The first 25 years of operation provided the Paxton & Vierling Iron Works with all the thrills and chills of a high-speed roller coaster ride. 
For well over a century, the Paxton and Vierling Steel Company has thrived as the founding firm of Owen Industries, a holding company that today owns and operates steel warehousing and fabricating plants throughout the Midwest. In that time, the firm has survived steel shortages, national recessions, international military conflicts, and even flooding at its home plant. And it’s evolved to handle uncertain political climates, union disagreements, and new, unchartered areas of business.
The never-certain path to survive and thrive has been made possible by the company’s employees and their unceasing efforts to make the business and everyone involved in it successful. In recent years, the firm has reinvented itself from the inside-out, running down much-coveted international work, expanding its home campus, and developing a nuclear-compliant program. This is the story of one of the Midwest’s leading steel suppliers, the one located on Avenue H.
A peek inside
