Born in Littleton, New Hampshire, young 23 year old Harry J. Wilkins was stationed in Guam with the U.S. Army Air Corps. Harry was a B-29 mechanic and, while his tour was winding down, he was thinking about what he would do when he got back home to Barre, Vermont. Harry had been riding Harley-Davidson® motorcycles since he was a kid, with his first motorcycle being a 1931 Harley-Davidson. Stationed in Guam, Harry wrote to the Harley-Davidson Motor Company in Milwaukee and inquired about the possibility of obtaining a dealership for what would soon be the last American-made motorcycle.

Harry returned home to Barre from duty and received word that his dealership had been approved. It was then, on January 28, 1947 that Harry was appointed a dealer. Initially, Harry started selling motorcycles out of his mother's garage on Merchant Street in Barre, Vermont while working at the local granite quarries. However, he couldn’t earn enough money to support himself and took another job with Prosperity Dry Cleaners in Barre, Vermont. Prosperity Dry Cleaners was located in the area now known as the Wall Street Complex.

Prosperity Dry Cleaners was owned by a Lebanese immigrant, Anthony R. Corey. Having shown up for his first day on the job, Harry quickly took notice of Anthony's beautiful daughter, Barbara Corey.

Shortly thereafter, Harry and Barbara married and bought a small sawmill on Farwell Street in Barre. Eventually, Harry and Barbara began building a house on that site and moved the garage-like dealership to Farwell Street. Both Harry and Barbara worked several jobs—Harry working at the Granite Quarries and Barbara working retail and waitressing. They built the house Barbara lives in today with their bare hands; much like Wilkins Harley-Davidson.

Sometime in between working several jobs and building a dealership, Harry and Barbara had twins--Ann and Alan. Both Ann and Alan worked at the dealership while growing up.

After graduating from high school, Ann began working at National Life and eventually worked for the State of Vermont. Ann married William Lyon, a customer of Harry and Barbara. Together they had two children, Kimberly and John.

Alan joined the Marine Corps, serving on the U.S.S. Forestall during Vietnam, and then went on to Electrician School. In 1979, Alan decided to move back to the family business. Ann followed suit in the 1980's. Both worked at Wilkins Harley-Davidson with their parents, Harry and Barbara.

As the business grew, the family began to brainstorm on maybe moving to a larger location. The Wilkins Harley-Davidson customer list was long and the Wilkins family wanted to be able to serve their customers better. In 1995, they moved from Farwell Street to 663 South Barre Road, which is located right off Exit 6, Interstate 89. The facade of the new building was outlined with Barre Granite, a tribute to Harry's earlier years in the granite quarries. The business grew exponentially at its new location.

Over the years, the Wilkins Harley-Davidson family has seen its share of tragedy. On January 18, 2000, Harry J. Wilkins died. This obviously was a devastating loss to the Wilkins family, customers, and friends. Also in January of 2000, the Wilkins’ family learned that Alan, Harry and Barbara’s son, Ann's twin brother, had leukemia. The Wilkins family came together once again. A bone marrow drive was cordinated with the Central Vermont HOG Chapter at the dealership and over 500 people allowed themselves to be tested in order to find a match for Alan. Several close matches were found. Ultimately a perfect match was found for Alan and he had a bone marrow transplant. However, Alan's immune system never fully recovered and he died on February 14, 2002. Hundreds of Harley riders attended both Harry's and Alan’s funerals as a tribute to two great men. Both Harry’s and Alan’s pictures can be seen hanging in the showroom watching over the dealership they both worked so hard to build.

Recently, in 2004, Barbara had her Surprise 75th Birthday Party at the dealership, where several hundred people attended. The Wilkins’ family has always prided itself on customer satisfaction. Many of the customers they have today are sons, daughters, and even grandchildren of former customers. This exceptional customer service has been the subject of numerous articles in area newspapers.

Also in 2004, the third generation joined the business. Harry and Barbara's grandson, and Ann Lyon's son, John Lyon came onboard to manage the day to day activities of the dealership. John attended Norwich University, M.C.V. and Qunnipiac University School of Law. He went on to practice with a local Barre law firm before coming to work full-time at the dealership. "John's experience, education, and background will be a great asset to the dealership" said Grandmother Barbara Wilkins. In 2005, Wilkins Harley-Davidson added Authorized Harley-Davidson Rentals to its list of programs to better serve its customers, along with offering Womens' Only Garage Parties and Service Seminars. Wilkins Harley-Davidson is always working on the next idea to offer to its customers.

Also, August 2005, the Times Argus did an article on Wilkins Harley-Davidson. Click Here to read the Times Argus Article. In 2008, Wilkins Harley-Davidson was ranked Number 5 in the entire United States for customer service, Number 1 in Vermont and Number 1 in New England. This was based on the 2007 Harley-Davidson Customer Ownership Survey. As happy as the Wilkins Harley-Davidson Team was, they went right back to work figuring out how to move into the Number 1 spot. In October 2008, Thunder Press, did an article on Wilkins HD. THUNDER PRESS OCTOBER 2008 (requires Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™)