The History – as told by Don Sherwood, current owner of Sherwood Chevrolet
“The Sherwood Family started selling Chevrolets on this corner in 1925, and it was Horlacher and Sherwood at the time, founded by my dad, Walter Sherwood, my uncle, George Sherwood, and their partner, Bob Horlacher. My dad handled sales, and my uncle was sort of the business manager, and as Mr. Horlacher was a mechanical engineer, he handled the shop and ran the repairs and parts. Uncle George and Bob Horlacher had a little Chevy place up on Warren Street from 1923 called Horlacher Brothers and Sherwood. Then my dad came in 1925 at 20 years old. And they represented Chevrolet primarily when they built a new building that same year on the corner of McCord and Tioga. And that building that they put up in 1925, we took down in 2014 and built the current building we are in now – across McCord Street. They started with Chevrolet, and then they picked up Studebaker, and then General Motors wanted my Dad to get a Buick franchise. But because Buick and Studebaker were competitors, they couldn’t be in the same building, so Dad rented a little storefront uptown in 1927 and also became the Buick dealer in town – right where Greenwoods Furniture is now.
And both stores did well for a while. During the Depression, however, it was very tough. Dad, Uncle George and Bob Horlacher worked hard. They had every third Sunday off. The store was open every day of the year except Christmas because they were big retailers of gasoline out front. They had a big gas station, and somebody had to be here on Saturdays and Sundays to pump gas, and so they worked a lot of hours.
And then in 1935, after being there 10 years and surviving the Depression, Dad got the opportunity to buy the Chevrolet dealership in Nicholson. So he bought that and took his Buick franchise and moved to Nicholson. He promised my mom, who at the time were newlyweds, that they’d only be there a couple years. Well, she died in that Nicholson house at 99 years old in 2004.”
Through the War
“During the war, I was a very little kid so I wasn’t there but General Motors, Ford and Chrysler stopped building automobiles in 1942 and went to building war materials.Planes, trucks, tanks, Jeeps, they did it all. And so from 1942 to 1946, there were basically no new vehicles to sell. So dad was just running a garage, and his right-hand man, Lynn Gritman, came to him and said, ‘Mr. Sherwood, there’s not much work going on here, and my friend just got a good job in a defense plant in New Jersey, and I’d sort of like to go down and try that work out because, you know, we don’t have much going on here. Would that be all right with you?’ And Dad said, ‘sure, go try it out, and your job’s here when you get back. This war will be over someday. We’ll have cars to sell.’ So Lynn went to New Jersey and worked in the defense plant for two or three months and came home and said, ‘Mr. Sherwood, they’re not doing anything we couldn’t do in Nicholson, and I don’t like it down there. We could make these parts right here.’ So Dad went to Hazleton and bought 12 Atlas lathes. And then he’d go to the procurement office in Philadelphia and get the plans for the parts they wanted built. And then he’d talk to somebody and find out their shop rate and talk to somebody else and find out how many hours it took them to build them so he could bid them just a little cheaper, bring the steel and the plans back for the ones that Lynn said he could build, and Lynn would set the jobs up on the lathes, and the ladies in Nicholson were running the lathes, and they ran a little defense plant and did very well until the war was over, and then they went back in the automobile business. During that same time, Uncle George went into the recap business because there were no tires available (which is how we got into the tire business and then became The Tire Shop) and cousin George went to war in the Italian Campaign, getting home in 1946.”
“When we won the war, then the big corporations went back to their civilian-type work. In other words, we didn’t have any 46 models, but they made lots of 47s. And then the cars were short. Cars and trucks were in short supply. As I’ve been told, in ‘47, ‘48, ‘49, ‘50. In those years, dad kept a yellow sheet. Somebody wanted a car, he’d put their name on it. One came in, he’d call them. And if they wanted that one, they could take it. If they didn’t want it, they’d go to the next name on the list. Then about 1953/1954, the business got back to normal when there were more vehicles than buyers, and it got competitive again. But right after the war, from what my dad told me, it was very easy to sell cars because they were in short supply.”
“In the 50s, 60s and 70s, “Announcement Day” which was when the new models came out used to be a big deal. When a dealer got a new model in, they hid it until announcement day, and then there was a big reveal. Some dealers would even paper over their windows so they could move the new cars into the showroom the night before announcement day. In the morning when we opened up, Ted Story would be here with his hat and his sport coat, greeting people at the door, and they’d have a crowd looking over the new cars. And we’d get them ready at night. One of the things Ted said when he was breaking me in, “now we’re going to have to work four or five nights to get the new cars ready.” There weren’t so many models at that time, but cars changed every year in their styling, and people would actually be here waiting for us to open up at 7:30 in the morning to see the new cars. It was a lot of fun.”
