SISTERSVILLE TANK WORKS OWNERS JANET WELLS AND DARLENE MORGAN
ADMIRE THE WORK OF JIM SMITH WHO IS FABRICATING A TANK HEAD. ALSO
PICTURED ARE CHARLIE STOUT AND MARK ANKROM.
The Sistersville Tank Works has persevered for more than a century. Now
Janet Wells and Darlene Morgan, a mother-daughter duo, have given the
factory a pretty good start on the next century. On Oct. 15, 1984, Wells and
Morgan purchased Sistersville Tank Works, a company that had been in
business in this Tyler County River town since 1894.The Tank
Works opened amid the bustle of the late 19th-and early 20th-century oil
boom era when oil derricks were springing up by the dozens. In
1890, Sistersville recorded a population of just 300 people. But
swiftly, the town swelled to more than 20,000 people as it became
home to thousands of roughnecks who threw up shanties on any open space
they could find. Sistersville Tank Works began manufacturing
boilers and pressure valves to meet the oil industry’s increasing
demands. The business was first located in a part of the city
known as “Happy Holler,” but flooding in 1913 forced the shop to
relocate to its current site on 19 acres near the south end of Sistersville WV. The 30,000 square-foot plant area is
outside municipal limits, while the corporate offices are within
the city’s boundaries. Wells began Working at the plant in 1960 as a
secretary / bookkeeper. It was a time when women performed clerical
duties and men were the bosses. “Women weren’t even allowed to
smoke at their desks. They had to go to the women’s bathroom to have a
cigarette break,” recalled Morgan, who began helping her mother in
1969 part-time while she was still in high school. “I came on board full
time in purchasing in 1974.” Four decades ago neither woman
dreamed she would one day be directing a business that now does more
than $5 million a year in sales. Lack of a dream, however,
wouldn’t keep either Wells or Morgan from beating the odds.
In 1984, the fledgling Sistersville Tank Works had annual sales of just
$750,000. That was when the parent company, Varlen Industries of
Chicago, offered the business to it’s employees. After some haggling
among the half dozen employees, Wells and Morgan emerged as the new
owners. “They said we wouldn’t last six months,” Wells recalled. But my
bookkeeping duties had given me a grasp of the business end, and we
found people who were willing to back us financially.” Both women
say it wasn’t an easy road to travel. Even today, they know of no other
custom fabrication shop in the U.S. run by women. “There were
customers who would call to make orders and they wouldn’t talk to us,”
said Wells. “They wanted to talk to a man in the back in the shop.
It’s taken a long time, but finally, our customers will talk with us
now.” Wells and Morgan attribute their success largely to their
work force, which has grown to about 50. “We normally run the shop 40
hours a week, but if we have a customer who needs a job done now, our
employees are willing to do whatever it takes. We just completed a
job that took two weeks, 24 hours a day. It was something we’d never
done before, and everybody pitched in to get it done.” Wells said.
In 1984 , the Tank Works’ market was confined to the Ohio Valley area.
Now it stretches across the United States, along with a few
businesses in Japan. The employees have built tanks as small as four
inches around, and as large as 16 feet in diameter by 80 feet in
length. “We have no outside salesman: our reputation of doing great work
at a good price has allowed us to get all of our jobs by word of
mouth,” said Wells. Their customers today include chemical plants,
oil refineries, paper manufacturers and even the state of West Virginia.
“One of the most interesting jobs was in 1999 when we were awarded the
contract to manufacture a boiler for the Cass Scenic Railroad’s
Heisler No. 6 steam locomotive,” said Wells. The job was both
technologically challenging and historically significant for the
STW employees who produced the 26-foot long boiler. They fabricated the
boiler to replicate the original one built in 1929, while faced
with the task of ensuring the specifications met American Society of
Mechanical Engineering (ASME) regulations that were listed in both the
1971 and 1998 ASME codes. “Our engineers do the designs and our
crews build them ,” Wells said. “We never did that in the ’80s; back
then, we built tanks according to other engineers’ specs. Now we
also do inspections and field repair.” The naysayer who predicted Wells
and Morgan would fail have since been proven wrong. In 1988, as
president and general manager of the Tank Works, Wells was named the
West Virginia Small Business Woman of the Year. She was the first
female ever to earn the honor. “There’s not been one year since
1984 that we haven’t made money,” Wells said. “We face new challenges
daily and even in the worst times, we realize that after it’s over
and done with, it really wasn’t such a headache.” For the two women, the
highlight of their careers is knowing that they’ve been
successful. “Our employees know that if they stay here, they’re the best
in the business,” said Morgan, who serves as her mother’s vice
president. “We’re very close to our employees, both in the shop and in
the office. We’ve always had an open door policy.” Both women
enjoy farming with their husbands when they’re away from the shop.
Wells, at age 69, has 600 head of cattle roaming her family’s 700-acre
farm, while Morgan helps oversee a 200-acre spread. “It’s our
relaxation; sometimes it’s easier to deal with cows on the farm than
business here at the shop, “joked Wells. “But we love it and we
come here every day,” said Morgan. “Many family businesses fail because
somewhere along the line, someone squabbles. It just hasn’t
happened with us. Even with all the ups and downs, it’s been a great
experience.
