In the early 1900's from his farm in Barrington, Illinois Adwalt Hartwig ran a gravel truck business. His company put in many of the roads in the area including Barrington Rd, Randall Rd, and RT. 25. When the depression hit in 1928, Adwalt lost his gravel trucks.

Adwalt Hartwig awarded his first mail contract in 1929

He then decided to bid on a mail contract that included service to the towns of Island Lake and Lake Zurich. We continued to service these towns up until July of 2001. Adwalt ran this route until the early 50's when he turned it over to his youngest son Norman. This was a one vehicle route up until 1959.

The early 60's brought more contracts with service to Harvard and another to Clinton, Iowa. In 1962 Hartwig was awarded a multi tractor trailer, multi- driver contract. That is when Normans brother, Royal (RA) founded Hartwig Brothers. They continued this way into the mid 60's.

Marsha, Duane, Linda Steve, Greg, Keith, & Jerry Hartwig Truck named " go for broke " 1962

In 1966 Hartwig was awarded a large straight truck contract out of the north suburban postal facility. That was when Royal James(RJ), Wayne Wickwire, and Cecil Coghill came into the company as partners with Norman and RA. RJ moved from California, and Wayne who had already been driving since the early 60's moved into the office to run this growing company. Cecils background was working for the Post Office. 1966 is the year the company became incorporated as Hartwig Brothers/Hartwig Transit, Inc.

Royal ( R.J. ) Hartwig

Cecil Coghill

The seventies brought more and more large tractor trailer routes. In the mid 1970's Hartwig even had the Chicago Fleet trailer contract. Gerald Hartwig (son of Norman) started in 1972 as a driver and helper in the garage. In 1976 he started working in the office full time

The Eighties brought the opening of our Oshkosh, Wisconsin Terminal along with the Sharonville, Ohio facility (Cincinnati). Royal, who started in 1984 was a driver for eight years before moving into the office. You will still see him here and there driving, especially during the Christmas rush.

The company is now headed by Wayne, Gerald , and 4th generation Royal Jay. We currently operate about 100 trucks, run in 14 states, and run more then one million miles a month.

Being a family owned company we feel that all of our employees are part of our family. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their hard work and devotion. With everyones help through all these years, we've had First Class Delivery Since 1929.

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This page last modified on Monday, April 17, 2000