Tag Archive for: #corbittpreservationassociation

Corbitt Preservation Association To Hold Spring Fling Saturday

/by

The plan for Saturday’s Spring Fling at the Corbitt Museum is to have trucks and tractors on display for the public to view and ooh and aah over, but when you’re dealing with vehicles that are as old as the Corbitts that are around here, Tom Burleson said “you keep your fingers crossed.”

The annual event will take place April 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and it’s a perfect time for folks to stop by and learn more of the history about the Corbitt family and its many contributions to the Henderson area, according to Burleson, vice president of the Corbitt Preservation Association.

Burleson himself grew up on Corbitt Road, he said on Wednesday’s TownTalk. And his childhood home was just up the street from the Corbitt mansion, that stood where Wester Realty now stands.

The Corbitts owned The Little Hotel and Mrs. Corbitt ran it back in the day, when Mr. Corbitt was busy cranking out trucks, military vehicles and tractors.

“We’ve got a good story to tell,” Burleson said. “We want to try to interest some younger folks.” His fellow Corbitt enthusiasts have “a lot of snow on the mountain,” he quipped and Corbitt Preservation Association events like the Spring Fling help to keep the history alive.

The association’s members are always on the lookout for Corbitt memorabilia and continue to collect it for display at the museum, located at 180 Church St. One recent addition is a promissory note dated 1917 signed by THE Richard J. Corbitt himself.

The company was founded in 1899 and produced horse-drawn buggies, Burleson said, then it morphed to motorized buggies, then automobiles, trucks and tractors. The Corbitt Company found its niche, however, in military vehicles.

One board member chugs down I-85 in his 1950 model truck that originally was purchased for use by the J.W. Jenkins Oil Co. in Henderson. “He gets some of the strangest looks,” Burleson said, but it’s just one of the trucks and tractors that’s still chuggin’ along.

Hopefully, it will be parked outside the Corbitt Museum Saturday.

Fingers crossed.

Click Play!

Corbitt Trucks

Corbitt Spring Fling And Open House Apr. 13

/by

The Corbitt Spring Fling and Open House will be held Saturday, Apr. 13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Bennett H. Perry Museum, home of Corbitt Preservation Association.

This event is open to the public and will feature Corbitt trucks and tractors on display, according to information from Kenneth Stegall of the Corbitt Preservation Association.

There will be plenty of Corbitt “merch” available as well. This event will be held rain or shine.

The Perry Museum is located at 180 Church St., at the corner of Church and Chestnut streets.

Stegall reminds all Corbitt enthusiasts that the 22nd annual Corbitt show and reunion is scheduled for Oct. 19 in downtown Henderson.

Until then, the upcoming Spring Fling is sure to quench the thirsts of Corbitt enthusiasts.

Henderson was the site for the Corbitt Truck Co., which provided military workhorse vehicles during World War II. The company operated from 1899 until the mid 1950’s.

For more information, visit https://corbitttrucks.com/

 

 

Corbitt Trucks

TownTalk: Corbitt Trucks Roll Into Henderson On Saturday

/by

The Corbitt trucks are rolling in to town this weekend for the annual car show – not as many as rolled out of town during the vehicle maker’s heyday, but that’s ok with Ken Stegall.

He is one of the locals who helps keep the memory of the Corbitt truck alive and well, and he said if the weather’s nice, there could be a dozen or more vehicles on display during the Show, Shine, Shag and Dine event in downtown Henderson Saturday.

Take the 1926 fire truck, for example. It’s one of only six that the Corbitt Preservation Society knows about that rolled off the line here in Henderson. It originally was sold to a Washington, D.C. area hospital for the insane, Stegall said on Tuesday’s TownTalk.

“When we found it, it was in really bad shape,” he said. Untold hours of loving restoration went into giving it new life. “We’re going to have it there Saturday,” Stegall said.

