The Mendota Museum and Historical Society hosted an open house on March 27, 2022 at the Hume Carnegie Museum in Mendota, Illinois. Black Bros. Co was featured in a special exhibit sharing the history of the company.
This year marks the 140th anniversary of Black Bros. Co., the oldest manufacturing firm in Mendota. The company can trace its roots in the area back to the turn of the 20th century, although the company history goes even farther back than that. Founded in 1882 in Lanark, Scotland, by the five original Black brothers – William, John, James, Walter and David, as well as their father, William Sr. The business relocated in the late 1880s to Chicago before the five brothers, their father, and their families ultimately settled in Mendota in 1899.
Black Bros. Co. has transformed from a small woodworking shop into a world-renowned manufacturer of roll coating and laminating equipment. Originally used for wood only, Black Bros. Co. has expanded over the years into a wide variety of other industries and applications including metals, plastics, foam and electronics.
Black Bros. associates have designed, built and tested more than 30,000 machines and delivered them across the globe to every continent except Antarctica, earning them an international reputation for innovative engineering, quality manufacturing and dedicated support. The manufacturers who use Black Bros. Co.’s equipment include producers of furniture, kitchen cabinets, doors, windows, wall paneling, ceiling and floor tile, insulation, rubber flooring, plastic containers and RVs, to name a few.
The people at Black Bros. are not only committed to producing quality machines, but also to Mendota and the Illinois Valley Area. Black Bros. employees can be found volunteering for many area organizations, including the local Chamber of Commerce and various civic and youth organizations throughout the area.
