Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
In 1944 Orville and Mary Lewis arrived in Sweet Home, ready to start a new life.
Orville had been a log truck driver in Shelton, Wash., home of the Simpson lumber company, but had suffered badly burned his legs in a diesel explosion. His career as a truck owner and operator ended soon thereafter.
They arrived in a 1941 Studebaker pickup with their year-old son Jim and William, 7. A year later, they opened Santiam Motors at 1118 Main St.
Sixty years later, now called Santiam Supply, the store is still at the same address and it’s run by Jim Lewis.
Running an auto parts store was not his first choice, but it turned out to be a practical one.
Lewis, 61, graduated from Sweet Home Union High School in 1961, then served a two-year mission on an Indian reservation for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
He attended the University of Oregon, then graduated from Brigham Young University in 1970 and considered becoming a history teacher.
But his father had a business that someone needed to run.
“Dad said, ‘You want to do it or don’t you?'” Lewis recalled. He took over the shop that year with his brother William, a lawyer who later served as a Justice Court judge in Sweet Home, as a silent partner.
“I made the choice to get into it,” he said.
A lot has changed in the car and truck parts business he said.
“There’s much less engine work now,” Lewis said. “Engines do last longer. People don’t work on their engines as much. You usually need a technician.”
The increased complexity has also led to more inventory in the store and quicker access to parts, with delivery firms such as UPS.
“During (World War II) we had to use whatever we could cobble up,” he said.
Lewis said he’s seen retail sales drop over the years as vehicles have become more complicated, he said. But a steady stream of loggers and other users of heavy equipment walk through the doors, seeking hydraulic parts, brakes and other items for their machinery.
The automotive field has less competition these days in terms of suppliers, as the industry has consolidated, he said.
Instead of buying from “20 or 30 different warehouses,” the store is now affiliated with Carquest.
There’s not a lot of competition in Sweet Home either, he noted. The most auto parts stores he remembers being in town at once was “three or four.”
Lewis and his wife Jerryl, a first-grade teacher at Hawthorne School, have raised nine children in the store, and he’s seen a lot of changes over the years.
“Any time you’ve been doing something for 60 years, the community will have its ups and downs and we have too,” he said as he worked the counter in his store. “But we appreciate our customers. We’ve been able to raise a family here and stay in one spot. What the next 20 years will bring, no one knows.”
It appears they won’t bring a third-generation Lewis behind the counter.
The Lewises’ children are “scattered all over.” Their oldest daughter Teryl is married to a physician in Iona, Mich.; Allen teaches social studies at Navajo Mountain Reservation in southern Utah; Lori lives in Summit; Boyd lives in Sweet Home and is learning to be a carpenter; Spencer and Mark attend BYU-Hawaii; and Teresa attends Oregon State University. Their daughter Julie died of cancer two years ago and another daughter, Dawn, a math teacher at Sweet Home Junior High, died in a train wreck on her way to Summit the same year. Her son Neal, 2, who was born immediately after the accident, lives with Lori in Summit.
The Lewises have 10 other grandchildren as well.
Jim Lewis seems satisfied with his choice to stay behind the counter.
“I’ve been fortunate to stay in one spot most of my born days,” he said.