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Watsontown History by Major Fred H. Knight, 1915 |
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Written by Administrator
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Tuesday, 26 April 2005 |
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Page 7 of 17
Turning from the dead again to the living, we find that about this time a new star had come into the industrial firmament of the community. It was on the night of March 6, 1868, that the small planing mill and boat yard at the foot of Second Street, near where the Hope House now stands, owned by W.H. Follmer, Joseph Bly, and J.H. Wagner, was destroyed by fire. Immediately following this fire the new firm of Wagner, Starr, and Company was formed, who rebuilt the old planing mill at the foot of Third Street, where the McClure houses now stand. This enterprise was the first dawn of a new industrial star in the person of J.H. Wagner, who from that time to present, has been prominently identified with almost every movement that went to the upbuilding and prosperity of the community. This mill, at the foot of Third Street, was successfully operated until the fall of 1875 when it was destroyed by fire. Again a new company was formed consisting of J.H. Wagner, J.W. Muffly, William Hackenberg and D. Frank Wagner, who built the planing mill east of the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks, between Sixth and Seventh Streets. This partnership, with some slight changes, but always with J.H. Wagner at its head, conducted this small planing mill until February 16, 1899, when it was destroyed by fire. In the meantime the ownership had become vested in J.H. Wagner and his brother, D. Frank Wagner. By associating with them some of their trusted employees, the mill was again re-built and operated until October 1, 1904, when it was set on fire by a spark from a passing engine on the Pennsylvania Railroad, and was again re-built by the same owners, with J.H. Wagner at their head, a larger and better mill than any of those before it, and is today a hive of industry. Few men could have met the discouragement and losses of four fires and four wrecked enterprises with the same fortitude and optimism that has always characterized our townsman, J.H. Wagner. Like a Phoenix he has always risen from the ashes to build a better and larger mill than before and has been an untiring factor in employing labor in this community.
Again we are compelled to draw from the biography of Joseph Hollopeter, who, in 1867, with William M. Wagner, built the Watsontown Tannery in the northeast part of the town on the land where the Silk Mill now stands. So extensive was their business, consisting of the tanning almost 1000 hides per month, that in 1869 the same persons formed a Company and built a frame building near the Tannery for the manufacture of boots and shoes, and installed Col. O.S. Lawrence as its Superintendent. At first the principal output were boots and lumberman's shoes. The business grew and in 1873 the present shoe factory building on Main St. was erected. Its ownership passed through various hands until 1898, when H.F. Algert became the sole owner, after which a finer grad of shoes were made and a trade developed that reached into every state in the union. Upon the death of Mr. Algert, in 1908, according to the provisions of his will, the ownership and the management was largely turned over to several of his trusted employees, who since that time have been successfully conducting it, under the superintendency of L.L. Lewis and Charles F. Heyl, who have been worthy successors to their benefactor.
With the development of industry and politics came the development of controversy which opened way for Oscar Foust, the first Attorney-at-Law, to locate in Watsontown, who on October 1, 1867, in a small building that stood in the rear of where the Diehl Confectionery Store now stands, near the site of the Moritz Barber Shop, opened the first law office known to the community. The building has since been moved to Railroad Street and is now owned and occupied by John Hill. Mr. Foust is now Judge of the Allen and Wootson County Courts in Kansas.
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Watsontown History 
