Interviews with the Hilz family concerning their experiences in various business enterprises in Pilot Point, Texas. William Hilz, Sr., founder of City Machine Shop in Pilot Point, Texas in 1928, discusses his family background and education, blacksmithing, making steam engines, cotton boll crushers, and gin saws, working in a steam and gas engine repair shop during World War I, taking the International Correspondence Schools auto course, the founding of City Machine Shop with partner Mike Amon in 1928, the evolution of machine shop equipment, the Depression, the National Recovery Administration, World War II, selling his interest to son George, semi-retirement, and financing methods. Mrs. William Hilz, Sr., who is the wife of City Machine Shop founder, William Hilz, Sr., discusses her family background, her education, her community and church work, her marriage, her family life, and rearing nine children. George W. Hilz, owner and operator of City Machine Shop, discusses his family background, his boyhood jobs, his work in his youth at his father's shop, his education, his military service in World War II, becoming the sole owner of City Machine Shop, the growth of the business, changing services, financing methods, customer problems in a small town, the satisfactions of self-employment, and his tenure as mayor of Pilot Point. William ("Bill") Hilz, Jr., President of Hilz Ford Sales in Pilot Point, Texas, discusses his family background, boyhood chores, his work in his youth at his father's shop, the Depression, the National Recovery Administration, his military service in World War II, his education, computing work with the Marine Seismic Survey, becoming branch manager for U.S. Electrical Motors, the merger with Emerson Electric, his decision to quit a big company, and buying into the Ford agency. Sue Hilz, founder, accountant, and secretary of Hilz Ford Sales and wife of William Hilz, Jr., discusses her family background (maiden name Roane), her education, her marriage and family life, starting the Ford agency in her husband's absence, and the creation of a bookkeeping system. In a joint interview with William ("Bill") Hilz, Jr. and Sue Hilz, they talk about goal setting, the growth of the agency, hard lessons learned, customer credit, the problems and advantages of a small town atmosphere, their relationship with Ford Motor Co., the public tastes in vehicles, cash flow sources, advertising, their reasons for success, employee relations, customer problems, and the incorporation of their business.
