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Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Hackney Brothers, Inc., Records #04941, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Charles Clement Hargrave of Lexington, N.C., in February 1997 (Acc. 97014).

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• Carriages and carts--North Carolina--History.
• Hackney Brothers, Inc.
• Refrigerated trucks--History.
• Wilson (N.C.)--Economic conditions.

In 1854, Willis Napoleon Hackney established Hackney Brothers, Inc., to manufacture buggies and wagons in Wilson, N.C. His company became successful and turned out about 200 buggies and 100 wagons a year by 1885. According to Willis Napoleon Hackney's great-grandson Tom Hackney, Jr., Hackney Brothers, Inc., became the second-largest wagon and buggy maker in the country by the end of the 19th century. After the automobile became popular, the successors of Willis Napoleon Hackney expanded the company's product line to include ambulances, house trailers, hearses, portable storage rooms, temporary bleachers, car-top sleepers, and school buses. The company patented the first carbon dioxide-based refrigeration system in 1931. Milk trucks became their most important product.

After success in the milk-truck industry up until the mid-1980s, however, the demand for the product sharply declined. TTI, a private company owned mostly by H.I.G. Investment Group, bought Hackney Brothers, Inc. In 1996, TTI closed the company and moved production to Hackney and Sons Company in Washington, N.C., which was founded by a relative of the Wilson Hackneys.

Information from Price, Dudley. "End of the Road." Raleigh News and Observer, 10 November 1996.

Financial records, 1974-1996, of Hackney Brothers, Inc., including shareholders reports, 1993-1996, and balance sheets, 1974-1993.