Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Co.

Windmills, Silos and Saws

The Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Company was one of Kalamazoo’s longest-operating businesses when it closed in 2004, after 137 years in business. At the time of its closing, the company went by KTS Industries, and was considered one of the oldest manufacturers in the state. Over its many years in operation, the company changed its product focus several times (windmills, vats, galvanized steel tanks, glazed tile silos, industrial saws, etc.), developing multiple divisions within the company.

Windmills

Around the same time that the Kalamazoo Paper Company was notably established (1867), so too was Williams, Smith & Co., a firm that manufactured windmills in a plant at 210 N. Edwards. The company was organized by Bradley S. Williams, William H. Pendleton, Kirk A. Smith, Charles M. Hobbs and Homer Manvel. The name ‘Smith’ was dropped in 1873 when Williams and Smith parted ways. Williams’ daughter Vina married Homer Manvel, who then entered into the family business. Two kinds of windmills were produced, “the Manvel direct stroke wood mill and the Kalamazoo back-geared steel mill.” During this time, Kalamazoo was known as Windmill City, a moniker the result of the number of windmill manufacturers in town, who produced up to 4000 mills a year. The success of the B.S. Williams Company led to lavish praise from the Kalamazoo Gazette:

“Kalamazoo, this season, is preparing to take another forward leap on the path of progress, the past winter having been well improved in perfecting organizations having for their object the enlargement of our manufacturing interests. Among the new enterprises, which enlarge our business capital and give employment to large number of men, that of Messrs. Pendleton, Williams & Co. is prominent.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 9 May 1873

Bradley’s son became company President in the 1880s, during which time, the company changed its name to Williams Manufacturing Company (1889). The company expanded its product line to include wooden water storage tanks, livestock troughs, ensilage cutters, water pumps and wooden stave piping as the use of windmills waned.

Silos

Five years after the company formed, it became the first in the nation to develop a focus on the making of silos. At a time when agricultural implements were in great need throughout the country, Williams’ firm ruled the national market. Owning the patents to their silo designs also ensured long term profitability. The company slogans were: “The World’s Standard” and “Profit to you with the Kalamazoo.” Homer Manvel, the one who most championed the silo, aggressively marketed their signature product during the late 1800s into the 20th century. In 1904, another name change, this time to Kalamazoo Tank & Silo Company.

Industrial Saws

By the mid-1920s, the company had established a large-scale, multi-factory campus along Harrison Street, west of the Kalamazoo River. Its manufacturing facilities were conveniently located next to the Michigan Central Railroad tracks.

Throughout the 20th century, the company remained competitive, shifting their product lines to fit changing times and economic fluctuation. After Homer Manvel, the company was led by John M., Robert M. and Brad Coombs. After 1904, the company transitioned from the selling of wooden silos to those made of tile blocks. In 1914, the company “moved a hot-dip galvanizing plant onto the premises, thereby creating the Riverside Foundry & Galvanizing Company.” In 1921, the company bought an Indiana tile plant in Carbon, Indiana, resulting in the subsequent formation of the Kalamazoo Clay Company, a division which developed into “a multi-million dollar business for the company.”

The late 1930s was a period when the company moved toward developing their industrial saw products. The Depression and World War II years negatively impacted the construction side of the company, and so a move was made toward the making of large, metal-cutting band saws. Over the years, the “Kalamazoo Saw became the standard of the band saw industry.” In 1967, on the centenary of the company’s formation, the company moniker was shortened to KTS Industries. During the economically fraught 1980s, the company entered into agreements with a British firm (600 Group/Starlite Division), and then an Italian one (MEP), selling the Italian company’s vertical bandsaws. Ultimately, after years of striving to remain viable in a market with European and Asian imports, the company sold the saw division in 1994 to Clausing Industrial.

By 2000, most of the buildings just west of the Kalamazoo River that had once been part of company facilities had been torn down with the exception of the company’s offices, which were then being leased to several small businesses. The early 2000s saw city officials attempt to purchase the land around KTS Industries, and when offers were not agreed upon, the city filed for eminent domain over the property. Eventually the city and company came to terms around 2004, thus ending the company’s long history in Kalamazoo. The land situated along Harrison Street, west of the river continues to be unoccupied and owned by the city. Part of the settlement between the company and city officials resulted in the keeping of an old silo on the grounds where the factories once stood. It can be seen from the bicycle trail that runs along the river.

Written by Ryan Gage, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, March 2024