Sibley, Frederick M.

Frederick M. Sibley was a Detroit lumber baron and industrialist. One of his major contribution to the development of Detroit was his lumber firm but another resulted from his cooperation with August Freuhauf. They contributed to the invention of the trailer truck. Early trucks, such as those Henry Ford attempted to produce before the founding of the Ford Motor Company, were delivery vans. Sibley and Freuhauf came up with the idea of building a trailer that might be pulled by a truck. Originally, they intended to transport lumber but their idea developed and expanded and, after World War I, trailer trucks became a common means of shipping goods. The Freuhauf company, for many years, played a dominant role in building trailers helping to make Detroit the
Industrial metropolis it became.