Old Steam Engines

1927 Telephone Fort Mill, South Carolina 29715

If you ever hear the lonely shriek of a steam whistle you may
think that the noise is coming from an old time steam locomotive.
However, the sound may be coming from another kind of old steam
engine. In the 1800s and early 1900s there were many other less
glamorous but no less important sources of power laboring away in
South Carolina’s forests, fields, and factories. Most of these
old engines could not move themselves around as locomotives could,
but were rolled on wheels to places of work by strong teams of
horses or mules. However, they could go places a locomotive could
not, whether deep into the forest to power a sawmill; out into the
cane path to crush sugar cane and then use the steam from its
boiler to boil the sap into molasses; or out into a rice or wheat
field to power a threshing machine and baler; or just to power the
machinery at the cotton gin.

Other steam engines in the Palmetto State simply sat on a plinth
their whole lives and lead a stationary existence tucked into the
corner of some mill or factory to turn the overhead pulleys and
belts which distributed power to the various looms and machines in
the days before electricity. Some of the whistles on these engines
could be heard for ten miles or more, to announce shift changes.
The whistles on the portable engines were used to signal messages
to the work crew. Of course the most eagerly awaited such signals
were the three long toots which meant dinnertime!

There were steam engine factories in South Carolina. The most
famous of these was the old Tozer engine works at 700-715 Gervais
and later at the 600 block of Green Street in Columbia. They built
farm and stationary engines, as well as a locomotive or two between
1865 and 1933. Richard Tozer died in 1884 and the company was then
operated by his brother-in-law, George L. Dial, but Mr. Dial died
two years later. Mrs. Dial remarried and by the late 1880s her
husband John A. Willis ran the business until his death in 1916.
Then Mr. Willis’ stepson, Thomas Fraser Dial ran the works
until 1933 when the demand for steam engines finally dried up. From
1871 up through the first world war, these steam engines always won
a blue ribbon at the South Carolina state fair.

The daughter of Thomas Fraser Dial remarked that when she was a
little girl, her father would always say that he wouldn’t enter
his engines at the fair, but at the last minute he always would. It
was always a thrill to see the little Tozer engines win first
prize; and other more famous makes such as International Harvester
would have to settle for second place. Her greatest thrill though,
she said, was to blow the whistle at the end of the fair. At one
time in the 1800s, the company payroll was $4000 per week, which
would translate into about $50,000 today. And by then almost 500
had been built!

Anderson County had over 54 of these machines hard at work
sawmilling, thrashing, etc. The early Tozer engines had a Palmetto
Tree and a lion head cast into the front of the boiler. The
significance of the Palmetto is obvious, but the lion head is still
a mystery. Was it the crest of the Tozer or Dial family? No
surviving family members can remember. Do you know anyone who has
seen a Tozer steam engine? There are two at the South Carolina
State Museum in Columbia.