Overview

This tall, four-and-a half story, flour-grinding mill towered as a landmark on Spokane Falls's early cityscape, WA, when it was built between 1881 and 1883. Owned by a retired Methodist minister, Samuel Havermale, and a business partner, the Echo Roller Mills used a large water-wheel to drive a technologically advanced roller grinding mechanism in contrast to the long-standing use of millstones. Roller milling technology was used in a variety of fields. including grain-milling, mining and concrete production and proved far more efficient than traditional millstone grinding techniques. Roller mills, using stone, ceramic or metal grinders, became widespread in the US after the Civil War, and helped to make the US a leading flour-producing exporter by the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Like many wooden industrial buildings of the late-nineteenth century, this building only lasted about nine years before burning in 1892.

Building History

Samuel Gardenour Havermale (born 10/11/1824 in Sharpsburg, MD-d. 01/13/1904 in Spokane, WA) spent his earliest years in MD but moved, at age 9 or so, with his family to the Dayton area in Montgomery County, OH, in 1833. Havermale relocated to Fulton County, IL, in 1844, and worked as a salesman and teacher before marrying Elizabeth Goldthorp at Joe Daviess, IL, on 11/01/1849. Together, the couple had three children--only two of who remained alive in 1900--in addition to Elizabeth's four children by a previous marriage.

Three years after his marriage, Havermale matriculated at the Rock River Seminary, Mount Morris, IL, between 1852 and 1854, becoming ordained by the latter date. (This Methodist seminary operated for only 39 years between 1839 and 1878. It ran into significant financial difficulties in the 1870s, and this led to its closure and the Methodists focusing their finances on the seminary at Northwestern University in Evanston. See Kable Brothers, Mount Morris: Past and Present, "Chapter V. Rock River Seminary," [Mount Morris, IL: Mount Morris Index Print, 1900], p. 90.) Havermale served congregations in various IL cities--including at Rock River (1852), Hennepin (1855), Moline (1856), Council Hill (1857), Sterling (1861-1862), Batavia (1863-1864), and Waukegan (1866)-- between 1852 and 1866, at least. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, U.S., United Methodist Church Records, 1775-1949 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016. This collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors, accessed 11/04/2025.)

The Methodists transferred Havermale from IL to serve a new congregation in Walla Walla, WA, in 1873. He was made an elder of a large Eastern WA district the following year, a promotion that necessitated him traveling by horseback to preach in a variety of dispersed settlements, that likely proved exhausting. He relocated to the growing town of Spokan Falls by 1875, where he filed a homestead claim on what would become known as "Havermale Island.". In Spokan Falls, he immediately assumed a leadership role, serving as president of the town's first board of trustees, which supervised the construction of its first water system. He also founded Spokan Falls's first Methodist Church in 1879, located on the corner of Sprague Avenue and Washington Street, where he preached for two years, before he decided to leave the ministry by about age 57. (See Jesse Tinsley, Spokane Spokesman-Review.com, "Then & Now: Havermale Island," published 09/12/2016, accessed 11/04/2025.)

Havermale, having lived in farming country in OH and IL, became aware of the predominant millstone technology's flour production limitations. The invention of more productive roller mills dated back to the 1830s in Walzmühle, Budapest in Hungary, and spread in many countries that grew hard-hulled, spring wheat. The roller mill could produce more flour than grindstone surfaces and the flour produced was finer without the bran flavor (and nutrients) left in millstone milling. He and an investor partner, George A. Davis (né Wyenosky, 1831-1929), began the erection of this new roller mill in 1881. Echo Roller Mills became the second flour mill operating in Spokane, but the first to use the new technique. It opened in 1883.

Havermale operated the mill until about 1888, when he sold it to two Englishmen, Albert Edward Keats (1851-1913) and Benthen Burberry Bravinder (1852-1945). Fires damaged the mill in 1889 and 1892. Of the 1892 fire, a newspaper report stated: "Spokane is again on fire. The conflagration started in the Spokane Mill Company's lumber and sawmill, corner of Post and Mill streets. It has burned the Hart and Echo Roller mills, the Spokane oatmeal mill and a number of houses. It is still sweeping the island. There is every possibility that it will take a lot of manufacturing houses. A hard wind is blowing. The buildings are so large and make such a hot fire that other buildings are igniting from the heat. The fire started a little before 5 o'clock and spread rapidly. The fire department is working bravely, but, so far is utterly unable to cope with the flames. The damage will very likely amount to at least $1,000,000." According to this article, the Echo Roller Mills sustained $90,000 worth of damage. The owners had a fire insurance policy with Miles Mutual of Minneapolis to cover $22,000. (See "Gone up in Smoke," Morning Olympian, 05/24/1892, p. 1.)

By 1890, Havermale had retired to live (for at least part of the year) in San Diego, CA, along with his son, Schuyler Stuyvesant Havermale (born 08/03/1855 in IL-d. 01/22/1929 in Los Angeles, CA), who worked as a farmer. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Registers, 1890; Collection Number: 4-2A; CSL Roll Number: 39; FHL Roll Number: 97709, accessed 11/03/2025.) Voter records also indicated that the minister remained residing in San Diego in 1892. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation California State Library; Sacramento, California; Great Registers, 1892; Collection Number: 4-2A; CSL Roll Number: 40; FHL Roll Number: 977095, accessed 11/03/2025.) Havermale died in Spokane, WA, of dropsy or swelling caused by heart, liver and / or kidney failure, on 01/13/1904 at the age of 79.

Keats continued to operate the flour mill, as per the 1900 US Census. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Spokane Ward 5, Spokane, Washington; Roll: 1751; Page: 16; Enumeration District: 0073, accessed 11/04/2025.)

Building Notes

R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane, Washington, City Directory, 1893, indicated that the Echo Roller Mills was located at "Howard and the Spokane River." (See R.L. Polk and Company's Spokane, Washington, City Directory, 1893, p. 287.)

Alteration

A note in the Tacoma Daily News of 08/05/1889 indicated that the Echo Roller Mills had sustained some damage in the Spokane Fire of 08/04/1889. (See "Work of the Flames," Tacoma Daily News, 08/05/1889, p. 1.)

It was up and running again by at least 11/1889, when a brief notice in the Tacoma Daily News: "With the great advantages of the finest and most available water power in the United States, Spokane Falls can naturally be looked to as one of the foremost flour-producing regions in the country in connection with its wheat valleys. There are several fine mills in active operation. The Echo Roller Mills, of which Messrs. Bravinder & Keats are proprietors, rank among the largest mills of the country. The building is six stories high; the capacity is 300 barrels a day. A reduction in freight rates would bring much of the fine flour made by these mills to Tacoma and the Sound towns, and this is a subject in which the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce should interest themselves." (See "Renewed Spokane Falls," Tacoma Daily News, 11/23/1889, p. 8.)

After the damaging 05/1892 fire, Keats and Bravinder rebuilt the mill in brick to resist flames.

PCAD id: 25873