Encyclopedia Dubuque
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MORRISON BROTHERS COMPANY
MORRISON BROTHERS COMPANY. In 1855 John Morrison crossed the MISSISSIPPI RIVER. He built a brick building near the corner of 7th and Main STREETS, and began the business of boiler making.
With the beginning of the CIVIL WAR, Morrison, too old to enter the military, took it upon himself to transport wounded soldiers back north from front lines. Family legend has it that one of the wounded soldiers that accompanied him back from the front was his brother-in-law, Andrew Young MCDONALD.
The Morrison Boiler Shop operated until 1872, but never with any great prosperity because of its small production. The several years that the founder had spent attending to the wounded in the war had left him unable to purchase power machinery. It was at this time that Morrison’s two oldest sons, John and Angus, having learned the plumbing and heating trade from their uncle A.Y., started a plumbing business in addition to keeping up the boiler shop.
Operating out of a shop located at 164 5th Street in Dubuque, the plumbing branch of the business began to prosper. The unexpected death of John Morrison as the result of an accident left his son, John, to manage his father’s business. Over the next several years, John increased the company’s output by producing a wider variety of the boilers. During this period, the boiler shop operated separately from the plumbing business which was sold to William S. MOLO in 1889.
The brothers turned their attention to the business of making hot water tanks and hydro-pneumatic tanks. The shop was moved from downtown Dubuque to a location near the present day offices on Elm Street. It was not long after this time, in addition to his responsibilities as proprietor of the tank shop, that John Morrison accepted the position of president of the A.Y.MCDONALD MANUFACTURING COMPANY.
For over a decade, John Morrison managed the affairs of the two businesses, but in 1909 he devoted himself solely to the affairs of the tank plant. He had little time to affect his plans for his family’s company, however, as a short time later he passed away.
Andrew Morrison took over the struggling business. Shortly after his brother’s death, he formed a corporation capitalized at $50,000. Andrew rearranged the machinery at a cost of $200.00, and in three months revolutionized the product. Twenty-one tanks a day were turned out by 16 workers. After perfecting the production methods in the shop, he went out and sold the tanks to keep the shop busy.
Andrew had also made a study of brass valves for handling oil, and a small brass shop for the manufacture of oil handling appliances was opened. The tank shop continued to grow and prosper, forcing the purchase of more land to the north of the old shop. The brass business also forged ahead, and more property to the south of the shop was secured. In 1914, the entire block, 604 feet long and 100 feet wide, was occupied. In 1920, property was purchased on 7th Street. A plant was built for the purpose of the manufacture of non-pressure vessels of all kinds.
By 1927, Andrew, the last surviving brother, realized that the time had come to consider restructuring the ownership of the company. An agreement was soon reached with four employees to assume active and authoritative control of the company. One of those four was W.N. Glab, grandfather of the current company president, Charlie Glab.
By 1930, the square footage of the general Morrison plant facilities had increased to 100,000 square feet, twenty times its capacity of only twenty years earlier. The Morrison Bros. Co. continued working efficiently and effectively out of their two locations for nearly forty more years, until expanding again in 1968, when the foundry facilities were moved to a new location on 7th Street, near the tank shop.
When the United States entered WORLD WAR II in 1941, Morrison Bros. Co. “re-tooled” and threw its full effort into aiding the allied cause. The extraordinary effort turned in by Morrison Bros. Co. and its employees during this period resulted in the ultimate wartime recognition, the Army-Navy E-Award. Awarded to only 5% of military contractors, the Army-Navy E-Award was the highest commendation that a business could receive from the United States military. During the war, Morrison Bros. Co. was recognized on three separate occasions for this honor.
Through the 1940’s and 1950’s, the company continued to perform as a leader in the industry. The product line continued to evolve as the technology of the day progressed. New products introduced during this time included an assortment of pumps, valves and vents. Despite the rationing of materials during the KOREAN WAR, the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1955.
The company continued to operate efficiently and effectively out of its two locations until 1968 when the foundry facility moved to a new location on 7th Street near the tank shop. The machine shop and assembly areas, along with the administrative offices, remained on 24th Street.
The early 1970s witnessed the first new company president in over three decades, when W.N. Glab was succeeded by his son, J. Duncan Glab. J. Duncan Glab had begun his career with Morrison Bros. Co. in 1946 as a welder. Over the years he worked his way up through the ranks, serving as plant superintendent, general manager, and vice president before eventually assuming the position of president in 1972.
The seventies again were a time of change for the company. The tank shop on 7th Street was sold off, and company began to re-focus its efforts on brass and aluminum oil handling equipment. This decade saw the introduction of the Figure 244 vent, still a popular item over thirty years later. A few years later, during the 1980s, Morrison’s began producing another popular item, the 305 adapter.
The first day of 1990 welcomed a new member of the Morrison family, as the Maquoketa Company opened its doors at a location approximately 30 miles to the south of the Dubuque plants. In the early years of the 1990s, Morrison Bros. introduced a new product that would soon be one of it’s best selling lines of all time, the clock gauge. A product unique in design, the clock gauge quickly evolved from a simple device allowing a quick sight reading of the liquid level to a product using the latest technology of the day. During this time, Morrison Bros. continued to re-design and improve many other existing products, and again proved to be a benchmark against which other companies in the business were measured by winning the PEI Circle of Excellence Award in 1995.
At this highpoint, Duncan Glab turned the presidency of the company over to his son, Charlie Glab. Charlie had joined the company in the 1970s, and had just assumed his position as president when a fire consumed a large part of the 24th Street facility. The company was forced to move the assembly unit to a temporary location near the foundry. Not long after that, construction began on a new building located adjacent to the foundry, a location that would serve as the new headquarters for the machining unit, the assembly unit, and select office personnel.
In the summer of 1998, the new 7th Street location opened its doors. The PEI Circle of Excellence Award was presented to Morrison Bros. for the second time in 1998, and then again in 1999 and 2000. In 2005, the Morrison Bros. Co., 150 years old and going strong, continued to maintain its reputation as a committed leader in the petroleum marketing equipment industry.
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Source:
Morrison Bros. Co. website
"175 Years," Volume 3, Telegraph Herald, September 15, 2008
