Armbruster & Company was formed in 1887 by Tom Armbruster, Charles Kaiser and Walter Walkford to build and repair horse-drawn vehicles in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Fort Smith is located along the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, and at the time was a busy supply depot catering to settlers moving west into Indian Territory. Armbruster built "holdup proof” stage coaches that featured secret compartments for valuables that were built into the coaches floors and interiors, compartments that would re-appear during prohibition.
Sometime between 1921 and 1923, Jordan Bus Lines, a Fort Smith bus company, commissioned Armbruster to build them an extended-wheelbase multi-door touring car-based coach that could be used for short inter-city runs as Jordan had found that using a half-empty full-sized 25-29 passenger coach on short runs was a money-losing operation.
Subject ID: 17274
MoreArmbruster & Company was formed in 1887 by Tom Armbruster, Charles Kaiser and Walter Walkford to build and repair horse-drawn vehicles in Fort Smith, Arkansas. Fort Smith is located along the Arkansas-Oklahoma border, and at the time was a busy supply depot catering to settlers moving west into Indian Territory. Armbruster built "holdup proof” stage coaches that featured secret compartments for valuables that were built into the coaches floors and interiors, compartments that would re-appear during prohibition.
Sometime between 1921 and 1923, Jordan Bus Lines, a Fort Smith bus company, commissioned Armbruster to build them an extended-wheelbase multi-door touring car-based coach that could be used for short inter-city runs as Jordan had found that using a half-empty full-sized 25-29 passenger coach on short runs was a money-losing operation.
Armbruster sold completed coaches through Queen City's distribution firm, which was called Stageway.
Stageway, located at 414 East Court St. in Cincinnati, was managed for Queen City by Cincinnati native Ed Robben. Earlier on Robben had developed a lasting relationship with Armbruster & Co.
Soon after the War, Tom Armbruster had decided to retire and when Charles Kaiser, the other remaining partner, suffered a heart attack in 1949, Armbruster offered the business to Robben.
The reciprocal relationship with Stageway/Queen City continued through 1962 when Robben finally convinced the Marx family, who owned Queen City, to sell him their Stageway subsidiary.
Robben immediately relocated Stageway to Fort Smith, incorporating it as Stageway Coaches, Inc.
Subject ID: 17274
Subject ID: 17274