Hennis Freight Lines 1933 Tapestry

Hennis Freight Lines was founded in 1933 by brothers S.A. and H.L. Hennis of Mt. Airy, North, Carolina. When the Hennis brothers sold their trucking company to Shirley Mitchell in 1946, Mitchell moved the company to Winston-Salem and began his quest to become the largest individual owned trucking company in the world... and he very well could have succeeded. Hennis grew rapidly through acquisition of other lines, but unfortunately, Mitchell’s theory on maintenance was a little short-sighted. He thought it was better to buy new equipment, rather than repair the old. This led to a lack of common parts, with little or no parts inventory, which left Hennis trucks stranded all over the system when they broke down.