The Genesis of
Stone
Bridge
Trucking
Where did the word
“
Stonebridge
”
in Stonebridge Trucking
come from?
Last December, during the Stonebridge Christmas party, that question was
posed to the company
’
s founder, Butch Kennedy.
During the
80’
s, Butch lived outside of Greensburg,
IN in which there was an old stone bridge he crossed
every day to get home. One day, after receiving a lot
of rain, the river the bridge crossed flooded and the
bridge was highly damaged and half of it collapsed
deeming it structurally unsafe to utilize. Butch
’
s fa-
ther, Paul Kennedy, was well into his
80’
s when he
decided that day, he wanted to see his son. The au-
thorities had yet to blockade the bridge to prevent
utilization, when he remembers seeing his father af-
ter he had crossed the bridge.
Butch vividly recollects the conversation he had
with his elderly father
. “
I came home, and to my
surprise, my father was waiting for me on my
porch with his socks and shoes off. He crossed
another flooded bridge prior to crossing the old
stone bridge in front of my house. I said Dad,
why in the world did you cross that bridge, you could have been killed
?”
His Dad respond-
ed simply
“
I wanted to see my son
”.
Shortly after this exchange, the county authorities arrived
and assessed the damage and shut down the bridge entirely. Butch remembers thinking to him-
self
“
My father is the last person to crossed that
old stone bridge
”.
In 1992 Butch Kennedy started Stonebridge An-
tiques and would later go on to found Stonebridge
Trucking in 1999 when his son left for the military.
“
I
no longer needed insurance for Shane once he
joined the military, so I took a chance at working
for myself, and gave the trucking industry a
shot
”.
Butch started the company with 2 trucks, and
would only drive on the weekends when he had free
time from his original job.
“
We registered my
pickup truck for expedites and had a 1992 Ford
F
–
350 with a 16ft box on the back. I was so ex-
tremely appreciative when Batesville Tool and
Die gave us our first load
”.
Butch worked extremely hard to start the company, took a chance, and is proud of the results.
“
I am proud that it worked, and am proud of what it stands for. When I see the name
StoneBridge, I always think back to my father on that day. He wanted to see his son, and
nothing was going to stop him from doing that.