William Albert Markell began making ammunition and reloading in his basement home in San Francisco as a hobby. He loved shooting guns at the practice ranges and decided to start production of his own ammunition. He did all of this from the melting of large lead bars to small lead bars which were then melted into a molding pot and then he had a sizing and greasing machine do the next step and then packed for sale. William Markell's first business name was Mar-Mur for Al Markell and George Murphy who began selling their own ammunition from home.

 

In 1957, he opened the first Markell Inc. retail store on Balboa Street in San Francisco and as it grew he  moved to Judah Street where many employees worked for years. These employees included San Francisco firefighters, police officers and many high school friends of all the Markell siblings. He opened a second store with his partner, Cliff, in Colma a few years later but it closed after several years.

 

Since his son, Guy “Butch” Markell,worked along side his father from his teens, when Al Markell died in 1979 Guy, a San Francisco firefighter, worked along side his mother Beatrice and kept the Judah Street store in operation. The business thrived for many years until it was moved to Santa Rosa in the late 80’s and opened its doors on the Riebli Road property. Later, in 1999, Butch Markell moved it to the Mark West Springs Road location. After Beatrice’s passing in 2014 Butch kept it going with his faithful employees.

 

The Tubbs fire in October of 2017, totally destroyed the barn in which the business was housed and the home and all buildings on the property. This was a huge blow to Butch since this was his life. The business continued in the Rohnert Park house and he kept his employees receiving a pay check all through the relocation process to Markell's new home, on Old Redwood Highway in Windsor.

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