Ipswich History

The Ipswich Historical Society is sharing articles written by IHS students. The students visited the museum, researched and wrote about events, people and businesses in the community.

Kitchell Truckline

by Halie Feldman

I chose Kitchell Truckline as my topic because my grandpa Rick Schumacher drove semi-trucks for many years.

I talked to Tom Kitchell to get information about my topic. Kitchell Truckline started after Morris and Bob Kitchell graduated high school in 1930. I found out that Morris is Tom’s father, and Bob is Tom’s uncle. Morris and Bob’s parents thought they needed something to do, so they got them a truck and they went trucking. Starting out they hauled sugar from Kentucky to St. Louis. They delivered too many ware houses. Tom told me a story about a time when they were delivering sugar, and no one showed up to unload the sugar. They then just unloaded it themselves. After they got home, they found out that the men who were supposed to unload the truck, was in jail for bootlegging. After the bootleggers got out of jail they drove all the way from St. Louis to Ipswich South Dakota to pay Morris and Bob for the sugar that they had delivered a few months back.

I also was told that after the Kitchell family got done hauling sugar, they started to haul mobile oil, which is now Exon Mobile. Then they started to haul local cattle until World War II. Then Morris was drafted in the Army in 1940, he was only 40 years old. He spent a four and a half year stint in the United States Army. Morris survived the Army. After World War II Morris was shipped back to California, and he trained officers.

When Morris was all done with the war, I learned that he came back home and kept the trucking business going. After World War II Kitchell Truckline started to buy Mack trucks. Two of them had been ordered for the war with half stacks on, it was still on assembly line, and it ran on gasoline. After they had Mack trucks, they moved on to the late 50s Internationals. The Kitchell Truckline was one of the first semi-tractors with a sleeper in the state of South Dakota it had a heater and an AM radio, it was a 1929 Chevrolet model, it took its first run to Minneapolis in September of 1930.

Morris and his brother Bob continued to operate the company for 53 years, before selling the business to Morris’s son Tom in 1983. Morris retired after they had sold the business, but Bob still worked there part time for Tom. Bob only worked for another five years and in that five years he only delivered freight and just local things, no long trips. “While Morris was still working with the truck business he served as president of the South Dakota Independent Truckers Association, and Norm Simon was his secretary” said Kitchell. His history in the trucking business has been featured in the Aberdeen American News.

Finally I learned that in the late 70s early 80s the Kitchell Truckline shop had burned to the ground by a big fire. The fire was started by a 73 International Cat engine parked in reverse. The drive shaft was twisted like a pretzel, this is what got things burning according to Tom Kitchell. The fire was so hot that it melted the aluminum wheels and frames. Nothing was left besides a big pile of ashes. Sadly in 1996 the Kitchell Truckline went out of business.