About Us

OUR HISTORY

When Russ Patton joined the Marines in 1966 and left for Vietnam, he had no idea that he would come home to find his father, John Patton, had purchased an RV manufacturing company.
But the story really begins in 1943. Walter Byerly was a talented cabinet maker who usually chose birch to build his product. He finished them with stain and gloss varnish. Probably inspired by Wally Byam’s early Airstreams or perhaps the teardrop camping trailer plans featured in Popular Mechanix and Popular Home Craft during the mid- to late-1930s, Byerly went to work in the basement of his Kirkwood, Missouri, home and came out with his “Byerly Mansion” in 1943. The rationing of construction materials during World War II, especially the aluminum exterior skin, must have stymied his production of camping trailers as well as the market demand. With the veterans returning in 1945 and families flourishing, Byerly’s market took on new life. In 1948 he incorporated as Byerly Trailer Manufacturing Company and built a new plant on the rural outskirts of Kirkwood. While the teardrop trailers had hatchback galleys and a sleeping compartment with a four-foot ceiling, Byerly brought the galley inside, raised the ceiling to 6’ 6”, and offered a floorplan with a double bed for the parents and bunks for the children. His camping trailer was a success.

In 1956 Will Warren’s father-in-law told him about a Byerly camping trailer he had seen, knowing that Will, his wife Gracia, and their three children enjoyed the outdoors. When 6’ 4” Will stepped in, he said simply, “I can stand up in this one” and bought it.
Over the next 12 years when the plant where Will worked closed for three weeks for summer vacation, the Warrens traveled in their Byerly and visited 47 states. Will, Gracia, and their children, Adrienne, Joe, and Marguerite, built wonderful memories while visiting destinations such as Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, the Seattle World’s Fair, and the Everglades, to name just a few. After the children were grown, Will and Gracia continued to hook up the old Byerly and go traveling for a week or two.

When John Patton bought Byerly Trailer in1967, he decided to stop manufacturing the travel trailer and transform the company into an RV dealership. Russ came home from service in 1969, joined the business, and eventually bought the company from his dad in1987.
Now the story comes full circle. Twenty years after Will Warren bought his Byerly Mansion, another “Byerly” joined his family when Russ Patton married Adrienne Warren. And you guessed it — the Byerly Mansion came home to its birthplace and remains on display for all of the Pattons’ friends to step inside and experience a real piece of RVing history.

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