Shores Bros. Auto Supply

1603-1609 Main

Lots 1, 2, 5, 6, & 25 thru 32, Block 16, C K & N Addition.

The Shores family originally started its business in Denver, Colo., in 1924. The business was founded by Torrance T., Ward, Gale and Grace Shores and was known as Rocky Mountain Rubber Company. The Shores family was originally from Beaver Crossing, Neb., and moved to Denver to begin their careers. By 1929 they were wholesaling tires, batteries and radios from their location at 465 South Broadway and had a fleet of 10 Model A Ford trucks to deliver the merchandise. Merchandise was purchased from nearby Gates Rubber Tire Company. Their customer base ranged from Colorado to Utah in the west and to western Kansas and Nebraska in the east. A branch store was set up in Goodland, Kan. in 1934.

Torrance Tate Shores was born at Beaver Crossing on January 12, 1898. One of six children, he experienced many childhood adventures around his father’s livery stable in Utica, Neb., where he grew up. With the exception of a few years studying animal husbandry at a Nebraska college, and working as a telephone lineman, Torrance (Tooie) dealt in automotive related interest, which was fast replacing the horse and carriage of his father’s day.

In 1934 Torrance (better known as T. T.) traveled to Goodland, Kan., to collect a delinquent account. He found the manager unable to pay and he was handed the keys to the troubled business. Believing he would be detained in Goodland for a few months, he called his wife, Bessie, to come with their three children, Torrance C., Beverly Maxine and Norman Dale.

Torrance and his family liked the people of this community so well that they decided to stay. In 1935 he left the Denver store and moved his family to Goodland where they made their permanent home.

The Goodland store quickly became successful and the other brothers followed Torrance’s lead by establishing branch stores in McCook, Kimball and York, Neb., as well as in Colby, Kan. It was at this time that the name of the business was changed to Shores Brothers Auto Supply. The various stores had shifted to selling automobile and tractor parts and rebuilding engines.

The first location of the business in Goodland was at 911 Main, but soon moved to 1219 Main. Shores Brothers leased the Cities Service bulk station in Goodland on May 2, 1935 and handled gasoline and oil products of that company. The business operated a tank truck that delivered to farmers at all times.

By 1940 the store was progressing beyond a small tire business and included automotive and farm implement parts. As the business grew, Torrance purchased a larger building at 1617 Main, the Beatty Building. The business had grown into a thriving enterprise, enjoying the patronage of local farmers and repair shops.

The new larger building that it now occupied was formerly a laundry started in 1923 by Walter Beatty and his son. The laundry featured very modern equipment for the time, including three big washing machines, a collar starcher, three mangles, and six shirt and collar ironers. The machinery was motor-driven. Instead of a wringer, the laundry featured a “water extractor” and had a special drying room. In the Beatty’s brief span of five years in business, the father and son had achieved a remarkable success in their venture. Starting in a small frame structure on the west side of Main with a modest investment and very limited equipment, their business had expanded until it required a $25,000 investment to provide them ample facilities to keep up with their work.

The new building the Beatty’s constructed on the east side of Main, had a frontage of 40 feet and a depth of 112 feet.

The laundry changed ownership in Jan. 24, 1935 as the Beatty Brothers sold out to the Eisenhausers, a father and son, from Fort Collins. Colo. After years of considerate and courteous service, the Beattys left Goodland. The elder Eisenhauser remained in Fort Collins looking after his plant there while the son, William Dean, ran the business in Goodland.

Eisenhauser wanted to do well by his newly adopted town, and decided to keep the same personnel, explaining that he couldn’t ask for more efficient workers than those he found at the Goodland Steam Laundry. Not making any change in this respect, he did in other ways. Different and cheaper services were installed, meeting the demands of depressed dollars. However, services already in operation at the plant were maintained.

A notable addition to the firm was Mr. L. E. Shacklett, a dry cleaner, who came from Denver highly recommended as all-around good cleaner. Mr. Shackett had a degree in chemistry, which aided him in attaining the degree of perfection in dry cleaning circles that he had won for himself. He had a business of his own in Denver, but the Eisenhauers lured him to Goodland.

