Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Low, J W 
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Author: Past and Present Will County IL; 1907

J. W. Low is numbered among those who in recent years have contributed to the 
business development and progress that has made Joliet one of the leading 
industrial centers of this great state. He was born in Dunleith, now East 
Dubuque, Illinois, in 1868, and pursuing a public-school education, continued 
his studies until he became a high-school student at Elgin, Illinois. In early 
life he learned the trade of a printer and pressman, and nineteen years ago he 
entered the employ of Howe, Davidson & Company, of Chicago, with whom he 
remained as superintendent for sixteen years. In February, 1904, he became one 
of the organizers of the Carrier-Low Company, which was established with a 
capital of forty thousand dollars, with R. J. Carrier as president; William B. 
Gibson, secretary; and J. W. Low, treasurer and superintendent. The firm was 
formed for the manufacture of folding boxes, which are made from boxboard. The 
factory is equipped with the latest improved machinery and they have the 
largest gluing department in the country. The main building is seventy-five by 
one hundred feet and two stories in height. It is built of brick and there is 
also an engine and boiler room forty by sixty feet. They employ one hundred 
workmen in the manufacture of folding paper boxes for cereals, matches and 
other goods, which they supply by contract to firms, their trade extending 
from coast to coast. This has become a very extensive and important industry, 
they now having a capacity of five hundred boxes per day. The business was 
established in Chicago, but a year ago the plant was removed to Rockdale. They 
have their own electric light plant and also a complete pumping plant. In the 
gluing and treating department there is considerable machinery of Mr. Low's 
invention. He is a practical mechanic and a thoroughly up-to-date business 
man, who forms original ideas and applies them in practical manner to the 
demands of the trade. On the 16th of May, 1906, was celebrated the marriage of 
Mr. Low and Miss Blanch George, of Evanston, Illinois. He belongs to the 
Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained high rank, being affiliated with 
the lodge, chapter and commandery at Chicago. William Gibson, also a member of 
the firm, was born in Montgomery, Michigan, in 1868 and was educated in 
Canada. After entering business life he was connected with the dry goods trade 
until he came to Joliet and was one of the organizers of the company of which 
he is now the secretary. In 1890 he removed to Chicago, where he has since 
resided. Mr. Gibson was married in that city in 1899 to Miss Jennie Grant, a 
native of Scotland. They have three children, Imogene F., Ethel N., and 
William A. Mr. Gibson is also a chapter Mason and is a past master of 
Cleveland lodge in Chicago. Both Mr. Low and Mr. Gibson are prominent business 
men, well qualified for the successful conduct of the enterprise which they 
are now carrying on, and they have wrought along modern business lines, have 
recognized opportunity and utilize the means at hand toward the acquirement of 
desirable success. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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