At one time, the family-owned company was the largest zinc manufacturing plant in the United States.

The company brought zinc ore from Wisconsin and Missouri to the coal fields of Northern Illinois.

[2] Frederick Matthiessen and Edward Hegeler met while studying at the School of Mines in Freiberg, Saxony.

LaSalle's mayor, Alexander Campbell, encouraged the enterprise and helped them get a deal with the railroad.

The Civil War interrupted production, but by 1863, they began supplying zinc for arms and cartridges.

Around the early 1900s, Julius and Herman Hegeler left to start their own zinc works in Danville, Illinois.

It decreased coal usage and increased ore efficiency, eliminated some expensive labor, and created a marketable residual product, sulfuric acid.

It had high wages and reduced the daily work day to eight hours in 1885, nearly a decade before it became law.

It gave loans to employees for the purpose of buying homes and was structured in a way to give its workers a significant voice.

After WWI, zinc was used for auto parts, brass, linoleum, batteries, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, and rubber tires.

[5][2] M&H had a number of subsidiaries over the years:[6] Frederick Matthiessen became mayor of LaSalle and focused on civic improvements, helping bring about the LaSalle-Peru Horse and Dummy Railway and personally paying for the city waterworks, electrical light station, first library, high school buildings, and hygienic institute.