[Back]

History of  HOAR  Transport

in progress....

The two sons of Silas and Mahala Hoar were Everett and Harold. Everett joined the Army Engineers and in 1919 served in France during WWI.  Harold worked on the family farm.  After returning home, Everette married in 1920.  He and Harold were working on the Henry Hoar Apple farm and heard that their type of product was wanted in Toronto.  Soon after, the two boys bought a Chevrolet truck and began hauling apples to Toronto.  Not long after, other farmers in the area asked the boys to haul items to and from Toronto and thus the haulage business began.   About 1921 they formed Hoar Transport, in 1923 they owned the Central Garage on Allin's Lane, Orono, Ont. and operated from there.  At some point during this early business a story was told of the night when hauling cheese and being overloaded they caused the old bridge at Brooklyn, Ontario to collapse.  One of their first major contracts was with Goodyear and part of the deal was that one of the brothers must live in Bowmanville.  Everett and his wife, Luta, moved to that town and lived on King St.  In 1926 they had over 100 trucks but during the depression days they decided to fold the trucking company.  Harold began hauling logs out of Timmins, Ont.  Everett later rebuilt the Hoar Transport company and along with his son, Charles, they ran the company.  One of their yards was on Gerrard St. E..  Hoar Transport was sold to CN (Canadian National Railways) when Everett retired.  Harold returned from the north and secured the license of Gilson Automobile Transport Limited.  It was during this time that a car trailer dropped on Harold's leg and broke it;  with his leg not fully mended he drove all the way to Florida and that was responsible for his slight limp.  Harold, later, sold the company and the new owners renamed it Roadway Transport.  These owners defaulted on the mortgage and Harold reclaimed Roadway and operated the company until c.1960 when he sold it again.  He remained vice-president until his death in 1966.  Roadway transported automobiles and the main yard was on Gerrard St. E., Toronto with others at Oshawa, Windsor and Montreal.  Charlie went on to form Freightmaster along with the son of the former owner of TPT  (Orig. Tanner & Co. Transport of Toronto; Clifford Tanner owned and operated TPT and his son, Robert (Bob) Tanner managed it when it was sold to CN; TPT information curtsey of S. Tanner - Oct, 2009)
 

Letterhead for the
Hoar Transport Limited
c. 1930

 

Hoar tractor-trailer
c.1953

 

Roadway Transport
c.1960

 


From "Oval" the official bulletin of Roadway Transport Limited a tribute to Harold was included in the Dec, 1972.  Among his early trucking endeavors the summation contained ...  "the twirling of his cigar during the 'big deals';  the glint in his eye representing a reprimand;  the alternative twinkle of the eye showing approval;  these said volumes to those of us knowledgeable of Harold" ...

Harold had told me (Paul Turner) that he would never allow a dirty truck on the road.

 

 
 Tanner & Co. Transport, Toronto

Believed to be a 1919 Leland truck

photo and TPT info curtsey of S. Tanner (Oct, 2009)