With humble beginnings in 1929 my grandfather, Orel J. Shugarts, started a one gas pump service station on Ogden Avenue in Clearfield. When the water line was installed on Park Avenue in 1946, my grandfather purchased three lots behind his present home. At the time Park Avenue was still a dirt road. On one lot he built a new home and on the other two of those lots he built the garage structure that is still present today. People thought he was crazy to build a new garage for his business on a dirt road. He proved them wrong when Park Avenue became PA State Route 153 and a main road out of Clearfield serving the southern part of Clearfield County.
In 1961 my father Lloyd W. Shugarts, in partners with my grandfather, purchased three Wheel Horse Garden Tractors. My father said to my grandfather “If we don’t sell these three tractors by the end of the year I’ll keep one, you can have one, and my brother Jim can have one”. Fortunately they did not have to do that.
I started to work for my father when I was just twelve years old for 50 cents an hour. Since then the business has grown to several major lines of outdoor power equipment. After graduating from high school in 1979 I worked in the shop as a mechanic. In 1983 the gas pumps were removed and a show room was built to display all of the equipment that we had for sale. After the death of my father in 1991, I hung up the wrenches and picked up a computer keyboard. I am proud to be the 3rd generation in the family to operate this business.
-Gary L. Shugarts