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Elmer Smith’s family was concerned about his fascination with airplanes, he wanted to build them, and he wanted to fly them. His family thought airplanes were dangerous so they got him interested in boats, which were much safer. Elmer later became the founder of Smith Equipment.
Elmer decided to go boating on Lake Erie over a weekend but his boat soon developed engine problems and he was stranded at a boat works in Port Clinton, Ohio that was managed by a Mr. Schmidt. Schmidt’s employees were off for the weekend but Elmer didn’t want to wait until Monday for the repairs to begin. He wanted his motor repaired in the worst way by Sunday morning. Mr. Schmidt had a son who worked for him named Nelson; he was very talented. Nelson worked all night and by morning Albert’s boat was "purring like a kitten". Albert was so impressed he told Nelson to stop by Minneapolis if he ever wanted a job with his company. Nelson Schmidt took Elmer Smith up on his job offer awhile later.
George Huber’s grandma lived in a big house on University Avenue a block or two from the Smith plant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. German Engineers from the Smith plant would room at her house. George’s grandma could speak German. The German Engineers would work on the air separation plant located within the Smith plant. Some of these engineers working on the plant also worked on German U-boats.
Smith hired Nelson Schmidt as a salesman and he was lucky enough to room at George’s Grandmothers house. He was friendly and very helpful. One day on his own he sanded the dining room chairs, took them apart and re-glued them. Nelson was an assistant-welding instructor for the defense plants. He was so talented he won a National contest sponsored by Fisher Body for his replica of a stagecoach. Schmidt had a great sense of humor and a loud unique laugh. George and Nelson soon became good friends. They were so close they planned a vacation to Port Clinton, Ohio together, with their families; George with Vivian and the twins and Nelson with his wife Dorothy. The vacation didn’t take place because George was laid off from his job with the State of Minnesota.
George and Nelson talked about starting their own oxygen-acetylene supply route. At the time truck-supply routes were very successful out East and there seemed to be a gas distributor in every town. Most of the gas warehouses in Minnesota doubled as weld shops, so they were in competition with the customers they sold to. Nelson talked George into going in on an "oxygen-acetylene" route with him (didn’t take much convincing) he told George that a route would "work damn good here" Nelson knew that George would be good at sales, and was someone he could trust. In the summer of 1939 George and Nelson got a hold of an old truck. They welded a stake-bed box together to carry cylinders. While doing this George learned a lot about welding and cutting.
Soon after Smith Company came out with an electric welder, but Elmer didn’t like the ventilated top so he asked Nelson to make a better one. Nelson engineered just what Elmer requested.
George secured oxygen and acetylene cylinders from Commercial Gas, and started lining up customers for his route. They decided that Southern Minnesota would be a prime starting point for the route since it faired well during the depression, and was enjoying favorable conditions at the time. Nelson was on a sales trip in eastern South Dakota and every night George and himself would touch base on the phone. One night George told Nelson that he had lined up 16 customers for the route and Nelson told him: "doing a great job George, keep it up!"
After a route George stopped to fuel his truck up at a SHELL station between Hopkins and Excelsior. The owner of the station told George that he better get home, his wife had some "news" for him. Nelson was killed in a car crash. It was the first part of September 1939. On a foggy evening just outside of Watertown South Dakota, Nelson was rounding a curve when a car with 5 drunks came from the other direction and crossed the centerline into a head on collision. Only one person survived the wreck.Nelson was a major supporter of the business. Nelson was bank rolling the project and kicked in $25.00 a week to keep "food on the table" at George’s house. When George’s folks came to the funeral George borrowed money from his dad to keep the new business going. After his 1st month in business, George had cleared $50.00, he was very happy with the business, but the loss of his friend and business partner weighed heavy on him.
Since then Huber Supply has remained family owned and operated and has seen four generations of Huber's work at Huber Supply. It has grown to two stores; one located in Mason City, Ia. and the other in Owatonna, Mn., and is continuing to grow. George is still very involved in the business and at over 90 years old. Huber Supply will always remain "first in quality and first in service"!
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