Site Administrator, Watkins Mill, Rt. 2, Box 270M, Lawson,
Missouri 64062
In 1860 Waltus Lockett Watkins built a steam powered woolen mill
on his farm in western Missouri. He had moved to Missouri from
Kentucky where, as a young man, he had apprenticed in cotton mills
and eventually became foreman of a mill in Frankfort, Kentucky. It
was in Frankfort that he had his first experience with steam
engines. He reported in his autobiography that ‘I assisted in
the building of the first locomotive and car that ever moved on a
railroad in America by steam power.’ This was the engine built
in 1828 by Joseph Bruen and Charles Lewis.
Watkins moved to Liberty, Missouri in 1830. In 1839 he settled a
farm about twenty-five miles north of present day Kansas City where
he became quite successful as a raiser of mules and shorthorn
cattle. By the mid-1850s he had a 3600 acre farm complete with a
sawmill, flour and grist mill, and brick kilns. He then decided to
build the first woolen factory west of St. Louis.
This three and a half floor mill was designed to produce
fabrics, yarn, and blankets for use by local farmers. The power for
the mill was supplied by the J. T. Dowdall & Company of St.
Louis who’s letterhead proclaimed them to be:
J. T. Dowdalll & Co. Dr. WASHINGTON FOUNDRY
Engine and Machine Shop Corner of Second & Morgan Streets
Manufacturers of steam engines and boilers, saw and grist mill
machinery, muley saw mills, tobacco screws and presses, lard
kettles, lard screws and cylinders, wool carding machines,
Young’s patent smut machines, building castings, etc.
The original agreement between Dowdall and Watkins states:
Mr. W. L. Watkins:
We will furnish you our Engine 12 x 36 Cast Bed = Double Slide
Valve – also Balance Valve = Flywheel 10ft diam – cast arms to
weigh about 8000 lbs – Pipes and Pulleys complete with Governor
-Boiler 30ft long – 46′ diam = 5 flues 2nd hand first in good
order – Boiler Castings complete – Breeching for Stack all to be
complete for the sum of Two Thousand Dollars ($2000) = Pulleys –
Hangers & Boxes we will make at nine (9) cents = Payments =
$1000 with acceptance in Clay Co. payable at Branch Farmers Bank at
Liberty Mo c Bo Ds = $1000 c. bms payable some places
Very Respectfully and also furnish every thing necessary to have
said engine complete & said engine is to be made in an approved
stile & in a workmanlyke manner and to be shipped forthwith,
(sic)
J. T. Dowdall & Co.
I accept the above proposition
W. L. Watkins
There is no existing record of shipment on the engine and
flywheel (which is a sectional wheel 16 feet high, not 10 feet as
stated in the agreement), but there is a very handsome and
decorative shipping bill on the boiler. It is a printed form with
blanks for filling in the particulars and space below to itimize
the cargo.
SHIPPED in good order and condition by J. T. Dowdall & Co.
on account and risk of whom it may concern, on board the good
Steamboat called Thos. E. Tutt whereof Doziers is Master for the
present voyage, now lying at the port of ST. LOUIS, and bound for
Missouri City the following articles, marked and numbered as below;
which are to be delivered, without delay, in like good order and
condition, at the aforesaid port (the dangers of the River, Fire,
and unavoidable accidents only excepted), unto – W. L. Watkins or
to assigns, he or they paying Freight at the rate of Fifty-dollars
for boiler & thirty-cents per 100 for balance.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the Master, Clerk, or Agent of said Boat,
subscribes to three Bills of Lading, all of this tenor and date,
one of which being accomplished, the others to stand void.
Dated at St. Louis this 25 day of July 1860.
one boiler (dented)
fourteen grate bars
two fire front doors &
eno bolts all
two fire door linings &
eno bolts all
one rearing bar
one rock plate
nine piece fire front
one supply pipe with mud
valve & stop valve all
R. A. Dansr
weight 2738 The Dowdall Company also found an engineer to
install and operate the engine for Watkins:
Mr. W. L. Watkins Richfield Clay Co. Mo.
Dear Sir
We will Send you an Engineer in every respect Competent to do
your work, he will Start next Saturday or Monday for your place,
his name is Jones
Verry Respectfully J.T. Dowdall & Co.per E.N. Dowdall
The following February Jones ordered more equipment from Dowdall
including a ’10’ pulley flywheel, 20′ face bored &
turned 3460# $311.40.’ Along with the pulley was $992.19 worth
of shafts, pulleys, hangers, sett screws, pipes, valves, joints,
and a 3′ steam whistle and valve. These were shipped to Watkins
on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad and had a total weight of
10,712 lbs. There is no way to determine how much all this really
cost Watkins, but the equipment and line shafting, complete, to
operate the mill was about $3300 plus shipping costs.
The 10′ 3460 lb. one-piece main drive pulley inside the mill
building pulls a 20′ belt which powers all of the line shafts.
The vat in the foreground is for dying yarn.
The engineer, Jones seems to have stayed at the mill for a
number of years, but there is only one other piece of direct
evidence concerning him. It appears that he did not always get
along with his employer. The following notice was found in the
mill:
NOTICE
As I am bard out never can see what time by the clock I do the
best that I can on starting on time of morning and as I have
control of the engine I allow no man to touch any thing in the room
with out orders I want you to stay out of here and if the whistle
is sounded anymore by any body matters not who he is I will never
touch a throtle again. I never know one morning out of a week what
time it is I am not allowed the admittance less I ask anymore I
mean what I say.
L. H. J. engineer
The mill ran full time from 1861 until 1886 when broken
equipment, shortages in raw materials, and competition from Eastern
ready-made manufacturers made its operation no longer economically
possible. After that the mill only ran occasionally until 1898,
producing a little yarn and doing a little custom carding. By that
time it was being run only a week or two in the summer by unskilled
farmhands and the engine suffered accordingly. The pump was blown
up when a valve was left shut and big holes were made in the brick
wall of the mill in the course of prying on the great flywheel to
get the engine off dead center.
The boiler with its 12′ return flues was made of 28′ x
78′ hammered iron sheets rivited together. It consumed eleven
cords of wood a day.
The 16′ 8000 lb. segmental cast iron flywheel with the
replacement pump in the foreground. The back of the boiler setting
is in the right foreground.
In the late summer or early fall of 1904 the engine was again
fired to process some wool. John Watkins, who had inherited the
farm from his father, supervised the firing-up then went into town
on business leaving his brother, Joe, in charge. About half way
through the day the engine broke down. Charles Dagley, a farm
worker, remembered that ‘when John returned later in the
evening Joe said, ‘John, the packing has blown out of the
engine. What’ll we do?’ John replied, ‘Well, I guess
that’s the last time we’ll turn the wheels.” The
next day they began storing buggies in the mill.
The Watkins never scrapped or removed any of the mill equipment.
The building sits today with all of its original equipment just as
it was left 75 years ago. In 1964 it became a state historical site
and is operated and maintained by the Parks and Historic
Preservation Division of the Missouri Department of Natural
Resources. Tours are given daily (except on New Years, Easter,
Thanksgiving, and Christmas); the fees are 50 for adults and 25 for
children over six years. The steam engine and boiler may be seen
without taking the tour but the interior of the mill can only be
seen on a guided tour.
