Horn Family Business History Part II

Serving the mining industry for over half a century . . .

It was in the summer of the Depression year 1905 that Tom and Dorothy Horn first set about the task of selling steel. At its inception, the primary objective of the new company was to sell welding rod, chiefly nickel-manganese rod. Thus the name chosen by the Founders - The Kanawha

Welding Rod Company- was descriptive of this purpose. It was not until 1951 that the name Kanawha Steel and Equipment Company was adopted in order to reflect the increased scope of operations.

By a fortuitous confluence of circumstances, the desires of the Founders and those of its first supplier coincided. For in New Jersey there was a marketer of nickel-manganese welding rod which desired to increase sales of its product in West Virginia.

Thus the Taylor-Wharton lron & Steel Company, a very old and venerable manganese steel foundry, became the first supplier to the newly founded operation. The initial inventory consisting of welding electrodes enclosed in cardboard boxes was stored in the cellar of the Horns' home.

It was a short step, but one of considerable significance for the future, to move the company into sales of Taylor-Wharton's manganese and alloy steel castings: bucket teeth, crawler pads for power shovels and crusher parts. Indeed, this modest expansion of the product line foreshadowed a trend that was subsequently to assert itself as the Founders l aid the ground work for a continually expanding array of products to be offered to the earth moving and minerals-processing industries.

As the number of product lines increased, it became desirable to forge farther afield, beyond the confines of West Virginia; and so Tom Horn became a familiar figure at the quarries and surface coal mines of Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Both during and after World War ll the area experienced considerable surface mining. In West Kentucky surface mining began in earnest about 1942; however, it was not until the 1960s that the mountainous terrain of East Kentucky attracted mining industry to an appreciable extent.

As the years passed and sales expanded, new products were continually added. In 1943, the company became a dealer for ESCO Corporation the preeminent manufacturer of all types of buckets, as well as a wide range of high-quality expendable parts.

The ESCO dealership was to prove of pivotal importance to the company's future growth. For in order effectively to market ESCO's products it became necessary to have them close at hand to the customers' operations.

Thus was conceived the concept of branch locations- with the first, ongoing operation opened at Madisonville Kentucky in 1962.

So successful as the Madisonville Kentucky branch, that others were established at more-or-less frequent intervals thereafter: Middlesboro Kentucky in 1965, Louisville Kentucky in 1969, New Martinsville West Virginia in 1973, Prestonsburg Kentucky in 1975, and Wise Virginia in 1976.

The company owes much of its success to the concept of branch operations and to the Managers and Salesmen who staff them.

With the progressive expansion of operations others joined the company. Tom Horn, Jr., started as a salesman in 1948 and became company President in 1964. Marcella Barnett was the forerunner of computer operators and remains with the company as Senior Vice President. Others in executive capacity at the Charleston West Virginia General Offices include: Robert N. Keeney, Vice President and Coordinator; Ray Hart, Vice president and Controller; Dorothy King, Executive Secretary; and Willie DeLoach, product Coordinator.

Recently the company's operations have added manufacturing facilities. As early as 1969, a hydraulics wage press was installed in Louisville to make wire rope slings. But of larger significance are the new facilities established in 1984 - both of which are located at the two branches in Middlesboro Kentucky.

Our hydraulic plate-bending rolls are used to shape alloy steel plate to conform to the desired curvature. The finished products are then sold as liners for dozer blades and loader buckets. The new machine shop was established for the purpose of making drill steel, the product used by drillers in setting explosive charges.

TAKEN FROM KSE BROCHURE

Thomas L. Horn Jr. Today (88 years young)