THE FLAX MILL - AN EARLY DIXON INDUSTRY

In July of 1997, a building of local historical significance succumbed to the wrecker’s ball. The old Flax Mill, just west of Commerce Towers on East River Street, was constructed 131 years ago. The Galena limestone for the building was quarried up-river from Dixon. It was one of the oldest factory buildings in town and there is only one other commercial building, the Nachusa Hotel, which was built with limestone from that quarry that remains today.

The Flax Mill was erected in an era when hydropower adjacent to River Street made that area of Dixon a major concentration of industries. With the completion of the first dam in 1845, it was not long until a number of races were constructed to harness the water power.

In 1852, the first of several stone buildings were constructed on the north or riverside of the street with additional buildings completed on both sides of the street in the 1850s and 1860s. There was a total of nine factories. These were large buildings with one in particular of some six stories in height.

All of them were dependent on water power from a number of races that drove large water wheels and burrs, providing power to both sides of the street by the use of tunnels. The factories included a flour mill, machine shop, sash and blind factory, feed mill, foundry, plow factory, file factory and an extensive wool and knitting factory. It was an ideal location with the addition of a spur of the railroad to gain access for transportation.

Under the proprietorship of Colonel John Dement, the flax project was conceived and developed in 1865. Dement, one of Dixon’s first entrepreneurs, forecast the rebirth of the cotton industry following the Civil War with an accompanying need for an inexpensive cloth for wrapping the cotton bales. In 1866, the building was erected and in 1867 it began operation under the direction of Moses Jerome and Major O. J. Downing. Within a decade Dement was the sole proprietor.

The Dixon Flax Mill was the first one of its kind established in the United States. It would continue operations until the 1880s when the U.S. Congress removed the tariff on imported jute thus providing a better material at cheaper prices.

The stone walls of the building were two feet thick with hand-hewn oak beams. The size of the building was 45 by 76 feet and two stories high. A constant demand for more bailing cloth saw the factory expanding in 1870 to a dimension of 45 by 140 feet and increased the capacity to 3,200 yards of bailing cloth per day.

The factory used 9,000 pounds of tow per day which was manufactured from 36,000 pounds of flax straw, the product of approximately 28 acres. During the course of a 280 day operational year the mill converted 1,260 tons of flax tow into bailing cloth, produced from over 5,000 tons of straw or the product of 7,500 acres.

The factory operated well before the enactment of child labor laws and employed some fifty boys, girls, women and men. A shaft which ran under the street was connected to a large wooden wheel in a pit in the basement. A belt ran from that wheel to the second floor where it provided power for the operation of the factory.

Each week two railroad cars of flax bagging were shipped to Memphis, St. Louis and Louisville where it was distributed throughout the cotton fields of the south to enclose the bales of cotton.

After the manufacture of flax bagging was discontinued the factory was used for several purposes until it was purchased by Illinois Northern Utilities in 1915 and was used for storage and repair center for meters. The successors, Public Service Company and Commonwealth Edison put it to similar use until 1946 when the building was owned by Sinow & Wienman and used for the storage of scrap materials.

Through the many years of serving the community with a prosperous industry, those years would also take its toll in the structures deterioration, usefulness and its ultimate demise. In late 1992, KSB Hospital purchased the property and it will soon be used to complement their existing parking facilities.

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