Inspirable Story of Our Owner

Company History - From the Owner

We have been in the steel business for three generations. My grandfather, Walter F. Mueller, owned a small sheet metal shop and hardware store in Moulton, Texas, during the Great Depression. With the help of his two sons - my father, Harold, and my uncle, James - the family grew the enterprise in a great West Texas success story: Mueller Supply Co.

It was not an easy go. My dad remembers times when the family was so poor they ate "everything but the squeal" when they butchered a hog.

Harold Mueller Family Portrait
Harold Mueller Family Portrait

Fortunately, the Muellers knew how to work hard and find success in unlikely opportunities. When they discovered they could buy bent salvage rebar and angles at low prices, they invented a machine to straighten them out for resale. Hard work and unorthodox thinking allowed them to consistently make "a silk purse out of a sow's ear."

My dad and uncle sold Mueller Supply Co. in 1984, the year after I started my own business, Mueller Metals, Inc. We sell and trade steel worldwide. Mueller Metals recently was named one of the largest U.S. importers of Mexican light-walled square and rectangular tubing.

In 2007, Mueller Metals opened Spring Creek™ Products, a division dedicated to delivering our steel customers an economical line of farm and ranch-related gate hinges, latches, fencing products, safety products, welding supplies, industrial hardware, ornamental items, tie-down accessories, and our own patented Total Cut Pipe Guides. We constantly add quality, low-cost, proven winners to our warehouse in San Angelo, TX.

We appreciate your business, and in the Mueller tradition work to earn it every day.

Fred Mueller

Mueller Bros Hardware store 1930 Moulton TX
Walter F. Mueller at his hardware store in Moulton, TX during Great Depression years.
Mueller Metals, LLC