga Wheelbarrow and Truck Company. Click to enlarge.
Cromag the cave man was bored. The thrill had gone away of watching his new wheel roll down the hill, and pushing the wheel back up the hill. He wondered if the wheel could have greater functionality. So, he returned to his cave where his wife, Mag, was using charcoal to sketch plans for an invention that featured the wheel, an axle, and a frame on which were fastened two long sticks and a wooden box. Cromag immediately liked the design, for he envisioned the heavy loads that a wheelbarrow could carry.
Well, that’s how that I imagined that the wheel and wheelbarrow came down to us. Actually, the wheel is much newer than the days of Cromag, with the oldest known wheel being made in Mesopotamia about fifty-five hundred years ago. The wheelbarrow was an invention of the Chinese around 200 A.D. By 1896, when the Chattanooga Wheelbarrow and Truck Company began, the wheelbarrow was a necessary piece of equipment on the farm and at construction sites.
The Chattanooga Wheelbarrow and Truck Company is an example of the fact that just about every product was once made in Chattanooga. The plant was originally located on Montgomery Avenue, now called Main Street, at the Belt Railway. Charles P. Peterson was listed as its general manager in the 1896 city directory.
The company experienced several changes of management and location during the next few years. Robert B. Henderson, a former circuit court clerk, owned the wheelbarrow firm in the early 1900’s. Prominent Chattanooga businessman C.C. Nottingham succeeded him.
In 1908, the Chattanooga Wheelbarrow Company was founded as a successor to the original business, with William M. Fowler as president. Mr. Fowler was also president of the Case-Fowler Lumber Company. The 1911 publication “Pen and Sunlight Sketches of Chattanooga” said of the manufacturer, “Many and diversified industries contribute to the prosperity of Chattanooga and to the prestige of the city as an industrial location, and a concern which is adding to the luster of the city’s name with the development of its business, is the Chattanooga Wheelbarrow Company….”
“Pen and Sunlight” also noted that Chattanooga Wheelbarrow had recently built a new plant at Highland Park at 1311 Main Street. The manufacturer took up a five-acre tract between Holtzclaw and Greenwood, and employed fifty persons. The area around the business was rapidly being transformed from one of small farms to a suburban subdivision.
The 1913 official program of the United Confederate Veterans convention in Chattanooga included advertisements for the area’s businesses. An aerial view of the plant showed its various buildings and manufacturing divisions. Its motto was, “Quality and Efficiency.” In 1915, the company added steel tray models alongside its wooden wheelbarrows.
Chattanooga Wheelbarrow experienced its greatest period of growth and ownership continuity after the arrival of new owner Robert T. Faucette, Sr. from Durham, North Carolina. Mr. Faucette also teamed with C.H. Huston in the Faucette-Huston manufacturing agency, keeping the company’s name even after Mr. Huston left to become assistant secretary of commerce under President Warren G. Harding.
In 1940, the management team of the company included R.T. Faucette, Sr. as president, Congressman Estes Kefauver as vice-president, R.T. Faucette, Jr. as second vice-president, and T.M. Gillespie as secretary-treasurer.
The 1951 Sanborn insurance map of Chattanooga showed Chattanooga Wheelbarrow’s plant layout as including a paint shop, metal working, wood working, shipping, and lumber yard. There was a spur from the Chattanooga Belt Railway which allowed material to be delivered and finished products to be shipped. To the north was the Tennessee Stove Works, and to the south was Woodland Park Baptist Church.
The Chattanooga Times reported on March 5, 1961 that the wheelbarrow-maker was adding the manufacture of Comforter Heaters to its product line that also included Tennessee Trailers for the boating enthusiasts. By then, R.T. Faucette Jr. was heading the company as president and treasurer, and Hugh D. Huffaker as vice-president. The business was also operating in a new plant at 1200 Wisdom Street.
In 1971, the Chattanooga Wheelbarrow Company was sold to Kelley Manufacturing of Houston, Texas. The new owners kept the Wisdom Street plant open through at least the mid-1970’s.
If you have memories of the Chattanooga Wheelbarrow Company, please send me an e-mail at jolleyh@bellsouth.net.
Chattanooga Wheelbarrow factory, pictured in 1913 United Confederate Veterans program. Click to enlarge.