He said he hopes the oldest running Corbitt vehicle will be on display, too. It’s locally owned, he said. There should be some farm tractors on display as well.

Not sure whether the big 6 by 6 military truck will make it, but Stegall said that’s the one that put Corbitt on the map.
The one that John Richard Hedgepeth has restored “is probably as good or better today than when it came out of the factory,” Stegall said. “That military truck is immaculate.” Corbitt in Henderson spit out 3,400 during 1939 and 1945. There were others that manufactured the vehicle, he noted, but they all used the Corbitt design.

Stegall welcomes any and all interested in volunteering with the museum or in other ways to join the preservation effort. Membership fees have been discontinued in favor of donations, he said, to encourage more people to join the likes of founders Charles Powell and the late Mac Renn to celebrate the Corbitt Trucking Co.

Before it was producing vehicles with gas-powered engines, Corbitt was producing horse-drawn buggies.

“They were making as many as 250 buggies a month” in Henderson, Stegall said. But finding one of those buggies has proven to be a challenge.

“Something we are desperately looking for is a Corbitt buggy,” he said. “That’s the thing we made the most of in this county,” he said.

Surely there’s a buggy out there somewhere with that iconic Corbitt tag under the chassis.

 

 

TownTalk: Corbitt Preservation Reissues Book In Digital Form

/by

By all accounts, Richard Johnson Corbitt was an excellent businessman and a person of high character, but he probably wouldn’t have believed that anyone who said that someone in the future would be able to put an entire book inside a piece of plastic smaller than a pack of chewing gum.

Corbitt’s company operated right here in Henderson between 1899 and 1954, manufacturing countless buggies before retooling to make the iconic Army truck that would become the workhorse of World War II.

Dick Callaway and two others wrote “Star of the South,” a book about the Corbitt Truck Company published more than a decade ago.

Ken Stegall and others who work with the Corbitt Preservation Association are making the book available again.

Stegall spoke with John C. Rose on Wednesday’s TownTalk about the project. He said the book sold out relatively quickly – “quicker than we thought” and for the last couple of years, members of the association’s board have been investigating the possibility of reprinting the book.

That proved to be quite costly, so they decided to take a page from old Mr. Corbitt himself and come up with a Plan B: Just like Corbitt pivoted from horseless buggies to go into full-time truck production, Stegall said the board decided to digitize the book and put it on a thumb drive.

“It’s the easiest way to get the story out there again,” he said, adding that the association has a high-definition scanner that was used to recreate the 122-page book in a digital format.

The first three copies were mailed out today, he said.

The cost is $20, which includes shipping. Want to place an order? Contact Stegall at 252.432.6476 or via email at gjammer35@aol.com, or visit www.corbitttrucks.com and find the information on the bulletin page.

The interest in Corbitt trucks and other vehicles that were manufactured here is high, Stegall said, and he said it is surprising to find specimens of the trucks in France, tractors in Brazil and even a car right up the road in Greensboro.

A woman called to say she had a Corbitt automobile in her garage, which Stegall said he found almost unbelievable. He said he remembered thinking, “Surely, you don’t…it’s not possible.” But she sent a photo and, “sure enough, there’s a wooden touring car setting on a set of sawhorses, with Corbitt right there on the dash,” Stegall recalled.

Visitors are welcome to the annual “Spring Fling” at the museum, an all-day event planned for Saturday, Apr. 22, Stegall said. There will be plenty of vehicles and other memorabilia on display then, as well as for the truck show and reunion, which will take place during Henderson’s signature weekend festival “Show, Shine, Shag and Dine” on Oct. 21.

 

CLICK PLAY!

 

Corbitt Trucks

TownTalk: Preserving The History Of Corbitt Trucks

/by

The 20th annual Corbitt Truck Show and Reunion is coming up next month on Oct. 15, and it’s a great time to come out and view some of the vehicles that were manufactured right here in Henderson.

