Sixty-four-year-old Herbert B. Smith vividly recalls accompanying his grandfather to work and working beside him in the moving company–that he now heads. It was the way of life. The S. W. Smith Moving & Hauling Company was founded sometime around 1917 by his great-grandfather, Samuel William Smith, 1st and his grandfather, Samuel William Smith Jr. (who was about 17 years old at that time). The company started off hauling lumber prior to morphing into a moving company. The family rumor mill says that, there might have even been the running of a moonshine business in there somewhere, though it’s never been substantiated.
As a youngster at the tender age of ten, Herbert Smith was going out with his grandfather, father, and brother. “It was more out of a sense of curiosity in the beginning than anything else. I was just a small boy, wanting to know what the elders were doing,” stated Smith. Fifty-four year’s later, that curiosity has evolved into his life’s work.
The company began as a small startup with the goal being:
To make a living, support the family, and the hope of improving the family’s station in life.
Smith, one of three siblings, recalls that work was just a daily function in the lives of the Smith household. Says Smith, “We did what we could to survive, and I guess moving just became our forte. That’s where we carved out our niche and built our reputation.”
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