Mike Willard, Holyoke Street
“My great, great, great grandfather bought the first motor truck in Northampton, the first motor truck, yep. Before that was all wagons.”
Interviewer: What would you say was the most valuable thing you learned from your dad?
Mike Willard: How to repair trucks.
“What happened was coal was going down the tubes, all the places were closing. And owners just wanted to get rid of the liability. So my father bought [the coal trestle] for $2,000. And then he tore it down. In fact, all these beams are still in use on the garage here. Some beams — because of the trains — were 16 by 24 inches by 50 feet long, one piece of wood. And up in Northfield, the nuclear power plant — to build the dome — they needed wood, and my father had it, and he made enough money from selling that wood to build all this. At 36 years old.”
Harold Willard, center, with one of the beams from the old coal trestle beside them.