Corbitt Preservation Association Vice President Tom Burleson said the reunion coincides with the Show, Shine, Shag and Dine event, which brings thousands of car enthusiasts from all over into town for a weekend of fun.

Burleson told John C. Rose on Thursday’s TownTalk that his group is selling raffle tickets for some nice prizes – tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20. First prize is a Milwaukee tool set, which retails for $750-$800. Second prize is a Hobart welding accessory kit, valued at $300.

Tickets are available from anyone in the Corbitt Preservation Association, their social media page, as well as at the museum on the day of the reunion – and Burleson said you don’t have to be present to win.

The Corbitt museum, located at 180 Church St., has plenty of Corbitt merchandise for sale. “We’ll be open for business that day and look forward to seeing people,” he said. There are Corbitt caps and t-shirts for sale, among other items. This year’s t-shirt features an image of a 1929 fire truck, whose chassis was built by Corbitt, which once known as the South’s largest truck manufacturer.

The fire truck originally was property of the U.S. Navy, but Burleson said it had more recently been used on the campus of the Maryland Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Officials there contacted the preservation association when it was ready to be retired, and it is now in the process of being restored to its former glory.

That very truck should be among the rolling stock of Corbitt vehicles that will be on display near the fire department on Garnett Street during the car show, Burleson said.

It’s not an everyday occurrence, but he said the group does hear from folks who have Corbitt vehicles.

“I enjoy it because it’s living history,” Burleson said of his interest in Corbitts. “So many people don’t know or appreciate what the Corbitt Company did for the country and for the community.”

The company began making buggies in 1899 and then produced horseless carriages when they began installing motors on the backs of the buggies. Although most known for their trucks, Corbitt also manufactured cars and tractors.

During World War II, Corbitt produced “big ol’ beasts” to transport all kinds of heavy cargo. “That was their niche and they sold a ton of them,” Burleson said. They’ve turned up in Europe, leftovers from the American presence.

And there are a couple of farm tractors that have been located in Brazil, the result of a deal between the U.S. and the South American country. A couple of shipments made it to Brazil before the deal broke down, Burleson said, but he said someone made contact with folks here to say he had one and his neighbor had one, too.

The Corbitt enthusiasts are keen to keep the vehicles in working order. “These are real things that are wonderfully still rolling,” Burleson said. “We have a good handful of folks who keep these things up and ride them and drive them and display them and love to talk about them,” he said.

To learn more, visit www.corbitttrucks.com or phone 252.767.2247 or 252.432.6476.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Corbitt Trucks

TownTalk: Corbitt Preservation Event To Be Held On April 9

/by

When he looks at one of those old Corbitt trucks, Charles Powell sees so much more than an old vehicle that just happened to be manufactured right here in Henderson in the early part of the 20th century – he sees, in his words “magnificent pieces of equipment.”

Powell, president of the Corbitt Preservation Association, and plenty of other Corbitt Truck enthusiasts are looking forward to gathering again in a few weeks to share their love of the locally produced vehicle with others.

There will be a Spring Fling and Open House on Saturday, April 9 in the area of the Bennett H. Perry Museum, which also is home to the preservation association. This is the 20th year for the event, which will be held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., rain or shine.

“You can’t just look at it as a hunk of metal,” Powell told John C. Rose on Thursday’s Town Talk. What some may see as utilitarian vehicles of a bygone era, Powell and other Corbitt truck fans see as history on wheels.

There will be some Corbitt trucks parked along Church Street in front of the museum so folks have a chance to see them up close.

The preservation association was all set to have the open house last year, but COVID-19 quashed those plans. Powell said the open house for the museum is a great way to let the community know that the museum is here for them to enjoy.

“I think everybody’s ready to get out,” Powell said. “People have been inside for so long – I think they’re really going to like these events.”

There are half a dozen or so car shows or other similar events across the state that Powell and others either drive or trailer some of the old Corbitts to, including the Got To Be NC festival in Raleigh and another at the Transportation Museum in Spencer, near Salisbury.

