2004 Year in Review

Golden Business: R.C. Smith Transportation

Merle Reisenbigler and R.C. Smith in 1994

Terry Smith, R.C. Smith, Merle Reisenbigler, and Vicki Wiebenga in 2001

R.C. Smith in the late 1950's

R.C. Smith, Merle Reisenbigler, and staff in 1975

Mention R.C. Smith around this area and almost everyone knows their school buses, the limo service, or their sign at the south end of Morrison. Then people want to know if Mr. Smith still owns the business. The answer was always, “He sold the business and moved to Florida.” But after last month the answer is, “He has passed away.”

R.C. Smith Transportation is one of Morrison’s Golden Businesses (50+ years in business) as the Sesquicentennial approaches next year. For the last 20 years Merle Reisenbigler has been more closely recognized with the business locally than Robert C. Smith. But there are many that still remember the entrepreneur who hired many Morrison residents.

It all started in 1952 when Smith saw a need and a business started. Prairie Center School needed to transport their student to and from school. He was a Rural Mail Carrier at the time but thought if he could find someone to take the children to school, Smith could drive them home. He drove to Pontiac, Illinois and found a bus for $1600. Smith Bank told him he needed a co-signer and a contract with Prairie Center School and he managed both. Kenny and Vivian Tenboer were his first drivers. Two years later Union Grove and four buses were added. By 1956 Morrison High School was added and the Grade School around the same time.

From there many of the other schools were serviced in the area including Coleta, Emerson, Tampico, Erie, Albany, Thomson, and many more. Around 85 vehicles were contracted out to schools and they became the largest school bus contractor outside Chicago.

Their first small charter bus held 25 passengers and was purchased in the early 50’s. He and Barney Gorzney ran back and forth to the Wire Mill 4-5 times per day. In 1955 he purchased a 37 passenger Aeor Coach for $1200. Sometime around 1964 Smith sold the charter business to Thomeway Lines to concentrate on school buses.

Reisenbigler was the manager of the East End Texaco from 1958-1964 and Smith brought the buses down for him to wash at $4.00 each. Later Reisenbigler found the courage to ask if he could wax the buses also. He made $30 a piece to detail the buses inside and out. That is how the long-term relationship began.

“He was always working on a new idea,” explained current owner Reisenbigler. “I remember once he had a yellow legal pad and at the top he wrote ‘An assassination of a desire’. He explained he wanted to go back in the charter bus business. He thought he could buy a bus for $10-12,000 and he had written down what the cost of running the bus versus the money that could be made and said there was no way it would pay.”

Not long after that in 1970 he retired from the mail route and withdrew $26,000 from his Post Office retirement and bought a 1953 or 54 Greyhound and he was back in the charter bus business. Around that time Smith purchased Scenic Stage Lines from Hanover, Illinois. Founded in 1942 it was one of the oldest interstate companies in the area. Scenic had interstate authority to take charter trips out of state. Before deregulation the permits were hard to get so buying Scenic gave him that authority. Scenic Stage Lines was purchased for around $125,000 and included four coaches. It was operating three daily buses between Hanover, Freeport, back to Hanover, Savannah, Clinton, Quad Cities, then back through Clinton to Freeport. It was mostly freight and funeral flowers moving. There was no profit in the route.

If Smith had one bus paid off as soon as he had the title he went out and purchased and financed another one. Between 1952 and 1985 he bought and sold over 150 assorted vehicles.

Their most famous passenger was Smith’s second cousin President Ronald Reagan. During both of his election campaigns through Illinois in 1976 and 1980 Smith transported Reagan on a Scenic Stage Line bus.

In the 50’s Smith started Morrison Taxi Co. a taxi business in Morrison. His wife Dorothy drove for the 24-hour service. They would pick up passengers and take them to the grocery store, doctors office, cemetery, anywhere around town for just 35 cents a trip. Later he sold the business to retired policeman Frogs Welch. When Welch started loosing his eyesight Reisenbigler took it over while running the East End Texaco. The fare was 50 cents. He sold the business to retired policeman George Jarks. When Jarks could not operate it anymore Smith took it over again. Resthave was an important client at that time.

One day Gene Smith, R.C.’s brother called from General Electric and wondered if they could pick up boxes and people in Chicago. That was the beginning of limo service to Chicago. The rate was $35. That small start enlarged into transferring passengers from Neilson Clearing House, Clinton Corn, Northwestern Steel and Wire and other companies to Chicago and back. At its height before 9/11 the limo service made 22 trips a day to Chicago. Now they make about 100 trips per week. Companies are downsizing, along with emailing and teleconferencing, it has eliminated some of the business travelers.

R.C. Smith Transportation originally was located in a barn off of Cherry Street in the alley near his home. In 1968 the current property on South Portland was purchased. It was the old County Highway Garage.

At one time Smith started selling antique cars. Vintage Used Cars, as he named the new business, started with a 1910 Model T and 1929 Model A among other vehicles. A young man named Bruce Hunter was just getting his start in the auto body business. Hunter purchased the Cherry Street barn from Smith using his last dime for a $1000 down payment. Smith told him to keep the money in exchange for sanding and painting his used cars. “That was the kind of guy he was,” Hunter explained. “If he liked you, he liked you.”

After Reisenbigler left the Texaco station in 1964, he started working for the Secretary of State investigating car dealers, checking their licenses. Around 1966 or 67 Smith invited him to work nights in the garage on North Cherry Street. Just a few years later in 1970 when Smith retired from the Post Office he hired Reisenbigler as manager. Smith enjoyed driving the charter buses and seeing the country on someone else’s dime but did not enjoy the day-to-day business.

Reisenbigler remembers riding with R.C. into Chicago on a coach about 1955. The old buses steered so hard; he could get up and leave the driver’s seat. He claimed he could watch the edge of the road and if the bus started to veer, he could turn around and run back up front.

The business was a family affair for the Smiths. Robert’s wife Dorothy was the first female school bus driver in Whiteside County along with doing the bookwork. She continued to drive a route until the business moved to the Portland property. Then she took over running the office but continued to be a substitute driver.

Smith’s two children Terri Smith and Vicki Wiebenga both did their time at the garage. Starting in junior high they washed and waxed buses all summer. While washing, if someone needed taxi service around town they would stop what they were doing to run the taxi. While going to Sauk Vicki also ran a Special Ed route on her way to school. Eventually Vicki started working in the office with her mother and stayed until 1977 when she became a “stay at home mom”.

“I loved it,” Vicki remembers.

In 1984 Dorothy passed away of cancer and R.C. lost interest in the business. Smith retired to Daytona Beach, Florida in 1985 at the age of 68.

That same year Reisenbigler and his wife Sharon purchased Smith’s company. At that time the company had 10 full-time employees but 65 persons employed. There were 50 vehicles including 30 school buses.

Today R.C. Smith Transportation and Scenic Stage Lines still has around 60 employees. All the help is part-time except for office workers and mechanics. Reisenbigler’s son Dale has become part of the historically family operation as office manager.

They have been and continue to be an important part of Morrison and its history. Through the years no one has gotten rich off the business but many people were employed and made a living off of it. They may not have created a product but millions of dollars were brought into the community and many people were moved in the process.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
March 18, 2004