Selling Cars
“The most important thing, in the automobile business or any business is to keep the loyalty of your customers. And that was a little easier years ago, it seems, because people were used to ordering what they want, and if they came in and wanted a new 68 Impala, you’d find out what color and what engine and what options and write it down and order the car for them, and in about 60 days the car would come in, you’d call customer and deliver it. People today shop more on the Internet, and we are expected to and do have a bigger inventory. If we used to stock 10 or 15 cars then, now cars and trucks and SUVs, it’s easy for us to have 150 or 170 around the lot. And people shop online and see what you’ve got and come in. And it’s a faster moving business now. But it’s very important to take care of the customers that you have. My people have been very good at that. It takes a lot of work to make sure that everybody is satisfied. And it’s fun for me when we’re delivering cars and trucks today because I can often say to the customer, well, I sold your grandmother or your grandfather one in such and such a year.”
“And now Jesse (Don’s oldest daughter) is here, the third generation of family at Sherwood Chevrolet, and we have lots of third generation customers. The first car I ever sold, I was 16, and it was a couple from North Eaton. And my uncle had told me that his neighbors were looking for a car. We had a good used ‘53 Chevrolet that we had traded from my fourth-grade school teacher. So, I knew the lady that owned the car, and it was a good car. And I took it over and showed it to them, they bought the car and paid me, and we counted out the money on their kitchen table and signed the papers. I came home with my first sale in the summer of my 16th year. But really from the time I was 12, I always worked in the summer. On my summer vacations, my dad would often have me fill in for whoever was on vacation. So, you know, if the man who greased the cars was on vacation, I was greasing cars for a week or two. If the parts counter man was on vacation, I was selling parts or washing cars or doing mechanical work, and then eventually moved up to selling. But it was a good way to learn the business. When I was 16 and my brother was 18, Dad sent us to Indiana with the Thomas School Bus salesman, and we got two flat-faced cowls and drove them to High Point, North Carolina. Now, a flat-faced cowl was just a truck chassis that they were going to mount a school bus body on, had no windshield, no floor, no doors. You sat on a packing crate that was strapped on the frame and your feet dangled in the wind when they weren’t on the clutch, gas or brake, and you drove down the road wearing goggles. We wore goggles because there was no windshield. So if it rained, you were in trouble. That was a pretty exciting experience for a 16-year- old to drive that chassis from Mitchell, Indiana to High Point, North Carolina. And then at High Point, we each got a 66-passenger school bus and drove them home. You had to learn, with my dad, you had to learn at a young age.”
Forming the Current Company
“In 1966, I came back from the Army, I formed Sherwood Chevrolet and took over the car business from Horlacher and Sherwood. But it’s the same family, the same business. And I remember how proud my dad was when he got a plaque from Buick for 50 years as a Buick dealer. And he used to tell me, Don, it takes a tough man to be a Buick dealer for 50 years. Well, I’ve now been a Chevrolet dealer for more than that. So out of the hundred years we’ve been in business, I’ve been here over half of it. And it’s been a wonderful town. A wonderful business, and I’ve had wonderful employees and partners in the business.”
Expanding the Offering “We didn’t have Buick for a while in Tunkhannock because my dad’s operation in Nicholson was still running with Chevrolet and Buick. But I had Pontiac for a while, and then GM took Pontiac out of the lineup. Then we were fortunate in the early 2000s to buy out Horace J. Sick and Son here in Tunkhannock that had Buick and GMC. And that was good for us because there were loyal local customers and two good brands. And so we went from at that time being solely Chevrolet to Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC, which we have to this day.”
“We’ve had wonderful customers that do lots of business with us, and the secret is you have to be prepared to fulfill their need when they need something. And sometimes it isn’t easy to solve their transportation problem, but you’ve got to do it. When Procter & Gamble came to Mehoopany and they were buying lots of pulpwood, I got in the log truck business, and Chevrolet made a very good log truck that was lighter weight than some of the competition, and they could haul good loads. So we sold lots of those, and then the loggers needed new equipment. We got into the logging equipment business, with Franklin log skidders and Prentice loaders. And that’s how the Skidder Shop got going and still runs today. Although we don’t have Franklin anymore, they’ve gone out of business. We mount lots of dump bodies and do lots of truck modification/welding work there. I got into the heavy truck business in 1985 because I didn’t have a GMC franchise and Chevrolet was sort of going out of that heavy-duty business. So I got a Western Star franchise and we sold Western Stars out of the Sherwood Chevrolet building until it just got to be too much. I wanted to build a new heavy truck service garage in Tunkhannock but I needed a bigger territory to make it work. I went to Portland, Oregon, to see the head of Western Star, a man by the name of Jim Hebe. And he said, ‘Oh, I don’t want you up there on that little two-lane road.’ And I tried to convince him that it was the right thing to do. But he told me he’d only sell me their company store in Dunmore. So, with Mark Novitch, we bought their company store in Dunmore, which is a Freightliner outlet, and we moved Western Star to Dunmore and founded Sherwood Freightliner and Western Star. With that we were able to then open a second location in Tunkhannock and now we have one in Drums, PA as well.”