“It takes quite a bit to get these vehicles loaded up and hauled to a show,” Powell explained. Some of the vehicles are between 70 and 100 years old, so driving them is often out of the question.

Some of the ones who have loved and cared for the vehicles are getting older, too, he said. He’d love to attract some younger folks to become members of the preservation association. Membership dues were waived during the pandemic and Powell said anyone interested in becoming involved need do nothing more than show up at a meeting – the next one is May 15 – or come out to the spring fling and sign up.

Find the group on Facebook at Corbitt Preservation Association or at https://corbitttrucks.com/

Click Play

 

LONG LIVE CORBITT – Corbitt Preservation Takes In Over $18k In Donations

/by

Imagine you’ve just purchased a vintage vehicle that looks oh, so beautiful. As you lower yourself into the driver’s seat, hands gripping the steering wheel, you can’t help but make a little wish: Please start. Just let that motor turn over.

Charles E. Powell may have had a similar wish in October 2020 when he issued his President’s Challenge as a fundraiser for the Corbitt Preservation Association. Please, let those donations come in.

And come in they did. Nothing short of a Christmas miracle, according to Powell. Total donations, at his last count, stand at $18,390.

Powell set a goal of $5,000 and chose the month of October 2020 to issue the challenge for donations. Every person making a $50 donation received full membership to the organization as well as their choice of swag – t-shirt, hat, coffee mug or travel mug. The COVID-19 pandemic  caused the cancellation of all the shows and events that usually help to bring attention and donations to the Corbitt Preservation Association, whose mission since 2003 has been to keep alive the love for the trucks that were built in Henderson between 1899 and 1954.

Ken Stegall on behalf of the Corbitt Preservation Association and association president Charles Powell.

In a letter provided to WIZS, Powell provided an update as of Dec. 15, recalling the initial days of the challenge. “After it was announced in the middle of September people started donating right away,” he wrote. “We were doing well through the first two weeks of October, averaging $1500 a week,” adding that they were on track to meet the goal. And just when donations had slowed to a trickle, an anonymous fellow member made a matching donation: if the President’s Challenge raised $5,000, the anonymous donor would contribute an additional $5,000. “We got super excited then!” Powell stated in the letter. At that point, the challenge had raised about $3,000, but the chance to get the matching donation kick-started the giving and more donations came in.

“The last week we were up to $4000 and then it stopped again. At this point I was about ready to concede defeat,” Powell recalled. He and fellow CPA’er Ken Stegall were feeling dejected when, with just a couple of days left, the thing they had hoped for happened: “and just like that, we had OVER $10,000!”

A total of $2,080 came in the form of memorial donations for Lou Almand, who died in October. Through their work with the Vance County Historical Society, Almand and his wife, Anne, had been instrumental in making the first Corbitt show in 2002 a success. Her husband had requested that, instead of flowers, any donations were to go to the Corbitt Preservation Association, according to Powell.

The challenge itself, minus the $2,080 in memorials, stands at $16,310. In the spirit of true gratitude, Powell stated, “I can honestly say our people love and believe in the brand name of Corbitt. I will always be grateful and never again will I forget how much you love our group and what we are doing for Corbitt and the community. LONG LIVE CORBITT!”

It isn’t too late to make a contribution. Donations can be in the form of a check sent via mail, by PayPal or by credit card over the phone.

Checks may be mailed to CPA, PO Box 74, Henderson, NC 27536. If you wish to use PayPal, please email gjammer35@aol.com for an invoice. To pay by credit card, please call Ken Stegall at (252) 432-6476 or Charles Powell at (252) 767-2247 for assistance.

For more information, please visit The Corbitt Preservation Association’s Facebook page or website at www.corbitttrucks.com.

Corbitt Museum

Town Talk 10/20/20: Corbitt’s ‘President’s Challenge’ Raising Funds in Difficult Year

/by

100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

Charles Powell, president of the Corbitt Preservation Association (CPA), appeared on WIZS Town Talk Tuesday at 11 a.m.

