The Charles Machine Works history

By 1913 Carl's two sons, Gustave "Gus" and Charles "Charlie," took over the business and renamed it Malzahn Brothers' General Blacksmithing.

Following Gus's death in 1928, Charlie Malzahn relocated the business and renamed it Charlie's Machine Shop.

After graduating in 1943, he returned to Perry eagerly "in search of things to make." Inspiration would visit the young man one day while watching several plumber's helpers using picks and shovels to dig a 50-foot trench in order to install a water line.

In 1944 he convinced his son Edwin "Ed" to join the family business.

A mechanical engineer, Ed Malzahn observed workmen digging a trench by hand in 1948, and he also noticed that equipment used for the major utility lines was of little use for the smaller residential service lines.

Ed was only 28 years old when the first DWP rolled off the assembly line in 1949.

The company held a public demonstration in 1950, which resulted in three sales.

In 1951, they sold five more DWPs.

1955: A patent is received on the Ditch Witch.

In 1958 the Charles Machine Works was incorporated, with Charlie and Ed Malzahn as equal partners.

By 1969 Ditch Witch customers included utility, telephone, and cable television companies, government agencies, and general contractors.

Woods joined Charles Machine after graduating from Oklahoma State University in 1980 with a degree in business management.

The business recovered and by 1984 reached the $75 million mark in reported sales.

It even sold a chemical, Perma-Soil, that could be mixed with soil in order to stabilize it. It topped $100 million in 1987, when Charles Machine shipped some 5,400 Ditch Witch trenchers, which now came in 18 models, ranging in power from five horsepower to 100 horsepower.

According to press estimates, the company reached $170 million in sales in 1994 and a year later approached $200 million, about half of which came from the sale of trenchers.

Paul Lambert et al., Historic Oklahoma: An Illustrated History (Oklahoma City: Oklahoma Heritage Association, 2000).

Five months later, in October 2001, another 250 employees were laid off, including plant and office personnel, dropping total employment to just over 1,000.

In 2002, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) President Susan H. Kemp awarded the Ditch Witch organization a bronze landmark plaque.

In 2003, Edwin Malzahn transferred his title of CEO to his granddaughter, Tiffany Sewell-Howard.

A year later, in February 2004, she was named Charles Machine's new chief executive officer, after joining the company just four years earlier.

The original Ditch Witch trencher became a permanent part of the new Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City in 2005.