Iron and Steel Foundry and Machine Companies, 1850-1950

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This page was last updated on July 7, 2026.

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Overview

Information about the foundries and machine shops in Utah, 1850 to 1950, that helped form Utah's industrial base, especially the mines, mills, and factories. These were the companies that make machines that make machines. They make "big iron" that keeps industry going.

As a side note, the railroads in Salt Lake City (Union Pacific, and Rio Grande) had their own foundries and machine shops. In Ogden, Southern Pacific and Union Pacific shared a large shop facility until 1927, when UP built a new roundhouse and back shop, leaving SP in the previously shared facility.

Haynes & Son

One of the early iron and steel fabricators in Salt Lake City was Haynes & Son. This company supplied the boilers and other iron work for the Horn Silver smelter in 1881, and in mid 1882, was supplying the iron work for the paper mill being built at the mouth of Big Cottonwood canyon. (Salt Lake Herald, August 9, 1882)

Silver Brothers (1862-1915)

The Silver Brothers shop was in Salt Lake City. Their address was 540 West Seventh South. Although Silver Brothers itself is gone, that original building is still there, with numerous additions that were added over the years.

The Silver Brothers Iron Works began with William J. Silver, an early Mormon pioneer, born in London, England, who founded one of the earliest foundries and machine shops in Utah. The company created many significant works, such as the cast oxen for the Salt Lake City LDS Temple and the iron fence surrounding the Brigham Young cemetery. Silver's three sons took over the company and renamed it the Silver Brothers Iron Works and began to manufacture machinery for Utah's sugar beet industry.

The steam engine for the Kate Connor lake boat was built by William J. Silver at his Silver Iron Works in Salt Lake City. Mr. Silver had come to Utah in 1859 and had opened his iron works "three years later" in 1862. He built the first steam engine in the territory, and he also built the first steam engine to be used on Great Salt Lake. The boat was called the "Kate Connor" and was built for General P. E. Connor. In 1893, when he bought the old Sun Foundry in Provo and put it into operating condition, Silver was the only member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in the Utah territory. In later years, Silver Iron Works became Silver Brothers Iron Works, being managed by Silver's three sons, John, Hyrum and Joseph. William Silver was born in London, England, came to Utah in 1859 and died at age 86 on November 6, 1918. (Daily Enquirer, June 6, 1893; Salt Lake Herald, May 6, 1897; Salt Lake Mining Review, November 15, 1918)

July 24, 1897
"One of the important manufacturing enterprises of Salt Lake City, and one which has added much to the prosperity of the city, is the iron works of Silver Bros., 149 West North Temple street. The plant is one of the largest in the West and is thoroughly equipped in every particular." "The Silver brothers manufacture steam engines, boilers, mining, milling, smelting machinery and implements. They also manufacture building fronts and other iron work for large buildings. In the line of general machine work this firm is prepared to undertake contracts of any nature, simple of intricate." "The business was established in 1863 by Mr. W. J. Silver, the present firm succeeding him. The members of the firm are Messrs. Joseph A., Hyrum A. and John A. Silver. They came to Salt Lake in 1859 when in boyhood." (Deseret Evening News, July 24, 1897)

In 1898, the Silver Brothers Iron Works Company, Salt Lake City, Utah, was incorporated to manufacture machinery structural iron and steel work. John A. Silver was president, Hyrum A. Silver vice-president and Joseph A. Silver treasurer, secretary and manager.

June 15, 1899
"At the Silver Brothers Iron works company Manager Joseph A. Silver was so busy that he could hardly take time to tell The Review what his company had been doing during the past two weeks, but it was learned that during this period the concern had filled an order for a friction drum for the Swansea company; a beet wheel for the Utah Sugar company, a mining cage for the Victoria mine, ten ore cars for the Grand Central, besides which 30,000 pounds of casting had been turned out for the Highland Boy smelter." (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 15, 1899)

1907
Silver Brothers moved from their location on West North Temple street, to a larger location at 7th South and 5th West (today's 600 West). (Salt Lake Herald, November 5, 1915)

August 18, 1912
The first steel made in Utah was by Silver Brothers in 1912. Silver Brothers was where Copper Belt sent its wrecked Shays for repairs on at least three occasions.

(Read the text of "Silver Brothers, Steel Makers," from the August 18, 1912 Salt Lake Tribune)

November 1915
Silver Brothers Iron and Foundry Works was reorganized in November 1915 as the Salt Lake Iron & Steel Co., with members of the Silver family still as members of the board. James W. Silver was to be general manager of the new company. The articles of incorporation were to be filed "today." (Salt Lake Herald, November 5, 1915)

(John A. Silver died on March 22, 1916.)

The reorganization of the company was due to debt and other losses. One of the grandsons of the original William J. Silver, James Watson Silver, although named as general manager, left the company in May 1916 and moved to Ogden and founded the Ogden Iron Works, which manufactured machinery for the sugar beet and mining industries. He was apparently the last of the Silver family associated with the former Silver brothers company, after Joseph A. Silver retired earlier in 1916. Ogden Iron Works went out of business in 1991.

Salt Lake Boiler & Sheet Metal Works (1915-1924)

November 1915
There are newspaper references to the Salt Lake Boiler and Sheet Metal Works, showing the address as 710 Portland Avenue in Salt Lake City. A photo of a recently completed special boiler was published in the January 21, 1917 of the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper, stating that the company had opened in 1915, and was located on Fourth West between Seventh and Eighth South, with E. L. Murphy as president. This remained as the address in advertisements as late as November 1918, when a news item mentioned that the company was "building a 50x200 addition to its plant on West Seventh South street, in order to be better prepared to take care of its boiler building" for upcoming government contracts.