Powell discussed the CPA’s 2020 “President’s Challenge,” a fundraiser on-going through October 31. A $50 donation entitles you to full membership in the organization, your choice of a t-shirt, hat, coffee mug or travel mug ($20 value) and 10 percent off any additional merchandise. Items will be shipped free-of-charge to those that live outside the local area.

In addition, a CPA member that wishes to remain anonymous will match every $50 donation dollar-for-dollar for the first 100 donors, up to $5,000.

“This year has been a very bad year,” Powell said. “We haven’t had any shows or any way for us to raise funds. Of course, our expenses continue with the museum and other areas.”

Powell said the CPA was especially hard-hit after the cancellation of the Show, Shine, Shag and Dine and East Coast Drag Times Hall of Fame & Reunion weekend held in downtown Henderson each fall. The 19th annual event, originally scheduled for October 16-17, 2020, was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“That’s usually our largest fundraising event of the year. We missed that, and it put us in dire straits,” Powell lamented. “The President’s Challenge is a win-win situation for everybody. For us, we increase our membership, plus it creates funds for us to do our projects.”

One such project involves displaying a rare Corbitt automobile at the Bennett H. Perry/Corbitt Museum located at 180 Church Street in Henderson. In 2019, members obtained the automobile from the previous owner in Greensboro, NC. “We would like to enclose the car on the back patio of the museum and open up a new room for viewing,” said Powell.

“Of course,” Powell explained, “all this takes funds.”

To support the CPA via the President’s Challenge, please mail a check, use PayPal or pay by credit card over the phone.

Checks may be mailed to CPA, PO Box 74, Henderson, NC 27536. If you wish to use PayPal, please email gjammer35@aol.com for an invoice. To pay by credit card, please call Ken Stegall at (252) 432-6476 or Charles Powell at (252) 767-2247 for assistance.

For more information, please visit The Corbitt Preservation Association’s Facebook page or website at www.corbitttrucks.com.

Corbitt Trucks

Corbitt Preservation Association Announces ‘President’s Challenge’ Membership Event

/by

100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

-Information courtesy The Corbitt Preservation Association

The Corbitt Preservation Association’s 2020 “President’s Challenge” will take place October 1-31. A $50 donation entitles you to full membership in the organization and a choice of a t-shirt, hat, coffee mug or travel mug.

A CPA member that wishes to remain anonymous will match every $50 donation dollar-for-dollar for the first 100 donors, up to $5,000.

Donations can be in the form of a check sent via mail, by PayPal or by credit card over the phone.

Checks may be mailed to CPA, PO Box 74, Henderson, NC 27536. If you wish to use PayPal, please email gjammer35@aol.com for an invoice. To pay by credit card, please call Ken Stegall at (252) 432-6476 or Charles Powell at (252) 767-2247 for assistance.

For more information, please visit The Corbitt Preservation Association’s Facebook page or website at www.corbitttrucks.com.

Corbitt Preservation Association

Corbitt Preservation Association’s Annual Truck Show & Reunion Canceled

/by

100.1 FM ~ 1450 AM ~ WIZS, Your Community Voice ~ Click to LISTEN LOCAL

-Information and flyer courtesy Kenneth Stegall, The Corbitt Preservation Association

The Corbitt Preservation Association’s 19th Annual Corbitt Truck Show and Reunion scheduled for October 17, 2020, has been officially canceled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This is the first time in 19 years that the show will not be held.

Kenneth Stegall, with the Corbitt Preservation Association, asked everyone to stay safe and said, “Let’s beat this COVID so that we can continue life as we used to know it.”

Please note that the annual Show, Shine, Shag & Dine, and East Coast Dragtimes Hall of Fame & Reunion that was originally scheduled for October 16 and 17 in downtown Henderson has also been canceled for this year.