Wise Bros. Inc. History

In 1877, brothers John and James Wise purchased 2 farms across a dirt road from each other, southwest of McCredie MO. Little did they know that that dirt road would one day become Interstate 70.

In 1927, in the summer between his junior and senior years of high school, John Wise's son Lowell decided to open a gas station on the south side of the new highway 40. He rented five acres of land from his uncle, James Wise, and built a small station with two pumps. At that time, he became a dealer for Sinclair gasoline products. At the end of the summer, when he returned to school, he enlisted his parents and uncle to run the station during the day. After graduating from McCredie High School in 1928, Lowell also became a dealer for Goodyear tires. In 1930, he became a dealer for Standard Oil.

John Wise's other son Owen Wise moved his family to a new house on the north side of the road in May, 1931. At that time, Owen started another gas station on the north side of the highway. He sold Shell products and later Texaco.

In 1937, J.O. Wise, Owen Wise's son, graduated from high school and became an equal partner in the business.

Almost immediately, the south station was extended to the west for a repairs shop, and then east and south again, until it was a sizeable structure. At one point, Wise Bros. sold Standard on the south and Texaco on the north.

Wise Bros. acquired other lines of merchandise, the most important being the agency for the sale of Allis Chalmers farm equipment in 1934, with the attending repair parts and service. Allis-Chalmers marketed a small, efficient W.C. Model tractor and an all-crop pull-type combine that worked well. That year, they sold 4 W.C. tractors, a threshing machine, a plow, and a disc. The time was ripe for a change to mechanized equipment and the market was good. Wise Bros. even took a few horses and mules as "trade-ins."

In the farm store, Wise Bros. handled many lines of merchandise through the years. They augmented the Allis-Chalmers farm equipment with machinery from the following manufacturers: Massey-Harris (especially combines), Case tractors, New Idea, New Holland Balers, Kewanee, Butler grain storage bins with drying fans, Behlen Crop Dryers, elevators (both auger and drag), Sheffield Steel fencing equipment, baler wire and twine, Philco white goods and televisions, Armour, Swift, and Olin-Mathieson fertilizer, chemicals from several companies (both pesticides and herbicides), seed (with re-cleaning by their own equipment, growing certified seed under their own label). In addition, they had a Dodge-Plymouth car agency for several years.

Between all this, they sold gasoline to many tourists, being dealers for Sinclair, Standard, Texaco, Shell, and DX. They also did custom planting and harvesting for several farmers in the area, and sold thousands of candy bars, bottles of "pop," and packages of cigarettes.

Meanwhile, since land was cheap, Wise Bros. continued to expand their farmland as land became available. They practiced soil conservation at all times, and were innovative in crop selection, cropping lespedeza and soybeans early. In the 1940s, Wise Bros. grew hybrid seed corn for Missouri Hybrid Seed Company. They experimented with pesticides and herbicides early in the game.

The merchandising side of the Wise Bros. business came to a halt the very day the barricades were taken down on the new highway, Interstate 70, in 1963. The business building and gas station on the south side of the road had already been razed to make way for the south lane of the highway. The same year, they built a new metal building on the north side of the new interstate to house their farm equipment dealership. That shop became the main center of business for Wise Bros., and the north gas station was closed.

In 1964, Wise Bros. hosted the Missouri State Corn Picking Championship, which featured hand picking by both men and women, and mechanized picking with corn pickers and combines. The contest was located on the McCredie Farm west of the railroad tracks in McCredie MO on the south side of St. Charles Road. The event attracted thousands of people from across the state.

Lowell and Owen Wise continued running Wise Bros. until their deaths in 1976 and 1984 (respectively).

After the passing of Lowell and Owen, J.O. continued to run the business and farm with Robert Hopper and Wilbur Glover, his longtime employees. When Deutz-Fahr of Germany bought Allis Chalmers in the mid-80s, an aging J.O. ended Wise Bros.' long running Allis-Chalmers dealership but continued selling short line equipment.