Rihm Monthly Magazine - February 2025 - Magazine - Page 20
A RIHM HISTORY
RECAP
written by the Rihm family
We often wonder what our founder imagined when he
formed Rihm Motor Company. What would he think of
what his company, his vision, and his dream has become?
John B. Rihm (J.B.) was born near Johnsburg, MN in 1892.
J.B. only completed 8th grade, yet he was born with the
gift of salesmanship and began selling hardware and
sporting goods in the mid 19-teens. In about 1916 he
started selling cars at Midway Chevrolet, and then formed
a partnership with two others in 1920 to purchase Owen’s
Motors, a Ford dealership. From the very beginning, he
lived his motto: treat other people the way you would
want to be treated. His commitment to “The Golden Rule”
was and is the bedrock of the owners to this day. J.B. lived
this motto, and taught it to his family and teams – a key to
Rihm’s success and longevity.
When the stock market crashed in 1929, marking the
beginning of The Great Depression, the Ford dealership
suffered along with the rest of the country and the world.
J.B. became very frustrated when Ford introduced the
new Model A’s and the factory continued to send them
Model T’s. He knew customers would want the latest and
greatest if they had money to spend on a new automobile!
He decided to sell his share of the business to his partners
in 1930 and formed a new company named Northwest
Motor Equipment Company with a gentleman named Art
Bendix, the plant manager at the Twin Cities Ford Plant.
They sold road building equipment including Galian
graders, LinkBelt shovels, Union wire rope and Marmon
Herington trucks.
By 1932, J.B. bought out Mr. Bendix and started Rihm
Motor Company selling the same products and adding
Federal, Diamond T and Divco trucks throughout the
1940s. The “born salesman” had followed his vision to
19
provide for his family
and provide good
jobs to others as a
business owner despite
experiencing World
War I, the Spanish Flu
pandemic, The Great
Depression and World
War II.
Also during the 1940’s,
J.B. and his son, Walter,
became acquainted
with Paul Pigott and his
son Chuck. Mr. Pigott
was the majority owner of Pacific Car and Foundry, now
known as PACCAR. He would send his son Chuck out to St.
Paul from Seattle to pick up payments for rail cars sold to
the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railroads. Chuck
would call Walter after finishing his business to pick him
up, go to lunch, and hitch a ride to the airport.
At some point in about 1948, Bob O’Brien, the sales
manager for Kenworth Truck Company, approached J.B.
with a proposition. On a visit to Rihm Motor Company, Mr.
O’Brien told him that they already had three dealers out
west (Roberts’ Motors, Portland; Kenworth Sales, Salt Lake
City; and Williams Equipment, Spokane) and wanted to
expand east. Kenworth was sitting on four trucks they had
built for a customer who canceled their order. Mr. O’Brien
said, “We have these trucks we can’t sell elsewhere. We’ll
leave them with you to see if you can sell them.” J.B., being
a salesman at heart, sold them right away to Oski Bros., a
petroleum hauler, whose owner said of these big, heavy
conventionals, “These trucks we bought each weigh 3
pounds less than the Queen Mary!”
