

Along with countless others helping over the course of his life, this timeline is dedicated to Ed’s entrepreneurial journey. We hope that it helps to inspire the next generation of inventors and tinkerers to keep going in the face of adversity. Maybe you will be the next person to invent an industry by seeing an opportunity before all others?




Ed Lowe was born on July 10, 1920, in St. Paul, Minnesota, where his father, Henry Lowe, had been raised. Five years later the young family moved to Marcellus, Michigan, his mother’s hometown. (Henry Lowe and Lulu Huber had originally met in Benton Harbor, Michigan, where they worked for the Baker-Vawter Co., which printed office supplies.)





Henry Lowe, who had been struggling with his various retail ventures, saw a new opportunity with the repeal of Prohibition in 1932. Henry got a liquor license for carry-out and bar service and opened a tavern in nearby Vandalia, Michigan. Later Henry pioneered an ice delivery business and sold sawdust as a grease and oil absorbent to meat packers and factories in South Bend, Indiana.






3/1/1942 — Ed Lowe joins the United States Navy.
10/26/1944 — William Kane is a special representative in Chicago for the Lyman B. Warren Co. of St. Paul, Minn. The Warren Company sells Flor-Dry and Cal-Flor-Dry industrial absorbents. Henry Lowe is a distributor for Warren products in lower Michigan.
5/17/1945 — William Kane establishes the Dri-Rite Co. of Chicago and appoints Henry Lowe as a Dri-Rite distributor.
3/1/1946 — Ed Lowe is discharged from the Navy and returns to his home in southwest Michigan.
4/1/1946 — Under the name of Lowe and Lowe Co., Ed Lowe joins his father selling ice and coal to residents of Vandalia, Jones and Marcellus, Mich. — and industrial absorbents to local companies. Commercial customers include Whirlpool, Bendix and Studebaker corporations.
9/19/1946 — William Kane sends Ed Lowe a sample of Dri-Bed, the double-action chick and poultry litter manufactured by the W. H. Barber Co. in Chicago.
12/1/1946 — Lowe’s Sawdust Co. hires Robert Follett as a truck driver.
4/1947 — J. Kelly Dick forms the Southern Clay Co. in Paris, Tenn., to produce oil and grease absorbents.
4/1/1947 — Lowe’s Sawdust Co. leases a building along a right away (R.R. # Ab R610) in Cassopolis, Mich., from Grand Trunk Western Railroad Co. This facility is used for weighing coal and bagging absorbent clay.
9/1/1947 — Kay Draper purchases fuller’s earth clay from Ed Lowe to use in her cat box. Soon she will use nothing but this product because it is more absorbent than sand and doesn’t leave tracks in the house.
10/1/1947 — At the prompting of Ed Lowe, the Davenport Pet Shop in South Bend, Ind., test-markets fuller’s earth from Ed to sell as cat-box-filler. Sales are so successful that Ed creates a label for his “dirt in a bag” that reads “Kitty Litter — absorbs and deodorizes — your kitty will like it.”
10/9/1947 — Ed Lowe purchases Southern Clay Co.’s first carload of fuller’s earth clay.
7/27/1948 — Ed Lowe becomes a Dri-Spot distributor and advertises in the Journal of Commerce for distributors of its fuller’s earth product. It receives interest from several New York City firms including the Brennan-Shea, Allerton House and Hilton Marvell companies.
9/1/1948 — In its first year, Kitty Litter participates in 30 cat shows across the country where Ed Lowe provides free product in exchange for exhibtion space.
10/28/1948 — The Harry W. West Printing Co. of South Bend, Ind., prints the first Kitty Litter bag.
11/22/1948 — Promotional mailings are sent to pet stores in the United States and Canada announcing Kitty Litter.
1/1/1949 — Ed Lowe is working double time — at Lowe and Lowe Co. and for Cleon Miner at The Machinery Co. Ed sells a large printing press for Miner and receives a large commission, which enables him to focus on building his Kitty Litter business.
1/1/1949 — Ed Lowe buys his father’s sawdust, oil and grease absorbent business and begins to market Kitty Litter nationally.
2/25/1949 — Kitty Litter can be purchased in Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, Hudson’s of Detroit and Marshall Field’s of Chicago.
5/20/1949 — Ed Lowe advertises Kitty Litter nationally in House & Garden magazine, and orders began pouring in.
7/1/1949 — In cooperation with Trupal Pet Shop, WKAM radio station of Warsaw, Ind., announces over the air: “Kitty Litter … taking the place of sand … but doesn’t smell when used over and over.”
9/16/1949 — Kitty Litter is now available bulk in 50-pound bags or packed in 5-pound bags for resale.
12/29/1949 — Preparations are made for the first shipment of Kitty Litter to California, marking the only cat-box-filler available from coast to coast.
12/30/1949 — Lowe & Lowe Co. offers a Kitty Litter pan available through their jobbers.





Kitty Litter’s popularity increased in the 1950s, and in 1955 cat owners spent $1.5 million for the cat box filler and other Lowe & Lowe products.

10/1/1953 — Ed forms a new company, Happy Day Products Inc., to overcome pricing problems and profit demands between the pet store market and the grocery industry. A few months later, Happy Day Products introduces Tidy Cat to sell in supermarkets.
1/27/1954 — Kitty Litter ads appear in numerous magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Cats, American Family, Sunset, American Home, McCall’s, House Beautiful, Ebony, Modern Romances and Parents’.
7/28/1954 — Ed changes the name of his company from Lowe & Lowe to Lowe’s Inc. The new entity handles all pet items, including its flagship product, Kitty Litter. Offices are established in a house at the southwest corner of York and O’Keefe streets in Cassopolis, Mich.
1/28/1958 — Ed purchases a clay plant in Olmsted, Ill. for $39,000 (minus eight years of back taxes) from the American Charcoal Co. in Detroit and renames the new company “Star Enterprises.”
3/5/1958 — Lowe’s Inc. investigates the use of additives such as sassafras bark and oil, to control odor in Kitty Litter.





