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White

The origins of White traces back to 1859 when Thomas Howard White formed a sewing machine company.
Under the name "White Sewing Machine Co." the company produced it´s first commercial in 1901. 3 and 5 ton steam trucks were prototyped in 1906, but went no further than White´s own transport fleet.
In 1906 White Co. was formed as a separate entity to produce cars and trucks. White turned from steam to gasoline power in 1910, and produced it´s first real heavy truck, a bonneted 3 tonner with chain drive.
During WW I the US Army ordered 18.000 trucks for the Allied Forces in Europe. Some organizational changes took place in this period, and the name was changed to the White Motor Co.
The Indiana Truck Corp. of Marion, Indiana was purchased from Brockway Motor Truck Company in 1932 and production moved to Cleveland. Same year White became involved with Pierce Arrow, manufacturing Pierce Arrow cars in Cleveland until 1934.
During WW II most of White´s production was given over to military vehicles, including 6 x 4 and 6 x 6 trucks.
White formed an agreement with Freightliner Corporation in 1951 to sell and service it´s trucks as White Freightliner. This agreement ran until 1977. Same year Sterling was taken over. Some trucks were sold as White-Sterling.
Also Autocar was taken over in 1951. Autocar survived as make within the White organization.
Reo Motors was the next acquisition in 1957. The following year Diamond T was taken over and was soon to merge with Reo, leading to Reo-Diamond.
Diesel power became standard in the late 1950´s.
In 1964 White formed the Western Star marque to serve the West Coast market. The Western Star trucks were procured at a new plant in Kelowna in British Columbia, Canada.
Production of White trucks was transferred to a new plant in New River Valley, Virginia in 1975, and a year earlier a new plant have been set up in Ogden, Utah for production of Autocar trucks. These heavy investments, combined with a downturn in the market, led to finical difficulties in 1980. White went into liquidation, and became part of Volvo as the Volvo-White Truck Corporation in August 1981.
In the beginning the company continued to market White and Autocar trucks but as Volvo influence increased the White name disappeared, and from 1995 all trucks were badged Volvo.