Louis Lorman, founder of the Lorman Iron and Metal Co. Inc., immigrated from Russia to Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. In 1913 he borrowed 28 dollars from his cousin to purchase a horse and wagon with which to begin work. Lorman conducted his business originally from a barn on South Main Street, but in 1947 he moved the operations to 115 Lorman Street. The company has expanded from a one-man operation to one with more than seventy employees, and for its operations it has more than nine acres. The employees process industrial, agricultural, automotive scrap iron, metal (non-ferrous), synthetic fibers, and waste paper. A modern laboratory on the premises permits scientific analysis of all the metals to determine their purity.
Long active in community affairs, Lorman was a supporter of the Boy Scouts and a member of the Temple Beth El, Madison; the Wisconsin Consistory and Tripoli Shrine, Milwaukee; the Billings Masonic Lodge, the Royal Arch Masons, the Order of Eastern Star, and the Knights of Pythias, all of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. He died on August 17, 1972 at the age of 77.
