c. williams headquarters marshalltown iowa united states key people dave lennox products construction tools website http www.marshalltown.com the marshalltown company based in marshalltown iowa is an american manufacturer of construction tools for various uses such as asphalt concrete drywall eifs flooring masonry painting plastering stucco tile and wallpaper . the marshalltown company has been in business for over 125 years and is one of the top producers of construction tools in the world . citation needed the marshalltown trowel is a favored tool among american archaeologists . 1 2 contents 1 company history 2 business today 3 references 4 external links company history edit the origins of the marshalltown company can be traced back to the american inventor and entrepreneur dave lennox . while working in his machine shop in marshalltown iowa mr. lennox received a visit in 1890 from a local stonemason interested in making a better trowel for the masons working on the marshall county courthouse . according to the mason s criteria mr. lennox forged the trowels and delivered them to the workers . the trowels were a vast improvement and the masons around the area requested that more be made . mr. lennox having other interests decided to forgo the opportunity and instead gave his friend j. c. williams the charge of making the trowels . during this period business for j. c. was initially steady but slowgoing . with the help of his brother e. l. williams things began to pick up and soon the brothers joined in a partnership . al higgin in his sales truck twelve years later their business began to boom and they decided to move the company to south 8th avenue in marshalltown iowa the site where the current plant is today . during this time the brothers acquired the services of master salesman and promoter al higgin . with mr. higgin s help marshalltown trowels became renowned across the country . business today edit marshalltown company location in marshalltown iowa . today the marshalltown company operates in iowa and arkansas with most production processes occurring in fayetteville . the iowa location does serve some production processes but is mostly used for administrative purposes . the company has also expanded its product lines since first introducing its trowels in 1890 . in addition to the original marshalltown premier line of tools the q.l.t. line was introduced for the everyday handyman . in addition to expanding product lines marshalltown company has gone global . today the tools are shipped globally and are used in such countries as canada mexico great britain australia new zealand south africa italy the netherlands and saudi arabia . marshalltown reports that due to its outstanding export sales the company has twice received the presidential e star award a citation recognizing companies that sell 15 % of sales abroad . references edit thomas david hurst 1998 . archaeology . harcourt brace college publishers . p. 171 . isbn 978 0 15 501369 8 . whs trowel bites the dust . the digger . january 2006 . retrieved 2007 12 23 . external links edit marshalltown commerce . our history . marshalltown company . spec mix bicklayer 500 retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title marshalltown company & oldid 741535023 categories tool manufacturing companies of the united statesmanufacturing companies based in iowamarshalltown iowamanufacturing companies established in 18901890 establishments in iowahidden categories all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from march 2008 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 28 september 2016 at 03 27 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view