Orscheln Group, The Orscheln Story: Our History, Development & Expansion

The Orscheln Story:

Our History, Development & Expansion

There’s a famous story that has circulated around The Orscheln Group for over half a century about a parking brake that failed on a truck that Al Orscheln was driving in 1937. The legend has it that the truck, its cargo, and its driver ended up in the Missouri River at Jefferson City. Al got out, but the truck and its cargo were a total loss. In exasperation, that’s how Al came to invent the parking brake, and now Orscheln rules the parking brake world.

Myth versus reality.

Al Orscheln, while in his 90^th year and still living in Moberly, Missouri, pronounced the whole episode "a myth." As maintenance supervisor for Orscheln Brothers Truck Line, it was Al’s job to fix any problems on the fleet. Parking brakes failed quite often and one day in 1938, driver Gus Williams came in complaining, "You’ve got to fix the parking brake on old Six Speed." Al sketched out a different design, built one in the shop, installed it on a truck going to St. Louis, and it worked well.

Orscheln’s creation was the first "over center" parking brake, which used a pull-up handle and magnified leverage to help the driver lock the brakes in place. It also allowed the driver to adjust the brake tension from inside the cab. Patented in 1939, the levers were first added only to the family’s fleet of delivery trucks. In 1946, the Orscheln Brake Lever Manufacturing Company was incorporated to build the brake system for sale to others. A half century later, Orscheln overcenter parking brakes are still a leader: The business now called Dura Automotive Systems is North America’s leading manufacturer of parking brake assemblies.

It wasn’t an accident after all that led the Orscheln’s into the brake business, but it was something of an accident that got the family into the trucking business two decades before. In 1919, brothers Ed and William Orscheln left their family farm near Tipton, Missouri, and bought one for themselves near Sturgeon. Bad weather and poor cattle prices soon sent the two young farmers scrambling for cash. In 1921, they opened a dance hall near Sturgeon and called it Orscheln Heights. (As teenagers, Bill and Ed had a portable dance floor that they would haul around on a hay wagon to area farms for square dances.)

The new business did okay, but farm folk without transportation had trouble getting to Sturgeon. In 1924, the brothers bought an old Model T pickup, put benches in the back, and made a circuit for miles around, hauling people to dances at Orscheln Heights. Several years later, the dance transportation business was still limping along, when a grocery store owner in Renick offered Bill Orscheln 25 cents if he’d bring him a box of bread from Klein’s Bakery in Moberly on his next run. He made that delivery and started soliciting other hauling business along his dance route. It wasn’t long before they had so much business they had to take the benches out of the back.

The next year, they bought a second truck, hired another driver (Brother Al) and a bookkeeper (Sister Jo). Ed managed the farm. Bill managed the hauling. Three or four nights a week, they had dances at Orscheln Heights. Their dance hall became a regular stop on the Chicago-St. Louis-Kansas City entertainment circuit, and in time, big bands like Benny Goodman’s played the pavilion at the Heights. Even with big names, the dance business was marginal. The invention of the juke box in the mid-1930s was the death knell for live entertainment dance halls, and in 1936, Orscheln Heights was closed. A company history records the positive side of the Heights demise; "It had served its purpose; it had generated the trucking business which supported the Orscheln family (and by that time, a number of other families as well) through the roughest years of the Depression."

In 1939, Al Orscheln patented his parking brake, and it was installed on all the family trucks. A few years later, he signed the patent over to the five Orscheln brothers(of which he was one), provided that Brother Bill would form a company to promote it. Orscheln Brake Lever Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1946, and Bill Orscheln became its general manager. For some years, they supplied parking brakes to the truck after market and industrial users for fork lifts and airline ground support vehicles.

Bill’s son Don came on board after graduating from Northwestern in 1949, "missionarying" as he calls it. "I was on the road, selling brake levers. I was still on my honeymoon in June 1949, in Buffalo, New York, when I called on a jobber who sold to the trucking industry. I sold my first order for 25 brake levers to that man. I left my new wife at the motel, with three or four dollars in quarters, so she could feed the coin operated radio while I made sales calls. It didn’t set too well with her, but she knew what she was in for!"

In the 1950s, the Orscheln brake lever came to be optional equipment for several manufacturers. International Harvester added Orscheln to its catalog, and later General Motors Trucks did the same. Their first big order came in the late 1960s, when American Motors added the Orscheln brake as standard equipment on the Dodge.

Somewhere around 1960, the five Orscheln brothers divided up the family businesses. The major one was the trucking company. The several smaller ones were the brake company, an equipment dealership, a real estate venture, and a farm store or two. Four brothers took the trucking company, and Bill Orscheln took the rest. For a time, Orscheln Brothers Truck Line became the largest in the region from Kansas City to Chicago. The 1970s brought a number of management and operational challenges and in time, the trucking company ceased to be.

Bill Orscheln’s son, Jerry, a successful businessman in his own right, took over the farm supply business in the mid-60s and built it from 10 stores to a chain of more than 89 today, with annual sales in excess of $140 million. Bill’s other son, Don, continued mainly with the brake company. He and Jerry also operated many other businesses. Asked to categorize the family operations from the mid-60s to the mid-80s, Don Orscheln laughs, "I’ve got a whole box of corporate seals here that we no longer use. We’d try one thing, and if it didn’t work, we’d try another."

In 1987, Orscheln began a series of strategic expansions. One was a joint venture with a Japanese company to make parking brakes for American made Japanese cars. That company and another joint venture, which makes electric switches and sensors for the same market, have since been sold. The two largest North American suppliers of parking brakes, Orscheln and Dura, merged in 1994, and now lead that market. Orbseal, which makes auto sealants and adhesives, is a major supplier to that market domestically. Orbseal is also building new plants in England and Australia for further expansion into overseas markets.

Barry Orscheln, son of Don and grandson of founder Bill, started a commercial leasing company for Orscheln in the late 70's which became an industry leader by the time it was sold to Chase Manhattan Bank in 1986. After completing a one year commitment with Chase, Barry rejoined Orscheln Industries as Chief Financial Officer in 1986. He became president in 1990 and today oversees Orscheln’s varied enterprises. Barry Orscheln sees a course for the next 10 years not too much different from the last 10.

"The diversification we have now helps us hedge our bets, but we have no plans to spread ourselves out further. We want to stay in those businesses where we can make a difference and add value. Our goal is to be the best in every niche where we operate. Hardly a week goes by that we are not approached at least once about selling one of our companies or going public. Dura went public in August 1996, and we might do that with another company down the line. We have the best of both worlds now and plan to keep it that way."