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Carl Frederick Malzahn

Early Life
In 1902, Carl Frederick Malzahn, a German immigrant, moved his family from Minnesota to Oklahoma Territory. The family included his wife, Anna, two sons—Gustave “Gus” and his younger brother Charles “Charlie”—and four daughters – Grace, Emaline, Irene, and Marie. Carl opened a blacksmith shop with his sons. It was later renamed Charlie’s Machine Shop, and specialized in repairs for the nearby oil fields. Carl Malzahn died from an injury received in a machine shop accident in 1913. Charlie and Gus took over the family business upon his death. Their mother Anna passed away five years later, in 1918. It was at this point that Gus Malzahn became administrator for both of his parents’ estates.

Descendants
Edwin “Ed” Malzahn was born to Charlie and Bertha Malzahn in 1921, and became brother to Virginia. He graduated from Oklahoma A&M College in 1943 with a degree in mechanical engineering. In the 1940s, Ed and his father developed a compact trencher that would become known as the DWP, which stood for Ditch Witch Power. The DWP was the first mechanized, compact service-line trencher developed for laying underground water lines between the street main and the house.

In 2003, Tiffany Sewell-Howard, Ed’s Malzahn’s granddaughter, became CEO of The Charles Machine Works, Inc., the company that makes Ditch Witch underground construction products. She represents the fifth generation of the Malzahn line—beginning with Ed’s grandfather Carl—to run the family company.