A lock on the American market.

Wilson Bohannan Padlock Company of Marion, Ohio,
founded in 1860, still produces all its components on-site.

The story of Wilson Bohannan Padlock Company, whose slogan is "Locks Since Lincoln," parallels the westward expansion of the U.S. The company began in Brooklyn in 1860 prior to the first transcontinental railway. Locks for the railroad industry were the company's mainstay. Founder Wilson Bohannan held 20 lock-related patents. Today the 65-employee company is owned by the fifth and sixth generations— the founder's great-greatgranddaughter Pam Smith and her daughters, Patricia and Sarah. Pam's husband, Howard, has worked at Wilson Bohannan since 1973 and has been its president since 1995. Read More

Making Locks Since Lincoln

For 150 years, padlock manufacturer Wilson Bohannan has done one thing and done it well.

In 1860, Wilson Bohannan and his son started a padlock business in a Brooklyn, New York, garage. Since then, with a location change to Marion, Ohio, in 1927, this seventh-generation, family owned and operated business has made the solid brass WB padlock. It found early success supplying all-brass padlocks for the growing railroad industry to secure freight cars, track switching gear and other outdoor applications where a rustproof padlock was mandated. By the turn of the 20th century, utilities, gas and electric became a growing market for WB locks for the... Read More

'American-made' is about quality, not cost

In the basement of the All American Store are six, 20-foot gondolas piled high and deep with $20,000 of inventory that came with space the store leased in the strip mall on Wolf Creek Pike.

None of it will make the sales floor, Mike Petro said, because none of it is American made or assembled.

Petro, his partner Dennis Cunningham, and their investors are committed to the philosophy that selling American made or assembled goods will do more good for this country than any legislation or tax break.

"We think we're rebuilding American one purchase at a time," Petro said. Read More

Marion's past told by those who lived it

Snippets of Marion's history by those who have experienced it will highlight the sixth annual Capture the Moment History Dinner Oct. 7 at the John Boler Activity Center.

Members of this year's panel are Howard Smith, a sixth-generation family member of the Wilson Bohannan Lock Company; Norma Jacob, who will share her family's arrival and subsequent business adventures in Marion; Phil Reid, former firefighter and chief of Marion City Fire Department, as well as educator and politician; and John Watkins, former Marion County commissioner and farmer. Read More

American Profile: Producing Locks Since Lincoln

Using a machine that slices through metal, workers cut long brass bars into lock-shaped pieces at the Wilson Bohannan Padlock Co. factory in Marion, Ohio (pop. 36,494).

As the brass pieces travel through production, they are stamped with the company's "WB" logo, polished, shaped and fitted with the internal mechanisms that turn them into padlocks, which will safeguard truck cargo, security gates and utility sheds around the world.

Keeping Business in America

Howard Smith, President of Wilson Bohannan Co., wrote this editorial for Production Machining Magazine outlining the necessity and methods of developing and retaining business in America.

Here are two other articles about Wilson Bohannan Company's past, present and future published in DecoMagazine and Harvest Magazine.