In the 1930s, Mr. Everett L. Bell and Mr. "Bud" Hawkins worked together at Chicago Fence & Equipment Co. located at 4400 Addison in Chicago. At the time, Mr. Hawkins worked in a managerial position, and Mr. Bell was a superintendent. In the 1940s, they both left their job to start a company of their own and in 1947, Midwest Fence Corporation was founded.

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In the beginning, they rented a building on Kedzie, and in the 1950’s they purchased 815 Kedzie, and set up shop.

 

In 1960, they went on to purchase both Chainlink Fence Corp. and Chicago Fence & Equipment, where they both had previously worked.

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Eventually in the early 1970s, Everett L. Bell bought out Bud Hawkins after his retirement. His sons Everett A. Bell 'Boo/Butch', and Tom 'The Bear' Bell took over.  Also during this time, two of Tom Bell’s sons, Tim and Mark Bell,  joined Midwest Fence.

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In 1979 they bought 900 N Kedzie, which is right across the street from their original shop and this is still the main building for Midwest Fence to this day.

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In the 1980’s, Everett and John (Butch Bell) joined, and the 4 sons grew the business to what it is today.

 

They purchased a satellite yard in 1992 as their guardrail business expanded, and then in 2005 they bought another building on Grand & Kedzie to further store their growing fleet and materials.

 

76 years later and the company is still family-owned, spanning 4 generations.