This company may have been the same company that purchased the earlier Silver Brothers Iron and Foundry Works, located at 545 West Seventh South. The site on Fourth West remained as the company address. An ad in a September 1919 newspaper shows both Salt Lake Iron and Steel company, and Salt Lake Boiler and Sheet Iron Works, without showing each company's address.

On January 1, 1924, Salt Lake Iron and Steel Company was taken over by Pittsburg Boiler Machine Co. of Pittsburg, Kansas. (Salt Lake Mining Review, December 30, 1923)

June 15, 1924
"W. H. Sagstetter, president of the Salt Lake Iron and Steel Co. announced a few days ago that his company had began the purchase of pig iron from the Columbia Steel Corporation's works at Ironton, the first carload having been delivered on the June 2nd. Mr. Sagstetter's company will use about 100 tons of this Utah pig iron a month to begin with and in the near future it is expected the plant's requirements will call for 250 tons a month and more. This Utah iron product will be utilized in the fabrication of castings and materials used by local and intermountain concerns in construction work and industrial purposes." (Salt Lake Mining Review, June 15, 1924)

(Read more about Columbia Steel Corporation)

June 28, 1924
A receiver was appointed for the Salt Lake Boiler and Sheet Metal Works. The business had been depressed for the past two years, and was in danger of shutting down completely due to debts totaling $40,000. (Salt Lake Tribune, June 28, 1924; June 29, 1924, "yesterday")

Rosenblatt Family Enterprises

In the period of the 1890s until 1957, when the Rosenblatt family sold its control and majority interest in EIMCO, the Rosenblatts controled and operated several iron and steel enterprises in Utah, starting with the Utah Junk company.

(Columbia Steel Corp. opened its pig iron plant at Ironton, Utah, south of Provo, in 1923. The pig iron was shipped to existing steel plants in Pittsburg, California, and Portand, Oregon.)

(Read more about the Rosenblatt Enterprises)

May Foundry

Lundin & May Foundry & Machine Company, "since 1912." Changed to May Foundry & Machine Company in 1963 when Jack F. May bought out the Lundin family interests.

Lundin & May Foundry, along with Silver Brothers Iron Works (later as American Foundry & Machine), and the Galigher Machinery Company, was one of the big three go-to companies for anything big, heavy and industrial in Salt Lake City.

Galigher Machinery Company

Galigher Machinery Company filed its articles of incorporation on September 9, 1909. "An important enlargement of one of the old business concerns of the city in order to keep pace with the growth of the city and the constantly increasing business. The old company, which has been known as the Utah Mining Machinery and Supply company, is located at 230 South West Temple street just south of the Dooly block, and was started in 1902." "No other change will be made in the company. The location will be retained as at present, there being ample space in which to expand in the present building, and the stockholders and officers of the company will be the same." (Salt Lake Tribune, September 10, 1909)

Galigher Machinery Company was located at 224-234 South West Temple street, and on the same block at 141-163 Pierpont Avenue. "It is the largest and most important business of its kind between Denver and San Francisco." (Salt Lake Herald, November 26, 1911)

The Galigher company was the supplier of Ingersoll-Rand compressors and tools for mines throughout the Utah, Nevada and Idaho markets.

Galigher Machinery announced on August 31, 1916 that it was moving to facilities at 8th South and 5th West, east of the Portland cement works. The company had been at its location on Pierpont Avenue for the past 13 years. The new site was 330 feet by 330 feet, and the new machine shop building would be 330 feet by 60 feet, with a new warehouse measuring 250 feet by 260 feet. "The Galigher Machinery company manufactures mining and concentrating machinery, and also that used in sugar manufacturing." Plans were to start using the new facilities after January 1st, 1917. The move took place in late February. (Salt Lake Tribune, August 31, 1916; September 24, 1916, with illustration; Salt Lake Mining Review, February 28, 1917)

November 15, 1918
"War orders aggregating $200,000, understood to have been obtained through the effort of Manager Simon Rosenblatt of the American Foundry & Machine Company, were placed with Utah firms late in October. The work involves the making of ship deck windlasses, cargo hoists, propellor "struts" or bearings, and steel plate water and oil tanks. The orders for windlasses and cargo hoists were placed independently with the above company on a guarantee of early delivery and the contracts for tanks and bearings went to the Utah Metals Industries Company for distribution among the Galigher Machinery Company, the Salt Lake Iron & Steel Company and the Provo Foundry & Machine Company. The orders were all subject to early completion and some of the shipments will have been made before we go to press. The propeller bearings, numbering about a dozen, weigh 11,000 pounds each, while the water tanks, which are designed to contain ship supplies of culinary water sufficient for voyages of considerable length, have a capacity of from 12,000 to 20,000 gallons each. The oil tanks have a capacity of from 25,000 to 30,000 gallons. All tanks are made of heavy plate steel. The Utah Metal Industries Company is composed of the American Foundry & Machine Company; the Salt Lake Iron & Steel Company, Galigher Machinery Company, all of Salt Lake, and the Provo Foundry & Machine Company of Provo. Most of these concerns individually have received former government contracts, all of which have been placed by the emergency fleet corporation." (Salt Lake Mining Review, November 15, 1918)

The successor company, Prime Machine, Inc., is still in business today at the same location on 8th South, between 5th and 6th West.

More Information

Foundry article at Wikipedia

Machining article at Wikipedia

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