According to Fruehauf’s account, her grandfather’s company facilitated the growth of continental transportation as a viable alternative to rail and brought efficient transportation from the farmer’s gate and the factory’s loading door. This expanded markets for all manner of enterprises across the country.
It all began in 1914 in Detroit, Michigan, where German immigrant August Fruehauf was a well-known and accomplished blacksmith and wagon maker. A local lumber tycoon needed to transport an 18-foot boat to a lake house and preferred to do so with his new Model-T roadster. He asked Fruehauf if he could convert a wagon to haul behind the Model-T.
It took August and his partner, Otto Neumann several days to create a solution that would accomplish their customer’s goal. They shaped and bolted a sturdy two-wheeler that hooked to the rear of Sibley’s Model-T frame with a pole that acted as tongue and brake. They removed the back seat of the Model-T roadster to support the front end of the wagon and devised a coupling to hitch the wagon to the car. August called it a semi-trailer. Henry Ford responded by canceling the warranty on the Model-T.
Their customer, Frederick Sibley, was so pleased with the performance of the rig that he returned the following month and submitted an order for several more semi-trailers to use in his lumberyard. Other lumber merchants recognized Sibley’s advantage and were quick to follow suit.
By 1918 August Fruehauf needed to incorporate the growing business and the Fruehauf Trailer Company was founded. The new company’s inventory did not list a single horseshoe when they signed their incorporation papers.
As the practicality of the semi-trailer idea was demonstrated, larger trucks, replacing improvised passenger cars, were immediately purchased and placed in service by forward-looking businesses. Fruehauf trailers had now arrived on the American road. By 1919, with the nation whirling in a postwar business boom, Fruehauf sales zoomed to a whopping $302,000. August’s motto was, “A horse can pull more than it can carry; so can a truck!”
