William S. Nott founded Nott Company in 1879, beginning the business by supplying leather drive belts for the milling and lumber industries. Belts were then made from animal hides using water power from St. Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, near what is now downtown Minneapolis. By the early 1900s, products evolved from luggage, horse harnesses, and leather dice cups to hand-drawn fire engines, steam pumps, and motorized fire engines. Remnants of the old fire equipment can still be found throughout Nott Company’s offices today.

By the 1960s, the business had evolved and developed two specialty divisions – Rubber Fabrication and Fluid Power. These integral departments provided the design and fabrication of completed rubber products, standard component pieces, total fluid power solutions and engineered systems.