Amsted Industries history

In the fall of 1905 Simplex agreed to a merger, and its president, William V. Kelley, assumed responsibility for the entire operation, moving the company from New York to Chicago, center of the nation's railroad commerce.

In 1910 ASF established a full-fledged product engineering facility in Granite City, Illinois, where testing was expanded to other car parts, including springs.

Kelley was later succeeded in 1912 by Robert P. Lamont, after the company had begun a special effort to help design and test railroad couplers.

In 1919, with advent of the automobile, ASF began manufacturing smaller springs for automobiles.

Indeed, in 1923 alone, the company turned out more than 1.5 million wheels.

Lamont, meanwhile, left American Steel Foundries in 1929 to serve as commerce secretary in President Herbert Hoover's administration.

Scott, noting that the company's Pittsburgh plant had outgrown its boxed-in facilities, decided to move its operations to the shuttered Verona facility in 1936.

Also in 1939, Scott died suddenly and was replaced as president by Thomas Drever, a Scottish accountant and comptroller of American Steel Foundries.

By 1940 ASF operated 21 plants and was recording sales of &Dollar;26.3 million.

In 1942 Drever oversaw American Steel Foundries' construction of a war materiel plant in East Chicago that turned out, among other things, tank parts and vessels for the atomic bomb program.

Then, in 1948, American Steel Foundries acquired the King Machine Tool Company in Cincinnati.

Drever retired in 1949 and was succeeded by another financial type, Charles C. Jarchow.

In 1959 Joseph B. Lanterman became president and chief executive officer of ASF, and sales hit &Dollar;94 million.

Amsted then acquired Standard Automotive Parts--later merged with Burgess-Norton--in 1969.

In 1973 Amsted bought J7B Plastics, which was added to Plexco.

In April of 1985 the United States Securities and Exchange Commission received a form 13D, disclosing that a corporate raider, Charles Hurwitz, held more than eight percent of Amsted's shares.

A year later, the company got rid of its PACO pumps operation, and in 1989 sold both Plexco and Henry Pratt.

Franson joined AMSTED in 1999 as Assistant Controller-Tax.

By 2002, Amsted reached about $1.4 billion in annual sales and employed fewer than 1,000 Chicago-area residents but over 9,000 people nationwide.

Joy joined AMSTED in 2011.

Meyers joined AMSTED in 2017.