Couple Historical Pieces Remain
“When I came out of the Army, the wrecker (tow truck) here at the store was a 1950 Chevy with a hand-crank Holmes on it. That was our wrecker , and I used to go out and pick up cars with it. I’ve even towed a school bus with it. It had a big wooden bumper on the front. You used that to push cars in when they had big bumpers, without further damaging them. That was our wrecker from 1950 to 1970. Carol and I used to go on wrecker runs together when we were first married – pulling a car out of a ditch. In 1970, I bought a new one, and the original went to Nicholson, and they kept it over there and used it a little bit. In about 1982, when my dad wasn’t feeling too well and was getting old, he comes roaring into town in that wrecker from Nicholson one sunny afternoon and said, you ought to put this in your barn. So, I stored it away, and then after he passed away, I sent it out and had it all refurbished. We get it out for Founders Day and parades and so forth, our 1950 wrecker.”
“We also have the original cornerstone from the building my dad, uncle and Bob Horlacher built. When we took down the old building we saved the cornerstone and put it in the new building across from a 2014 cornerstone commemorating the new building. And we have the original clock, still working, hanging in our parts department. There are some historic pictures of the original store where you can see that clock hanging on the wall in 1925.”
Our People
“The most important aspect of any business is the people that you have. Because if your employees and partners don’t treat your customers right, you won’t be around for 100 years. And my general manager at Sherwood Chevrolet, Roy King, has worked for me since he got out of high school. My manager at the Horlacher and Sherwood Tire Shop, Dale Wilsey, came to work for me right out of high school. And Art Carpenter, who manages the Skidder Shop, came to work for me in the tire shop when he graduated high school. I’ve been very fortunate to have long-term people, and they are part of the business family. We’ve been very fortunate for my family that we’ve had some great other families that have helped to make this business strong. When I got out of the service, the man who taught me the business as much as anybody other than my father was Ted Story. Ted had been here since World War II and was a wonderful man. Lynn Gritman in Nicholson ran things with my dad, and Dick Warner and George Brown both retired from here with over 40 years of service. My service manager, Ron McCarty, has been here for a long, long time. When you have people like that, and I’ve got numerous others (we’ve got a list on the wall at Sherwood Chevrolet), that help you maintain the relationship with your customers, that’s how you do business with the same families of customers for three generations.”
The New Building
“That big brick and block building that my dad, my uncle, and Bob Horlacher built in 1925 was sort of a landmark in the town. But it was getting old. Chevrolet wanted me to put up a new modern facility – which we did in 2014. And really, it was the best thing I ever did because it’s easier to work out of the new building. The lighting’s better. It doesn’t flood. We have heat in the shop floor. Employees are happier. But it was a big investment. And the move was a real undertaking. All the employees helped move across the street – taking over equipment and whole filing cabinets on hand trucks and in the back of pickups. That building that they built in 1925 lasted until 2014, we’ll see how long this one lasts for the family and the community. You always invest your money back in your own business to keep it vital and on track. And you have to be present in the community – whether through sponsoring school sports or golf tournaments or memorial run/walks or the Chamber – we want to give back. As my dad’s friend, Art Cole, used to say, ‘You’ve got to do business in your own town because if you don’t, you soon won’t have a town.’ And Tunkhannock is a very good business town, a very good community to live in.”
“It was a great town for Carol and me to raise our three daughters in, and I’m thrilled to have a couple grandchildren here. I’m very appreciative of all the customers and employees we’ve had over the years and the community itself because you don’t have a successful business for 100 years without a lot of help. I’ve had wonderful members of the organization that have worked with me a long time and have done an exceptional job. And I’ve had a great customer base and a good community that supported us. It takes a lot of things coming together just right to be around for 100 years.”
– Story provided by the Sherwood Family
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