Carroll County Tire

The home building of Carroll County Tire holds much history in Flora. If the walls could tell a story of its History they would write a book. It would be filled with community stories from selling ice cream and sodas to the old candy case full of goodies.
The building was originally constructed for Bert Miller in 1933 as a small service station and as a one-person operation handling DX products. In 1930 Frank Brower and Ed Esserman purchased the business and operated it until 1940 when Lee Flora purchased it back.

Three years later in 1943 D.A Garrison purchased the business, and in August of 1945 Frank Brower and Ed Esserman returned once more and took over operations. In 1947 Esserman took over sole ownership until 1956 when Gene Michael and Tom Gibson who were employees of Esserman Tire became partners and purchased the business.

The named was never changed because Esseman’s was established and built by the community. E.E. Viney owned the original location and purchased the building in the late 1930’s and sold to Esserman Tire Service in 1965.

Soon after this, Esserman’s replaced most of the building with the current buildings. When the residence east of the business became available, they replaced it with an alignment shop, mechanical shop, and warehouse for storing large Ag tires. Later, there was a truck alignment bay added.

Owners Tom Gibson and Gene Michael added another location on 1967 in Logansport and in 1971 put in a store in Frankfort. At this time, they were one of the largest volume tire dealers in Indiana and also in Agriculture Specialty tires and wheels. They became affiliated with one of the largest tire dealers in the United States. Mr. Esserman retired in 1975 and moved to Arizona, returning to Flora in 1994, where he passed away in 1999. Gene Michael managed the Frankfort store until selling his interest to Terre Woods and Curt Gibson. When Tom retired in 1993, Curt Gibson took over management of the Flora store location.

In 1992, Esserman Tire Service gave up 60 years of gasoline service but continued to grow the tire and auto services. In June of 2007, the Frankfort and Flora store divided. Curt and Tom retained ownership of Flora and Terre, the ownership of Frankfort. The Flora store changed its name to Carroll County Tire operating as its own entity. In April of 2011 Tom Gibson passed away leaving Curt Gibson as sole owner where he currently manages operations with his daughter and daughter-in-law. Carroll County Tire is a family-owned business with small town value and community loyalty

March 03, 2014


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