Business View Magazine | April 2019

28 D rake-Williams Steel Inc. of Omaha, Nebraska was founded in 1882 as the Wilson Steam Boiler Company. Since that time, the company has gone through a century’s worth of name and product changes, but has emerged intact as a premier fabricator of structural steel, concrete reinforc- ing steel, and other steel products. Here’s a brief history: In 1893, a boiler maker named George Drake bought into Wilson’s company, followed in 1897 by Hugh Williams. The company was renamed Drake-Wilson & Williams, which soon became the Drake-Williams-Mount Company in 1901, after George Drake died and Ernst O. Mount came onboard to help capitalize the business, allowing it to purchase land at 23rd & Hickory Streets for a new facility, which, to