
Shetler Moving & Storage Inc.
800-321-5069 800-431-5300
History
B.J. Shetler started "B.J. Shetler Transfer & Storage in 1899 with
two teams of horses and two wagons. B.J. Shetler came to
Evansville, Indiana from Shetlerville, Illinois (near Golconda,
Illinois) on the riverboat with his family, a team of horses and a
wagon.
B.J. started hauling "Murphy Beds" from Globe Bosse World, Mfg., to
the train depot for shipment. B.J. would then move families from
one residence to another as a side income with his team of horses and
wagon. Eventually, B.J. Shetler began moving as B.J. Shetler
Transfer and Storage.
In 1916, B.J. Shetler got his first truck. Joseph B. Shetler,
the second son of B.J. Shetler, started working for his father at ten
years of age and after graduating high school worked full time with
Joseph Shetler taking over management of the company in 1940. The
name of the company also was changed to B.J. Shetler, dba, Shetler
Moving & Storage Co.
In 1945, Joseph B. Shetler bought the company from his father.
That next year, 1946, the company purchased their first tractor-trailer
unit, a new Fruehauf trailer especially designed to transport household
goods.
1948 was another big step forward for the company. Joseph B.
Shetler, along with 29 other movers throughout the country purchased
authority and started Atlas Van Lines, Inc. Atlas Van Lines
started out with nothing more than $3,000 seed money from each of
the 30 participants and today is the 2nd largest household goods
carrier In the United States with over 600 agents in both U.S. and
Canada.
After the death of Joseph B. Shetler in 1965 his son, Thomas J.
Shetler Sr., became the manager of the company. In 1985, Tom
Shetler Sr. and his brother, Robert O. Shetler Sr., purchased the
company from their mother, widow of Joseph B. Shetler, Martha J.
Shetler. They then opened an office and warehouse in Cincinnati,
Ohio in leased space and put in a manager from Cincinnati. The
Cincinnati office had out grown its facilities three times and had to
keep going to larger facilities until 1993 when the Cincinnati operation
purchased property and built a 25,000 square foot building on five and a
half acres of land.
Thomas J. Shetler Jr., son of Thomas J. Shetler Sr., is
Secretary/Treasurer of the corporation. Robert O. Shetler Jr., son
of Robert O. Shetler Sr., is now the general manager of the Cincinnati
office.
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