As former New Deal Warehouse owner Louis Smither enters his much deserved retirement years, he looks back on his diverse working history and commitment to Platte County as he turns ownership of his long-time business over to new owners, Gary and Mary Haer, and Megan Haer-Schmidt.
His dad was a farm tenant and Smither grew up on a farm. When he later bought a farm near Weston on H Highway., Smither began doing chores and running farm equipment. His tobacco expertise began at an early age when he started in tobacco beds at 6 years old when his family was raising plants in hot beds. He was 12 when machinery began being used.
“Raising tobacco is, and was a lot of manual labor,” Smither said. “Even today it requires 250 man hours of labor to produce an acre of burley tobacco. Weston boys in the 1960s grew up around tobacco, be it tobacco and football, tobacco and basketball, tobacco and track, tobacco and baseball. Youth could always find a job in tobacco or hauling square bales of hay.”
Since he was a young man in the draft age, and believed the military is a good learning tool for anyone or everyone, in 1971, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves. He was stationed in Kansas City, Kan. In the 842 Quarter Master division in Petroleum Supply, a group that had returned from a duty in Vietnam.
“If you know the song about ‘Last Train to Clarksville’, I took a plane and bus to Fort Campbell, Ky. for basic and Fort Lee, Va. for active duty training,” Smither said. “Summer camps were in Fort Riley, Kan. Camp McCoy, Wis. And Fort Lee, Va. over the next six years. Other than the military experience and attending a meeting with Gen. Westmorland, I got to visit Washington, D.C., Richmond, Va., Williamsburg, the Wisconsin Dells, Madison, tobacco patches in Wisconsin, and Manhattan, Kan. at night. I also got to spend a week at Walter Reed Army Hospital chasing a kidney stone, not the most wonderful place to be during the Vietnam War and returning soldiers that require help.”
Wrestling has also been a passion in Smither’s life. When West Platte introduced wrestling in the 1961-1962 school year, he began his wrestling career as a 127 pound sophomore with a 5-4 record. As a junior, he was up to 133 pounds and was 6-2-2. By his senior year he was up to 138 pounds and was up to 11-2
“In 1964, West Platte had its first district placers,” Smither said. “I was one of the three. There were 32 teams in our district, size made no difference, one class fit all. Two went to state in each weight class. The three schools that started in ‘61-’62 were West Platte, Faucett (MB) and Plattsburg. Platte City joined later. West Platte spent its time wrestling Lafayette, Leavenworth, Faucett, Plattsburg, Maryville, North Kansas City, and Grandview.”
His high school years were busy playing football, wrestling and track. He played baseball each summer. Raising a crop of tobacco each year put him through college. Since he was not that great as a ‘studier’ in high school, he was committed to studying in college and made it a habit in college to make the Dean’s List.
He received a B.S in education from North West Missouri State University in 1968 with a major in Physical Education and a minor in English. He received his M.S in education in 1974 from NWMSU in Guidance and Counseling.
“According to my cousin Jerry, I was the first male Smither to graduate from college which I assume is correct,” Smither said. “During college, the English classes where
a challenge that I responded to, P.E. classes were a snap but anatomy and kinesiology were challenging, and I took ag classes and journalism as electives when I could. In four years I never spent a weekend in Maryville, leaving after class on Friday and returning on Sunday night. I was not a social animal and there was work on the farm.”
When he finished college he student taught in Platte City, mostly as an English teacher with a small amount of time teaching physical education.
“The track coach was leaving that year and spent time in the teacher’s lounge as I coached a small track team,” Smither said. “He did go to districts and state with me as we had a qualifier in the discus from P.C. Upon completing student teaching, I had a contract from P.C. and a contract from West Platte. The difference was head wrestling coach at Platte County or assistant at West Platte.”
At Platte County he coached freshman football one year, track for four years, wrestling for four years, and started a cross-country program. He used the school board president, Max Hunt’s farm, for a cross-country course in school meets. A few years later, the sport was dropped but reinstated later.
“The track was not ideal for the participants and in 1973, we had a great bunch of long distance runners and others in field events and sprinters and hurdlers,” Smither said. “In 1974, Platte County found a way to have a new football field and track where it wouldn’t fit. It did fit and produced a conference championship in track in 1974. I also started the P.C.
Wrestling Invitational in 1973 that just completed its 51st year as supposedly the second oldest wrestling tournament in Northwest Missouri to North Kansas City. In ‘73 track was as important to me as wrestling, the distance runners were young and very talented. (David Lewis, Harold Livingston, Ray Hyde, and David Smith) They deserved a track and got one in 1974. Their track in ‘73 was mostly the north parking lot at PCHS. It was a wet spring. I think if one looks back, they were the winners of the two-mile relay at state in ‘74.”
Platte County had a very weak wrestling program and it had to be sold to the students, but by 1973, the wrestling seniors had bought in. In 1972, Dwaine Thomason and Bill Brown qualified for state with neither placing, but ‘72 won its first team trophy, a second-place finish at Lathrop.
