Company History

It was about 1898, that James Paxton, superintendent of the Union Stockyards Company and Thomas W. Mitchell, master mechanic of the Union Stockyards Railroad, began development work on a design of metallic packing for the piston rods and valve stems of reciprocating rod steam engines. Acceptance by several railroads, through tests made on the locomotives, encouraged the entrepreneurs to incorporate Paxton-Mitchell Company under the laws of the state of Nebraska on March 1, 1901.

The sole product of the company at this time was metallic packing. The company outgrew three locations and in 1912, moved to the location at 27th & Martha Streets, which is still the location of the main plant and offices. At that time, non-ferrous and iron foundries were established to supply rough castings for parts for the metallic packing. Some time after the establishment of the foundries, jobbing foundry work gradually began.

In the late 1930’s, it became apparent that the locomotive market for the metallic packing was seriously threatened by the introduction of the diesel powered locomotives on the American railroads. During the war, the company adapted its production largely to parts for engines and municipal castings and other specialty jobshop castings.The company received the Maritime "E" Award with three successive stars for excellence of production.The iron foundry soon became the largest and most successful division within the company.

In 1957, Paxton-Mitchell purchased a steel fabricating plant in Blair, NE who also manufactured earth elevating and loading equipment. The company soon developed a hydraulic operated, truck mounted crane appropriately named the SNOOPER® used for bridge inspection and maintenance work. Since the early 1960’s, Paxton-Mitchell has been the leader in this industry and has sold numerous cranes to government agencies and municipalities and commercial customers in the United States and several foreign countries.
Today, Paxton-Mitchell is focused on providing high quality gray and ductile iron castings and complete machining capabilities primarily for the Fluid Power industry.