It’s not every day that a 125-year old company gets a visit from the grandson of its founder. But, that’s just what happened recently when Ben Sommer, grandson of Peter Sommer, stopped by Keystone Steel & Wire for a tour.
The History of Peter Sommer
Building and maintaining split rail fences in the 1880’s was backbreaking labor. So, Peter Sommer, a farmer who lived in central Illinois, was inspired to come up with a “new kind of fence”. In 1889, Peter, along with his eldest sons, John and Peter W., spent countless hours in a small wooden shed on their farm. Their goal was to devise a crude machine to weave wire into fence. The pattern they came up with resembled a keystone. (The company’s namesake, Keystone Steel & Wire, derives from Sommer’s invention.)