Mathias Klein was born in Worms, Germany - a city known for the skill of its craftsmen who passed their specialized knowledge and artistry down generation to generation. At just 21 years old, Mathias Klein left Worms, eager to explore opportunities on the other side of the ocean. After a two month journey during early 1848, he arrived in New York.
With little money in his pocket and speaking no English, he was unable to secure a position as a locksmith, so he took a job as a servant at an inn. One month later, Mathias signed on as a blacksmith on a whaling ship, where his responsibilities included forging and sharpening knives, hooks, oar locks, and harpoons used by the whalers.
After several years at sea, Mathias was able to save $100 and learn English, and landed back in Philadelphia where he became a locksmith. In 1854, shortly after his 28th birthday, he was naturalized as a U.S. citizen.
The following year, the ambitious Klein headed to Chicago, where there were reports of vast opportunities for hard-working newcomers and skilled craftsmen. Chicago was the 9th largest U.S. city at the time - with major railroad connections, a state-of-the-art sewer system and a large and expanding telegraph network.
During the 1850's the world's tool-making business was centered in Europe, and virtually all tools used in industrializing North America were imported from Germany and Switzerland. With his understanding of both old-world craftsmanship and new world entrepreneurialism, Mathias first went to work in the shop of a hardware merchant. Later, in 1857, he opened his own blacksmith shop, and used his skills to make hospital beds, mailboxes and ornamental iron fences. Using a forge to heat metal and a hammer and an anvil to shape it, he continued his blacksmithing. He also began repairing metal tools like chisels and steel hammers which were being used to build this great city.
And that is where the story of the first "KLEINS" was born. History has it that a lineman working for the Mississippi Valley Telegraph Company (who was laying lines into Chicago) walked into the Klein shop with one side of his pliers broken. Mathias repaired the pliers by forging and finishing a new half for the tool and riveting it to the old half. Not long after, the lineman returned because the other original half of the pliers had now broken and he needed its replacement. Mathias forged and finished the second half of the pliers and riveted it to the other replacement half - thus creating the first complete Klein pliers.
In the 1860s the Great Chicago Fire virtually destroyed that entire city. Within two weeks, Mathias hurried to rebuild his shop. In fact, when the immediate decision was made to rebuild the city - on an even grander scale than before - Mathias' owned and operated one of the only forges available to meet the demands.
Throughout the 1870's and 1880's, along with his two sons, John and Joseph, Mathias' business continued to grow and expand with the growth of the telegraph and telephone industries, and servicing the needs of hundreds of skilled workers.
Towards the end of the 1800s, Klein advanced his skillful reputation for tool making. With the burgeoning electric industry, the company (now called M. Klein and Cons) had turned their full attention to manufacturing hand tools. By aiming to make the highest quality tools, Klein literally let the standards in the emerging industry. They not only produced tools and requested, they sought to exceed the specifications and provide tools that were stronger and more durable, exceeding the demands and expectations of the users.
In 1900, Klein won an award at the Paris Exposition for his outstanding contributions to telegraph and telephony. Under Mathias and his sons, the company developed tools to improve the safety and efficiency of the workers. And in the coming decades, the company's uncompromising attention to quality would become its mission and its mantra as they continued to manufacture tools for lineman and for the professional tradesmen everywhere.
Mathias Klein's passion and tool making skills continue to be handed down from generation to generation of the Klein family. They have never wavered from the critical mission of supplying the finest quality hand tools to generations of linemen - the professional tradesmen who built the communication infrastructure that is the hallmark of modern day America. These specialized tools are a core component of the Klein Tools product line today, and the current generation of the Klein family remains committed to carrying on this important legacy.