“In ‘73, P.C. tied with Plattsburg for the conference championship, ran away with the conference tournament with five champions, a second, and two thirds plus a couple of fourths,” Smither said. “It placed second to Excelsior Springs for its first district plaque, had its first regional champ in Bill Brown, its first multiple district champs, and its first state placers in Bill Brown, third, record of 32-1-1 and Stan McMain, 3rd, 32-2. The freshman class
was very talented and included Danny Stamper, conference champ, district champ, Buddy Martin, and those in waiting, to include Mark Wittmeyer, Ray Hyde and Doug Hunter, among others. The freshman classes of ‘70 and ‘73 were good groups to coach.”
After 26 years of being retired from P.C. wrestling, the West Platte principal asked Smither for two years to coach wrestling at West Platte, since they had a wrestling coach that
also coached football that was leaving.
“The second year I agreed,” Smither said. “West Platte in the mid- to late-70’s dropped wrestling for a 10-year period, which is never a good policy in my opinion only. I was a walk-in coach, which is also not a good recruiting tool, as I was a recruiter every chance I had at Platte County and my wrestlers were recruiters as well. Strong foundations are built from the ground up. My success there was very similar to the coaches that preceded me that were not walk-in coaches in regard to state qualifiers and placers. There were more girls on my boys’ teams than are on West Platte’s girls’ team now, and I am a strong supporter of the second fastest growing sport in Missouri.”
Smither has been a youth wrestling coach since the early 90’s and still is. When coaching at West Platte he was also the youth coach, assisted by several of his high school wrestlers and at times one other adult.
“Today we have more coaches and more students, both boys and girls,” Smither said.
Smither’s interest in tobacco continued throughout his life.
New Deal Tobacco Warehouse was built in 1964 by three individuals after two had a falling out with other ownership in Weston Burley House. Smither had ownership in Weston Burley in 1974 and sold out, looking for something different.
“With no non-compete agreement in place on selling their share of Weston Burley, Aaron Parrish and Robert Musgrave bought land along the corridor of 45 Highway and buildt a more convenient and modern warehouse,” Smither said. “Joining them from South Carolina was Bernie Floyd. Parish and Musgrave were from North Carolina. All had experience in tobacco warehouses, in flue-cured and burly. In 1976, Bernie Floyd wished to sell his share.
Locals Jerry Cox, Kenny Munsterman, Johnny Mason and myself bought Bernie’s share. In the 80’s we bought Aaron’s share, then in ‘92 we purchased Robert’s share. Johnny Mason, deceased, sold the three locals his share, Kenny sold his share to the two remaining in the 2005 range, and I traded one half of a large farm for one half of the warehouse and J & L Properties LLC.”
Smither said that few people understand the total demand on producing burley tobacco unless they have done it and few understand the demand on a tobacco warehouse unless they have done it.
In the beginning of New Deal it was open in November and closed in February. When locals purchased it, it became more of a full time business open daily. In the auction business it operated seven days a week, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, New Year’s day, evenings when loads were coming from central or southern Missouri. Smither said the warehouse was completely full of tobacco from wall to wall.
“We were here to serve the customer, not for them to serve us but the two go hand in hand,” Smither said. “Sold tobacco had to be moved, new tobacco had to be lined up. Sales were limited to a certain amount of pounds per day by the government grading service with walk space provided for graders and buyers. Sales had to be moved to receiving areas and new sales lined up for the next day, all the while that unloading is taking place and walk space provided for the upcoming sale. It was certainly no picnic, but it was a fun challenge.
“I guess I have done it for 46 years at New Deal, plus two at Weston Burley, one as a worker and one as an owner. Personally, I never liked a business that ran for four months and closed down the rest of the year. I was local and keeping it open all year seemed like something that should happen.”
With all his many hours devoted to New Deal, he was still farming on the side. Smither bought a farm in 1966 while still in college and boys from Platte City helped him with tobacco during the summer and winter as needed.
When asked why he decided to sell New Deal, Smither said, “I am the last man standing. If I live until March 16 I will be 77. Billy Martin, the Granby School of Wrestling, was rolling around on a wrestling mat at 82 and died at 89. I took three Platte County wrestlers by car to a five-day camp at Virginia Beach, Va. in the summer of ‘72, smartest thing I ever did. I liked coaching every sport there is, be it football, baseball, softball, cross country, track and wrestling that I am comfortable with, and I have coached them all at one time or another.
“It was time for me to sell because of age, because the Haer’s have a family that can maintain the business and expand it to meet the community needs and the personnel to do it correctly. Closing businesses in small towns is never the answer, expanding them out is the best community policy. The New Deal never closed down a day during this transaction which is very seldom heard of.”
Smither doesn’t plan to spend his retirement years in a rocking chair on his porch. He intends to roll on mats as long as he is breathing, and follow his grandson on his football and wrestling quests, teach young wrestlers what he knows and they need to learn, which, he said is a little different philosophy than they are getting today in most cases.
For Smither, teaching students English and journalism was his favorite of all his professions.
“I started a Journalism 1 and 2 at Platte County to prepare students a year in advance. It worked wonders for the ‘74 yearbook because of Linda Brooks (Horseman) and her crew with a year of pre-training. She dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s as it should be done.”
With his many interests and loyalty to his community, local residents will be happy to hear Smither intends to remain active and involved in Weston and Platte City.