Company Description
Gilliland Tire & Engine
(877) 255-4415
Company Description
Gilliland Tire & Engine
(877)255-4415
We now offer you Bridgestone and Michelin National Account truck tire service in the same professional manner that the trucking industry has come to expect from us during our 32 year prior association with Goodyear. We also stock Bandag Retreads and other new tires as direct sale backups. Our fully stocked service truck is on call 24 hours a day to handle your commercial truck tire and emergency mechanical repairs.
Mechanical repairs have to be paid by Third Party Checking, Credit Card or Direct Bill.
Machine Shop
An automotive machine shop is available for engine rebuilding and cylinder head reconditioning.
Federal Mogul is the parts supplier of choice.
Outdoor Power Equipment
Business Hours & Contact Information
Service Calls are available on a 24 & 7 basis
Shop hours are Monday thru Friday 0730 – 1730; Saturdays 0730 – 1200; Sundays Closed.
E-mail address
Web address
Office phone
Voice, 24 Hour: 785 255 4415 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 785 255 4415 end_of_the_skype_highlighting
Fax: 785 255 4401
Physical address
Gilliland Tire & Engine
Centropolis / 809 Barnes Avenue
Ottawa, Kansas 66067
Coverage Area
Our perimeter of operation is basically an 80 mile driving distance from Centropolis. Service calls of the 100 mile range are possible when service trucks in those areas are unavailable.
Directions to Shop
From Interstate 35, Exit 187, take Highway K68 westbound 2 miles into Ottawa.
At the 1st stoplight, turn right on to Highway US59 northbound.
Proceed 6 miles north to Stafford Road.
Turn left across traffic and 4 miles westbound to the village of Centropolis.
Shop buildings are large metal structures on south side of road.
About Us
The saga of Gilliland Tire goes back to the 1920’s when Elmer Gilliland left home with a dream of establishing a new life and a new home in a new community. Intrigued always by machines and engines, Elmer worked first at the Studebaker dealership in Ottawa, then decided to further his training and start out on his own in a new town.
In 1925, after graduating from Sweeney Automotive School in Kansas City, he moved to Centropolis. In early 1926 he set up a blacksmith and repair shop one block north of what is the main street today. Later he moved to the present location at 809 Barnes Avenue, where he operated a general repair shop and gas station.
In those early days, he was fond of saying, “a man had to do what a man had to do”. He cut a 1930 Erskine in half, using the motor to power a sawmill behind the shop, furnishing native lumber for area barns and homes. He installed a sawdust-covered ice house, supplying ice regularly to the town, hauling it from Bennett’s Ice Plant in Ottawa, 12 long miles away.
With Yankee ingenuity, he rigged up a series of storage batteries, wired his own home and then others, furnishing electrical power to surrounding homes in the small town. In early 1940, when he sold the enterprise to Kansas City Power and Light, fourteen homes were being supplied by his room of storage batteries.
The ’30’s were hard, lean years but as the town fought grittily to stay alive, so did the fledgling business. Cash was scarce; the barter of cream, eggs, chickens and grain was common. “Town night” — Monday, Thursday, and Saturday — when local farmers brought produce to the Farmers Union general store across the street, also found the shop open. It provided a popular place for the men who clustered around the big pot-bellied stove swapping local news and yarns.
Adversity and setbacks — two close companions of the depression years. Too much work, too little pay, too many unpaid accounts. The helplessness of seeing a neighbor lose a farmstead; the worry of a friend’s loss of a job; the constant strain of wondering if there would be shoes on children’s feet, food for the babies’ mouths. Then, an almost crushing blow: a deposit made in the community bank, only to have it close the next day. The ‘dirty thirties’, in more ways than one. Not always does life play fair.
Yet for each downside of life, there is the upside – the struggles easing as better times come; the growth of business, the expansion into new lines.
Early in the 1940’s Elmer affiliated with the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, selling its products continuously through 1997. Goodyear recognized the business as the second oldest continuous dealership in Eastern Kansas.
Son Leland (Bud) grew up in the shop, pumping gas when it was 9.9 cents per gallon, washing windshields when he stood on a box to reach them. In 1947, after graduating from Appanoose High School, he joined in full-time operation of the shop, receiving training from the General Motors Training Center in Kansas City.
During the ‘50’s, expansion was made into the area of tractor tire repair. The became on of the first businesses in the area to offer on-farm repairs and services, serving the surrounding counties with their trucks.
Disaster struck December 18th, 1959. Fire broke out in the early morning hours and local neighbors, aided by the Ottawa Fire Department, battled to save the business – and the town. With 8,000 gallons of gasoline stored adjacent to the building, the very being of the town was indeed threatened.
And humans are odd creatures indeed. With sheriffs officers calling for evacuation of the town, most of the wakened villagers went instead to the long porch of the general store, sitting there to watch the blazing inferno across the street.
By spraying the remaining wall of the building between the fire and the storage tanks, the gasoline was kept cool enough to prevent explosion. Nothing was salvaged from the building itself except for a few melted coins from the cooled rubble of the cash register, but no lives were lost – all else palls in comparison.
So the rebuilding began. Never actually considered was the leaving of the small town. Centropolis was home. Neighbors came in with tractors and blades as soon as the ground was cool, leveling and preparing for a new structure. Within weeks a quonset frame rose as if in defiance of winter’s snow, rain, and cold. By spring, it was ‘business as usual’, picking up the pieces, as life goes on.
Recapping equipment was installed, and for eight years both car and truck retreads were produced and sold over a wide area. At the same time vulcanizing and section repairing were added, one of the few locations in eastern Kansas offering such a service.
During the 60’s it was a third generation, Leland Eugene (Gene) trailing in father’s footsteps and manning the gas pumps. 1967 saw Elmer’s semi-retirement and Bud became sole owner. In 1971 new son-in-law John Bowman joined the firm. With his coming, emphasis on tractor overhaul and repair was added.
Another facet was added to the business in 1981, when Gene returned from Air Force duty. He added a complete machine shop for engine rebuilding in an adjoining space at the rear of the original building, and thus Gilliland Engine Service was born.
In 1987, due to continuing health problems, Bud was forced to retire leaving the third generation of Gillilands to continue the business.
1991 was a year for changes. It began with the loss of the gasoline pumps. Then the addition of outdoor power equipment lines and a convenience store followed John’s departure for other employment.
October 1997 rocked the business when Goodyear decided the business no longer fit their mold. Bridgestone, Michelin and others soon filled the void in what has become a very successful commercial road service venture.