At the Ductile Iron Society Annual Meeting in Las Vegas,  Dotson Company, Inc. presented a virtual tour of their company. For a more complete description of their facilities,  click on the image at the right. The Dotson Company History 1876 - 2000

     The business that is today called The Dotson Company was founded 123 years ago in Mankato by the Mayer family.  Lawrence Mayer and his three sons, Louis, Lorenz and Conrad, began their business as a blacksmith shop on Vine Street in 1876.  Louis and Lorenz started the foundry in 1894.
     In 1895, Louis invented the trip hammer which was sold under the Little Giant name.  The trip hammer, manufactured in five sizes, is used as a mechanical blacksmith in machine shops and manufacturing operations.
     During the early 1900's, the Mayers drastically expanded their product line with items such as boilers, gasoline and steam engines, hoists, steel beams, manifolds, ditching machines, clotheslines, traffic directors, road signs, woodworking equipment, lathes, band saws, circular saws, drill presses, tractors and road graders.  Most of these products were produced for only a short time period before being discontinued.
     In 1907, Louis Mayer invented a V-8 engine, one of the first in the country.  He used this engine in a car which he assembled over a period of four years.  The Mayers built the chassis and engine, but sent to Detroit for a wooden body, which they carefully gave 20 coats of black paint.  The car ran superbly, and even was able to easily go up the Main Street hill (Agency Hill at the time).  In 1916, due to financial problems within the company, the Mayer brothers were asked by their stockholders to step down.
     The company, now run by the banks, carried on as Little Giant for the next few years.  In 1923, L.J. Fazendin was brought in to manage the company.  He discontinued the tractors (over 500 had been made since 1914) and other unprofitable products and began manufacturing plumbing parts.  In 1924, Little Giant began producing potato pickers, but these too, did not work out.
     In 1937, Little Giant went bankrupt, and L.J. Fazendin bought up the assets and became the owner.  In 1943, Fazendin's son-in-law, Jerry Dotson, joined the company.  At this point, the outlook was good.  Because of the war, trip hammers were necessary, and Little Giant's was the best.  In its specification, the government required:  "Little Giant or equal."  Under Jerry Dotson's leadership the foundry grew from a very small captive foundry to a relatively large jobbing foundry.  Jerry was instrumental in persuading several foundries to close down and transfer their business to Dotson.  The first union contract was signed in 1944 and started a close working relationship that has continued for 50 years.  When Mr. Fazendin died in 1955, Jerry Dotson continued on as president of The Dotson Company and Fairview Corporation.
     During the next few years, the foundry continued to grow and expand into new areas.  While small amounts of aluminum and bronze were poured by Dotson Company in the 1940's, aluminum and bronze were first produced in large quantities in the 1950's by a sister company Fairview Corporation.  In 1967, a ductile iron foundry was started on a new site just north (across the tracks) from the original Rock Street foundry.  Fairview started steel foundry in 1976.
     In 1973, Jerry Dotson's son, Dennis joined the company.  After Jerry's death in 1978, Dennis became the president.  Dennis continued the expansion and modernization of the new iron foundry.  During a slow down in business in 1977, and with the expansion of the new foundry, there was enough capacity to permanently close the Rock Street iron foundry.
     The 1980's were tough years for all manufacturers and particularly those that concentrated in the agricultural and energy markets as Dotson did.  With the collapse of the Midwest markets in 1981 and 1982, The Dotson Company was faced with some very difficult decisions.  Sales dropped more that 80% during this period and losses threatened the survival of the company.  To make matters worse, exchange rates and cheap labor gave foreign foundries an opportunity to take customers away from Dotson.
     The decision was made in 1983 that The Dotson Company would close the brass and aluminum foundry, the steel foundry, the machine shop and stop making the Little Giant trip hammer.  At the same time, the company would invest in new melting and molding equipment for the iron foundry.  In order to convince the banks that the foundry was a worthwhile risk, the company asked the employees and their molder's union to take cuts in pay and to postpone some wages until the company was profitable.  While the dept from the new equipment almost bankrupted the foundry in 1985, the increased productivity and strong employee support gradually led the way back to profitability.
     Major equipment purchases and expansions were completed in 1989, 1991, 1995, 1997, 1999 and 2000.  The operating capacity of the plant is now at 120 melt tons per day.  A 1996 partnership with the Enterprise Division of Machine Power set up a complete, on-site CNC machining operation.
     Today, The Dotson Company is one of the major Midwest ductile and gray iron foundries and certified to the ISO 9002 quality standard.  We are fortunate to have a great workforce, equipment that takes advantage of the newest technology and customers that want long term partnerships.  As we look to our future, we understand that the challenges never go away.  These future challenges are expressed in our mission statement and quality policy:  "Our long term survival and growth is based on providing continuous improvement in quality, service and value to our gray and ductile iron customers; achieved through a process of committed employee involvement and recognition; and, accomplished in a safe environment."