Tar Heel Treasures: Richard J. Corbitt and the Corbitt Motor Truck

Tar Heel Treasures: Richard J. Corbitt and the Corbitt Motor Truck tells the important story of two of North Carolina’s largely and undeservedly forgotten Tar Heel Treasures. Little known today except among a cadre of aficionados, R.J. Corbitt and the Corbitt motor truck deserve a far better fate. For more than a half century, from 1899 to 1952, Corbitt sought to add transportation and trucks to North Carolina’s famed “three Ts”—tobacco, textiles, and timber. Corbitt the man, an innovative, visionary leader, created organizations that manufactured buggies, wagons, automobiles, trailers, farm tractors, and, above all, distinctive motor trucks, all bearing his name. More importantly, Corbitt recognized the key role that specific types of vehicles would play in each phase of the economic development of the Tar Heel State, the South, and the nation. Corbitt’s innovative efforts began in 1899 with the establishment of the Corbitt Buggy Co., followed by the production of automobiles offered in 1911 and the first “heavy-duty” truck built in 1913. The legacy of the nearly 40 years that followed includes the dramatic stories of a still-born merger with the Sterling Motor Truck Co. and an “E Award” for “Excellence in Production” in World War II.