Back In Time: The Florence Mill | News

Florence Mill 1884, Sanborn Map illustration.

Florence Mill Co. ad from the Stillwater Messenger, 1885.

Florence Mill 1884, Sanborn Map illustration.

Florence Mill Co. ad from the Stillwater Messenger, 1885.

The history of Stillwater begins with the commercial production of lumber. The industry fed the local economy for 75 years and to this day Stillwater is known as a lumber boomtown. There is another aspect to Stillwater’s early years that has not been noted as much and that would be Stillwater’s agricultural history.

Not only was Stillwater the home of five lumber mills at one time (including the mill on the other side of the river) but it was also the market to which farmers would bring their goods. Several flourmills dotted the streetscape of Stillwater but the one that was the most visible was the Florence Mills.

W.F. Cahill and J.H. Townshend constructed the mill in the fall of 1872. The mill was originally 40 x 50 feet, two stories high, and furnished with three run of stone, and had a capacity of fifty barrels per day. The motive power was an overshot wheel, forty-four feet in diameter, probably one of the largest wheels of the kind ever built in the state to that time. The water for the mill was brought down from a dam located where the Pitman House once stood, now the northern portion of Trinity Lutheran Church, and supplied by a brook from McKusick’s Lake.

In 1873, the firm became Cahill, Townshend and Company, Baron Proctor becoming a partner in the firm. A few years later Townshend bought out Cahill and the firm built an addition on the north side of the original mill, 30 x 56 feet and four stories high, at the same time adding to and improving the older property, both being brick veneered.

Five years later, in 1878, the company placed a new Corliss engine, of 75-horse power. This engine was particularly adapted to use in a flouring mill, from the fact that its movement is so uniform. A new engine house was constructed at the rear of the mill being made of stone and brick and covering 26 x 40 feet on the ground, one story high, and protected by a gravel roof. According to the Stillwater Lumberman newspaper of August 2, 1878, “The mill with the improvements will have a capacity of 150 barrels per day, as against 100 per day now.”

In 1880, Proctor sold his interest of the company to Townshend who then formed a partnership in the firm with Dwight M. Sabin under the name of Townshend & Co. To help with the handling of the product, a spur of railroad track from the St. Paul and Duluth railroad, with yard room for ten cars was added. The new company also built new and larger offices. In 1881, the mill was producing up to 300 barrels a day and employed twenty men including the head miller, Henry Drews who had started working for the mill in 1875.

A newspaper note in the Stillwater Messenger, October 25, 1884 read, “All who appreciate the advantage of keeping our flouring mills in operation will buy their flour of the Florence Mill Company.” The company also shipped flour milled in Stillwater all over the world. In January 1885, it was noted, “The Florence Mill Company on Wednesday shipped ten car loads of flour consigned to London, England.”

By 1885, the mill had stopped operation and the machinery was taken out of the buildings. The principal brands of flour manufactured at the Florence Mill over the years included “Butterfly,” “Crusade,” “Baker’s Extra,” and “Standard.”

The building remained for another fifteen years as a ghostly symbol of the companies great past on North Second Street. It was eventually torn down to make room for a new creamery.

The creamery came and went and now the site of the old Florence Mill is home to Stillwater Mills condominiums. Stillwater’s history is documented with the many lumber mills and lumbermen that carved the early days of our history. It should be remembered as well that Stillwater was the market place for many different agricultural companies.

Brent Peterson is the Executive Director of the Washington County Historical Society.

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