website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
Loeb’s
1923
For us
at Loeb's, it started in Columbus, WI.
In
1923, Hyman Loeb, our father, ran a small business out of his back yard. He was called a junk collector. Hyman would go on his horse-drawn wagon door
to door. Loeb would collect all kinds of
junk including paper, rubber products, metals, and rags. He would then take the items home and sort
out and sell the items to different processors.
Hyman
had the help of his five sons, Maury, Bill, Harry, Archie and Leonard, and one
daughter, Rose. But just as important he
had the help and backing of the community.
1951
LOEB SALVAGE, 1117 SOUTH TENTH ST.
1976
Now 53
years later, two of his sons, Bill and Archie, carry on his trade. The sons have moved to Watertown and up the
ladder to scrap processors. They now use
heavy equipment to produce an important man-made resource for mills, refineries
and foundries. That resource is scrap
metallics from old products that can be remelted into
raw materials for new products. Along
with our new title, we also have another hat, that of a recycler.
1982
07 11 Loeb Metal Recycling
Company’s aluminum can recycling center collected 1,740,000 used aluminum
containers during the “Turn Aluminum Into Gold” Olympics recycling campaign
ending June 30. William Loeb, president of Loeb Metal Recycling Company, said
the recycling center at 1111 South Tenth Street collected 72,500 pounds of cans
during the June activity and paid more than $22,000 to can collectors.
“Recycling aluminum cans makes everyone a winner,” Loeb said. “Participating in
the campaign was an effective way to make more Americans aware of the benefits
of recycling, to increase the number of can collectors in the Watertown area
and help U.S. Olympic athletes at the same time.” WDT
1987
07 26 LORMAN IRON AND METAL CO ACQUISITION
Economic and personal reasons have caused state Sen.
Barbara Lorman to sell her business, Lorman Iron and Metal Co., to the Four L Corp., a newly
formed subsidiary of Loeb Industries, 1111 South Tenth Street, company officials
announced this week. Lorman
who represents the 13th Senate District, said the recession of 1980 deeply
affected the foundry industry, which in turn hurts the iron processing
business. “It’s a changing market . It’s a change in demand,” Lorman,
who is president of the firm, told the Daily Times this morning. “It (the industry) changes direction. It
grows or it shrinks. With us, it was
shrinking.” WDT
2008
03 15 PROMOTION OF DUANE STERWALD
Loeb-Lorman Metals, Inc. has
announced the promotion of Duane Sterwald to senior
vice president. Sterwald
began his employment with Lorman Iron & Metal in
1989, was promoted to general manager in 1991 and vice president in 1995. Sterwald directs
the overall operations including the newest facility in Reedsburg. He manages the supervision of all employees,
purchasing of equipment, safety, quality control, customer service, technical
advice and International Standards Organization procedures, as well as advising
sales and marketing. Sterwald
was the driving force behind Loeb-Lorman Metals, Inc.
obtaining the ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications and Occupational Safety and
Health Administration 18001 certifications.
08 06 MAIN STREET BRIDGE NAMED AFTER
Archie Loeb, a well-known business man in the
Watertown community, was honored at Watertown's Riverfest celebration Saturday
by having the Main Street bridge named after
him for the next year. "His
company, Loeb Industries, along with Chickens Unlimited, has paid for the
entire cost of the shuttle buses for Riverfest, an undertaking that runs into
the thousands of dollars every year," Watertown Riverfest Chairman Tom
Schultz said at the presentation. Loeb
received a plaque and his name will be engraved on a plaque at the Main Street
bridge and entrance of the Rock River Walkway.
2015
07 23 LOEB-LORMAN METALS FILES FOR PROTECTION
JEFFERSON -- Due to the decrease in global prices for
iron ore, Loeb-Lorman Metals, with a facility in
Watertown at 1111 S. Tenth St., has announced it is filing of a petition in
Jefferson County Circuit Court to move into receivership. In a petition seeking receivership, the firm
stated it has assets of just over $18 million and debts of approximately $17
million but the fair value of the assets does not meet the debt. JPMorgan Chase
Bank is Loeb's greatest creditor and Loeb owes it more than $10 million.
JPMorgan controls the Loeb assets in Watertown. Also filing for receivership in
Jefferson County was Loeb-Lorman Trucking Co. The petitions, filed Friday, are a strategic
business move according to President Bruce Loeb. He said the Chapter 128 filing under state
statutes will not materially affect day-to-day scrap metal operations at the
company's plants.
07 26 LOEB-LORMAN SOLD; local metal processing sites might close
The assets of a century-old scrap processor
in Watertown and Fort Atkinson has been sold to one of the largest metal
recyclers in the country.
Alter Trading
Corp., a privately-owned, fourth-generation company based in St. Louis, has
acquired the Wisconsin-based assets of the Loeb-Lorman
Metals Inc. The deal reportedly took place Thursday and still must undergo a
court-approval process. All three of Loeb-Lorman’s
Wisconsin sites in Fort Atkinson, Watertown and Reedsburg were purchased by
Alter. Loeb-Lorman had filed for bankruptcy under Chapter
128 of Wisconsin Statutes. A court-appointed receiver was to sell the company’s
assets to raise money to cover as much debt as possible. The plan was
reportedly to sell the business in one piece as a going concern. However, upon
learning of the sale Friday, employees were told to vacate the site. Besides
its Watertown yard and headquarters, Loeb-Lorman has
operations in Fort Atkinson, Reedsburg and Argo, Ind. Between its facilities in
Watertown and Fort Atkinson, there are roughly 70 employees — 20 in Watertown
and 50 in Fort Atkinson. Pictured here, Loeb-Lorman
was founded by Louis Lorman family in 1914 behind
their home on South Main Street facing Merchants Avenue. The current facility,
shown above, is located on Lorman Street, west of
Ralph Park on the city’s north side . . . . Daily
Jefferson County Union.
http://www.dailyunion.com/news/article_70880fa6-58d5-11e5-85ee-07940a230bf5.html
Cross Reference: The Loeb
family’s roots in the recycling business go back to 1921 when it was founded in
Columbus by Hyman Loeb, father of Archie and the late Bill Loeb. The business moved to Watertown in 1941 and
at that time was located on the property that now has become Schurz Elementary
School. Some years later it moved to the 1111 S. Tenth St. location. In 1988 the Loeb family purchased the Fort
Atkinson location from the Lorman family, who had
founded their business in 1914, and in 2007 the Reedsburg facility began
operations. Two years later the company
began operation of a site in Argo.
Cross
Reference:
Oliver H. Kirscher, 1917–2008. Ozzy had been employed in the scrap yard at Loeb's in
Watertown for 18 years
History of Watertown,
Wisconsin