The Vulcan Iron Works of Mason City, IA was created in 1904 when A. A. Koch, a serial entrepreneur and inventor, acquired the Hathorn Foundry & Machine Co. to manufacture iron castings. At the same time Koch was running Koch Manufacturing Co. in Montezuma, IA, which soon moved to nearby Grinnell and was renamed to Grinnell Manufacturing Co.

Arthur Alfred Koch began manufacturing power hammers in 1903 in Montezuma, Iowa. Within a year or so he moved to Grinnell, Iowa, and then to Mason City, Iowa, where he established the Vulcan Iron Works. In 1907, Koch and partner Fred Wells relocated to Albert Lea and established the Star Foundry Company. It is not clear what relationship may have existed between Vulcan Iron Works and the Star Foundry Co.

Information Sources

• 1904-10-08 The Improvement Bulletin.

  A Business Change.
  A change worth of our mention occurred when A. A. Koch, of Grinnell, Iowa, purchased the plant of the Hathorn Foundry & Machine Co., at Mason City, during August. The plant now operates under the name of Vulcan Iron Works. A. A. Koch is the sole owner and proprietor.

  Mr. Koch has erected and completed an entire new set of buildings, has greatly increased the stock and is adding a large amount of new machinery which places the institution in the foremost ranks of its kind in the state. The buildings are all of brick and hollow concrete blocks, and are a credit to the city and the builder. The machine shop is 40x100 feet, the pattern shop 32x40, the foundry 40x60, the pattern vault 20x40, the warehouse 20x50, and the office 18x28.

  The foundry is equipped with a 4-ton jib crane and is arranged for heavy work. The firm will make a specialty of structural iron, including all such items as columns, lintels, door plates, steel beams, channels and angles, iron stairs, fire escapes, railing manhole and sewer rings and covers, sash weights and all iron work for modern buildings. In addition to these they are builders of first-class clay and brick cars for brick yards, having hundreds of their pattern in use in various yars. They also have patterns for and keep in stock gratis, doors, peep hole castings and hoops for kilns.

  The present owner, A. A. Koch, has had 25 years' experience in the foundry, machine and steel industries and is the inventor of a great many labor-saving machines relating to the iron trades. It is his intention to continue the manufacturing of these in the future as in the past. The machines are: The Vulcan Trip Hammer, the Universial Tenoning and Boring Machine, the Vulcan Punch and the Vulcan Shears...