The U.S. pet market experienced considerable growth in the 1960s, influenced by Americans moving out into the suburbs, growing leisure time and record incomes. During this decade, Lowe’s Inc. became the world’s leading manufacturer of cat-box-filler.

1/1/1963 — Lowe’s acquires Petpak, a Milwaukee-based pet products firm, which included a bird bell operation. Two years later it moves manufacturing and packaging operations to Cassopolis, Mich.
8/1/1968 — The company opens the Mr. Friendly Pet Store in South Bend, Ind. Although the concept didn’t take off, Ed envisions a chain of franchised pet stores.
1/1/1969 — Lowe’s uses six semi tractor trailers to advertise Kitty Litter and Tidy Cat brands while transporting products throughout Illinois, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Estimated audience impression is 14 million people per year.
5/30/1969 — Time magazine writes an article about Ed Lowe’s corporate health incentive program, the I Can’t Afford to Lose You Club, which he established to motivate overweight executives to lose weight.


* Eliminating a competitor in 1965 with the acquisition of the Tennessee Absorbent Clay Co. in Paris, Tenn.
* Developing a 35-acre industrial park in Cassopolis, Mich. (begun in 1964, completed in 1965), where Lowe’s built a corporate office and packaging plant and established a quality control division.
* Accumulating 625 acres of farmland near Cassopolis, Mich., by 1967. Known as Big Rock Valley Farm, this property was used for research and development of absorbent clay products for agricultural, commercial and domestic applications.
In fact, Lowe’s growth is so great during this decade that it was necessary to implement a computer system in 1968 to manage information of all the company’s divisions.



Lowe’s Inc. was the world’s largest manufacturer of cat-box-filler in the 1970s, and its Tidy Cat brand was the No. 1 bestseller in grocery stores. During this decade the company focused on vertical integration of its operations to sustain growth.

1/1/1970 — Ed Lowe helps organize the Sorptive Mineral Institute, a national, nonprofit trade association representing producers and marketers of products made from absorbent clay minerals.
1/1/1972 — Lowe’s Inc. and its subsidiaries employ 250 people.
2/1/1973 — Big Rock Valley Farm now consists of 2,400 acres.
10/8/1974 — Ed Lowe receives U.S. Patent #233,158 for a scoop used to remove waste from sanitary cat boxes, one of the 32 patents he receives during his lifetime.
7/1/1977 — Lowe’s Inc. establishes its first in-house advertising and promotion department.
9/1/1977 — Charlie Chuckles, an animated character serving as a spokesman for Kitty Litter, appears on television for the first time.
9/1/1977— Lowe’s rolls out its new-and-improved Kitty Litter — the first cat-box-filler with a microencapsulated odor-control system.


* Conducting a packaging conversion at the Paris plant that substantially increased its packaging capacity for litter products.
* Installing a new screening operation at the Olmsted plant that removed accumulated dust before litter products were packaged.



Lowe’s Inc. concentrated on expansion in the 1980s. It introduced new capabilities to existing markets and identified new markets for existing products.

8/1981 — Lowe’s Inc introduces its Tidy Cat brand to the Canadian market.
10/1/1983 — Lowe’s Inc. implements a corporate-wide program to encourage wellness and good health.
11/1/1983 — The Maricopa plant undergoes a major expansion, including the addition of a 30,000-square-foot warehouse and a completely automated packaging line, which enables it produce 120 tons of finished product per year.
1/1/1985 — The New! Breakthrough Kitty Litter brand wins a three-year battle with the Clorox Co.’s Fresh Step to remain the nation’s leader in the cat-box-filler industry.
1986 — Lowe’s Inc. rolls out Scamp, a new brand of cat-box-filler.
6/30/1986 — To more closely identify the company with Ed Lowe’s role in corporate advertising, Lowe’s Inc. is renamed Edward Lowe Industries Inc. (ELI) and bears a new corporate logo.


* A 99% dust-free Kitter Litter launch in November 1985.
* Tidy Cat 3 in 1982.





6/21/1991 — Ed Lowe receives the Outstanding Creative Achievement Award from the Creative Education Foundation in Buffalo, N.Y., for his role in creating a major pet industry.
6/1992 — “Monuments to Free Enterprise” airs on national television. This documentary video, which was produced by South Bend-based Golden Dome Productions for the foundation, explores the personal and professional history of Ed Lowe and his efforts to help other entrepreneurs.
3/3/1994 — Ed Lowe presents the results of his Free Enterprise Briefings to President Clinton and Erskine Bowles, chief of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
6/1995 — A longtime supporter of his community, Ed Lowe donates $500,000 and land to the Cass County Council on Aging to jump-start construction on a proposed $2.2-million facility.
10/4/1995 — Ed Lowe dies.


* Creating an Entrepreneurs Learning Service to provide entrepreneurs with quick answers to practical questions.
* Establishing an entrepreneur’s boot camp at Big Rock Valley Farms (BRV). Under the direction of the American Academy of Entrepreneurs, this initiative provided counseling and curriculum to reinforce the chances of entrepreneurial success. (In 1991 Ed donated his estate at BRV to serve as headquarters for the Edward Lowe Foundation.)
* Hosting a series of discussion groups to give small businesses a voice in national economic-development policy. Held in select Midwestern cities, these forums were known as the Free Enterprise Briefings.
