Bekins Moving and Storage—features a restored 1922 Mack flatbed truck. The restoration included Dutch style paintings similar to those used on the sides of Bekins’ trucks for many years.
Even from their first year in business in 1891, the Bekins knew the value of getting their name out in public. In 1892, the entire fleet of Bekins’ vans became moving billboards throughout the city. In 1924, larger motor vans, with larger advertising, replaced the horse drawn wagons as the business grew.
In 1891, John and Martin Bekins left their family farm in Michigan to form their own moving business. They set up shop in Sioux City, Iowa. The small firm of 12 employees, three carriages, and a single warehouse made one or two household moves a day. In 1892, John and Martin Bekins expanded their Sioux City-based business, Bekins Van Lines into the growing city of Omaha. At the time, the city was booming with new residents. The business grew by safely moving household and commercial goods over Omaha’s mud-soaked streets. For the next 107 years, generation after generation of Bekins operated the business that moved Omaha forward.
By 1895, they expanded to California. But John returned to Omaha to develop the Midwest facility. In 1997, Omaha’s Bekins Van & Storage sold its moving and storage division along with its business records division. After four generations in the family, it was time to move on.
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