By Susan Edmonston, Editor Emeritus
Are you aware that a local business in Protection has been operating for more than 80 years?
Known by Filson’s Cattle Chutes in the beginning, later Filson’s Manufacturing, it is now known as Filson’s Livestock Equipment.
Gary Filson remembers watching his father, Ben, make his first cattle chute. It was 1946, in the Filsons’ garage. Since then, the company has passed through two more generations with Ben’s sons, Gary and Larry Filson, and Gary and Charlotte’s son, Kendal Filson.
Kendal Filson started working in the family business from the time he was in the fourth grade and he is still there. The highlight of his job is the daily contact with people from all over the country. He travels some, but spends most of his time in Protection overseeing the general day-to-day running of the business.
Filson Manufacturing is located at 102 South Broadway and is open weekdays. It has expanded from a half block and now covers the whole block plus property to the east and south, displaying its livestock products: hydraulic chutes, chutes and headgates, tubs and sweeps and alleys, palp cages and tilt tables. This equipment is ideal for all sizes of operations from feedlots and veterinarian services, heavy cattle usage, down to the rancher handling only a few head of cattle.
The business has done well through the years but Gary Filson said, “With this business you can have a good year and a bad year all in the same year.”
“In 1973, we were behind on our orders 16 weeks,” he said. “When the cattle market broke, orders were cancelled and we were caught up within 30 days. But we still had payments on four trucks.
“This is when you wished you worked for the other guy. It was an education but we certainly didn’t take a salary that year and fortunately we survived.”
The company has built a reputation of quality equipment and reliability throughout the United States as well as Canada, Puerto Rico, Mexico, overseas in England, China, Israel, Australia, Honduras and several countries in South America.
In the 1970s, Filson’s had 30 employees. In 1980, there were 20. Currently, the company is operating with 10 employees welding and assembling the products.
In the June 26 edition of the Protection Press, Filson estimated, conservatively, that the firm built 1,500 to 2,000 chutes each year.
As the cattle industry has changed, other livestock products have been added. Today, Filson’s has a full line of equipment to meet the needs of cattlemen throughout the USA and abroad. Filson’s can also customize products to the needs of individual customers.
Filson’s History
The first cattle chute was constructed in 1946, by Ben Filson. As time went on, Ben was asked by area farmers and ranchers to build a few more chutes. He decided to expand his sales territory and started selling the chutes off the back of his truck at sale barns.
In 1959, his son, Gary Filson, joined his father and by this time, a number of dealers had been established throughout the midwest.
Gary traveled to many farm shows, such as in Great Bend, Pittsburg, Hutchinson, Ft. Worth and Amarillo, Texas, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., McCook, Neb., and Springfield, Mo.
In 1979, Kendal Filson, joined his father, Gary.
In July of 1981, the Filson office that had been next door to the post office was relocated to the manufacturing plant on Broadway. The vacated building next to the post office then became the Protection City Hall.
Filson Family History
Ben Filson’s first acquaintance with Protection was as a young man seeking work for the summer. Later, he married and returned although they didn’t stay but for a short time.
In 1944, he sold his small farm in eastern Kansas and made his final move to Protection with his wife, Rema, and children, Marlene, Gary, Sondra and Larry. Their children graduated from Protection High School in 1952, 1955, 1958 and 1960.
Filson was doing custom cutting and some farming, when one day someone decided they needed a cattle chute. When he took to his backyard garage in 1946, little did he know he was starting a new business in Protection. He put on his welding hood and began.
The first chute was constructed of odds-and-ends pipe, oneway gears and other material that was necessary to complete it. Gary Filson remembers watching his dad while he figured, cut, placed and welded.
Ben had been a foreman in Coffeyville for a fabrication plant and farmed on the side. It was there he gained the experience that later made him eventually continue in his new venture.
However, Ben didn’t go on and completely devote his time to this idea, as he decided to try the car business. After all, the war was over and everyone was in the market for an automobile. The Kaiser-Frazer and Jeep dealership later turned out to be an unsuccessful business.
While it wasn’t doing well, fortunately the demand for chutes was growing. By this time, Ben was making cattle guards, stock tanks, horse trailers, gates and other items that someone might special order.
By 1950, though the local demand was good, it certainly wasn’t sufficient to stay in business forever. So while chutes were being made Ben took others out and sold them from the back of his farm truck. He generally hit the sale barns, selling directly to the cattleman. In time, he started setting up dealers along the way.
When Gary Filson returned in 1959 after receiving his college degree, he joined his dad. They each would “peddle” their load while delivering the few orders that were coming in. Frequently, they were gone for two weeks at a time, often sleeping in the truck by night to save expenses.
Ben and Gary started attending more fairs, making new contacts there. Gary continued to spend much of his time traveling and selling through the states and Canada. In the 1970s, cattle equipment was taken to Canada every two weeks.
Show items were sometimes shipped ahead (but not often by rail) and Gary would fly to his destination.
He began to attend the large industrial and farm shows that began in the late 1970s. Selling was made easier because farm stores had begun to be more popular throughout the country. Dealerships were now established in the majority of the United States and Canada.
In 1965, Larry Filson returned from college and took over the management of the office. Until his return, this job had been shared by Rema, Ben and Gary in their spare time.
In 1966, through mutual consent, Ben and his wife, Rema, Larry and Gary and his wife, Charlotte, made the decision to incorporate, thus forming Filson Manufacturing Company, Inc.
In 1972, when production was several months behind, they decided to expand and build pickup racks and pieces of all kinds of cattle equipment in Caldwell. This plant was sold in 1976 when those were no longer needed.
As the cattle business has changed, many other livestock related items are now being made: cattle chutes, headgates, loading chutes, stock racks, hay feeders, portable corrals, and crowding alleys.
In the beginning, there were maybe five manufacturing businesses. Now, there are hundreds.
Kendal Filson continues to work toward the growth and expansion of his grandfather’s backyard devotion. Both give credit to family and others for helping them obtain these goals.
He is assisted in the office now by his wife, Carla, and daughter, Hiedi Napierala.
WRITER’S NOTE: Caldwell was where Don and Cindy Dellinger were and they came to Protection and opened Don’s Place in 1973.