Eisenhauser changed the name of his business beginning May 1, 1935 to the Paramont Goodland Laundry. The Paramont Laundry changed ownership in February 1939 and became the Ideal Laundry. R. W. Jackson of Larned, general superintendent of the Ideal laundries operating in Kansas took over the management and principal ownership of the Goodland laundry and the equipment was updated.

In 1940, a skating rink was located in this building, operated by Mr. & Mrs. I. C. Lane of Belle Paine, Kan. A maple floor was laid in the building and its interior redecorated.

Shores Brothers Auto Supply, Inc. later expanded into other locations in the 1600 block of Main including a building occupied by the Backland Company, which was located at 1605 Main in 1926 and Bockman’s Repair Service, which was located at 1607 Main in 1935. The Backland Company sold Hart-Parr Tractors. Ed DeFries owned the Sherman Motor & Implement Company at 1605 Main and 1607 Main from 1945 to 1964. He sold Minneapolis-Moline Tractors & Butler Steel Buildings. In 1945 Sam Cowperthwaite had his business in the building owned Ed DeFries. Shores Bros. Auto Supply acquired the location in 1965 to expand the business.

The Earl Rodman Garage and Sales also occupied the 1607 Main location until May 21, 1935 when Western Auto Sales opened for business there. Several makes of cars were sold there including Plymouth, Hudson, Terraplane and Auburn. In addition to the sale of new and used cars the firm also ran a general garage business, handling tires and accessories. 

Dizmang & Smith built a new filling station and garage in 1926 at 1603 Main. The building was all brick and masonry.  The garage sold USCO tires. In 1928 that location became the Marksheffel Motor Company and was owned by Al Marksheffel. In 1931, it became Marksheffel & Sill Motor Company; later Hugh Sill bought out Marksheffel. Paul Scott purchased the Sill Garage, from Hugo Sill in 1943 and Hugo Sill went into the armed services. Mr. Scott owned the business just one year when he sold it to Mr. Kenneth Puttroff. Puttroff had been employed at the business for eight years. The new business was called Puttroff Motor Company. Puttroff was there until 1946, when he sold it to Leonard Thompson.

Thompson went into partnership with his brother, Clarence Thompson and stayed at the location until 1958 when they sold it to Darold Finley. The new business was called Finley Pontiac Company. Finley had been a salesman with Handy Chevrolet Company. Finley remodeled the building in 1960 or 1961 and removed the gas tanks and filled in the corner to have a display room for new models of cars. In 1973, he constructed a new building on Highway 27 and moved his agency out there. His son, Danny later became a partner in the business.

In 1973, Shores Brothers purchased the building and rented it to Carriage Upholstery from 1975 to 1978. Tri State Pavement Stripping Inc. was located there from 1980 to 1981. Today the location is used for Shores Brother Lawn & Hardware Department.

Torrance C. Shores began working with his father immediately after returning from the armed services in World War II.  While stationed in Detroit, Mich., he met and married Dorothy June Shepherd of that city on May 5, 1946. Beverly Maxine married Bob Cook of St. Francis, Kan., on May 25, 1950. At the early passing of his father on January 4, 1953, Torrance C. Shores took over the management of the business. Norman Dean Shores joined the management after completing four years of college in Hays, Kan., where he met and later married Nancy Ann Sigrist of St. Joseph, Mo., on December 27, 1955.  Norman also served in the United States Navy from 1955 until 1957.

The two young brothers had the guiding hand of a life-long employee and their uncle, John C. Tilly, in the running of the family business. Dick Hurd, another long time employee, worked at Shores from February 1967 to 1999. Brother’s Torrance and Norman Shores and John Tilly, worked both as inside and outside salesmen until 1970, when the business ceased outside sales.

Torrance retired and sold his share of the business to Norman in 1984. Norman’s eldest son Steve began working at the store part-time in 1974 and, after graduating from college in 1980, started working full-time. Greg, another of Norman’s sons, began working at the store in 1993. Norman passed away on July 12, 1996. On January 1, 1999 Steve and Greg Shores became the third generation of brothers to own and operate the only remaining Shores Bros. Auto Supply, Inc. located in the same location at 1609 Main from 1940 to the present time, 2002.