The Greenlee Brother's story starts in Pennsylvania. Their father, Edmund Greenlee had developed a machine for wood barrel-making in their hometown of Crawford County in western Pennsylvania. The ink on their father's patents was barely dry when the first oil well was drilled in western Pennsylvania in 1859 and the demand skyrocketed for barrels to ship the oil in. The twin brothers dedicated their father's machines to the production of wood barrels to great success. In 1862, as the barrel demand tapered off in Pennsylvania, the brothers moved to Chicago, IL with their father's blessing to continue the wood barrel making business. It was there they established the Greenlee Bros. Company.