The Monarch Portland Cement Company was founded in 1908 and reorganized in 1913 as The Monarch Cement Company. A commitment to quality and excellence has been a tradition of Monarch Cement since H.F.G. Wulf was appointed receiver of the company in 1913. Together with August C. Kreitzer, Wulf reorganized the defunct company, incorporated The Monarch Cement Company, and turned the plant into a thriving business.

For over nine decades the employees of Monarch have worked hard to produce the highest quality cement for its customers in the Midwest. In 1913, the plant had an annual cement capacity of 1.5 million barrels, or 282,000 tons. Today Monarch has the capacity to produce 1,300,000 tons of cement a year. That growth is the result of a series of improvements based on Monarch's ability to take advantage of advances in technology.

During the early years, Monarch's quarry was a man-and-mule powered operation. The raw materials needed for the production of cement were hand loaded into mule-drawn cars. By 1920, however, the mules had been replaced by 8-ton steam engines and hand loading had given way to a steam-driven shovel that moved on rail sections. Today, the quarry is operated using two 7-cubic yard front-end loaders, 50-ton trucks, and conveyors. Progress from mule power to heavy truck power is only part of Monarch's story.