***This is the second of two stories on the history of Martin Engineering of Neponset, where employees are celebrating the company’s 80th anniversary this year. This story is from an interview with Patricia “Pat” Peterson, the wife of former CEO Edwin H. Peterson (who is the son of company founder Edwin F. Peterson) and their daughter, Jenny Bohannon. Seth Mercer, Martin’s marketing manager, also sat in on the interview.
How does a small company that started in the 1940s in a building on Rose Street in Kewanee grow into a multinational corporation with nearly 1,000 employees in 17 plants around the world?
For Patricia “Pat” Peterson, the wife of Edwin H. Peterson, it was the Peterson family’s reliance on good people that helped the company stay ahead of the competition.
But Pat’s daughter is quick to give credit where credit is due.
“My father and my mother were responsible for the growth,” Jenny Bohannon said.
Seth Mercer is the marketing manager for Martin Engineering and sees another aspect that he believes has led to the growth of the company.
“As I look at the history of the company, I think that’s the strong point of the company — marketing,” Mercer said.
At the helm of Martin Engineering, Edwin H., was heavily involved in the marketing that fueled the company’s growth.
His father, Edwin F. Peterson was the inventor, who came up with the idea of a ball vibrator that became his young company’s first product. He invented more than 50 more patented products in his career at Martin Engineering.
In his early days with the company, the Petersons would go to trade shows and visit potential customers throughout the country. Pat said they would listen to what those customers had to say, and go back to Neponset to develop products to meet the customers’ needs.
The Petersons made sure to have good people on the payroll. Martin had skilled engineers who kept the company ahead of the competition, Pat said.
And when they decided to offer products for the mining industry, Martin hired people with experience in mining. Many of Martin Engineering’s innovations became industry standards.
Pat said Edwin F. Peterson’s father, Lawrence, was a beekeeper, and his son helped with the operation. And while working in Kewanee factories as a pattern maker, Lawrence operated Peterson and Son Fine Honey, which sold the sweet treat in the Kewanee area and regularly had a booth at the Illinois State Fair. One of his regular customers was the governor of Illinois, who each year bought 50 jars of the honey, Pat said.
When her father-in-law invented the ball vibrator, Pat said, he used the “honey money” to pay for the application for the patent on the device.
Jenny was the third generation of the Peterson family to work at the company, doing jobs around the office.
She recalled that Martin Engineering in those days owned a Hewlett-Packard mainframe computer, which required regular visits from a company repair technician.
Finally, Edwin H. offered the technician a job, since he seemed to be visiting Neponset every day anyway.
In the early days, Pat said, Martin Engineering had 11 employees. Today, the plant in Neponset is much more than just a factory. A few years ago the company built a fitness center for employees across the street from the factory, and there’s both a medical clinic and a dining area for the employees.
Pat and Jenny also recalled company picnics, hunting trips for employees and other activities.
“It’s been a wonderful life,” Pat said. “I never ever would have believed that my life would be so enriched.”
Martin Engineering has facilities in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Spain, South Africa, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Robert Nogaj is the current CEO of the company.
Martin’s primary customers are companies in mining, aggregates, cement, power generation, pulp and paper, ports and terminals, trucking, concrete, fertilizer and more.
In addition to manufacturing belt conveyor components, industrial vibrators and air cannons and railcar unloading equipment, Martin Engineering provides field services including product installation and system maintenance, as well as training workshops covering belt conveyor safety, maintenance and operation.
