FINAL REVERSES IN BUSINESS 255 
Mr. and Mrs. Pears, who had no liking for Hender- 
son, early withdrew and sold their interest in the mill ™ 
to Audubon and Bakewell, thus adding to their financial 
embarrassment. 'The engines, which seem to have given 
no end of trouble, were constructed by David Prentice, 
an intelligent Scotch mechanic; since his first work after 
coming to this country was to erect a steam threshing 
mill at “Fatland Ford,” his services were probably se- 
cured by William Bakewell, who afterwards helped to 
establish him at Philadelphia. While at Henderson he 
is said to have fitted a small engine and paddlewheels to 
a keel boat, which was christened the Pike, and to 
have taken it up the river to Pittsburgh. Prentice 
seems to have entered the partnership and to have re- 
tired with Bakewell. 
In order to extend the sphere of their operations, Au- 
dubon is said to have purchased at this time a tract of 
1,200 acres of government land,’’ and to have engaged a 
band of stalwart Yankees to fell and deliver the timber. 
According to one account, they were a party of emi- 
grants who had come to Henderson with their families 
and encamped on the river bank. For a time all went 
well, but one day when they failed to deliver their usual 
The original mill covered forty-five by sixty-five feet, and consisted of four 
stories and basement; the basement walls of stone stood four feet thick, 
while at the third story the thickness was three feet; the three upper 
stories were in frame. The studding measured three by six, and the rafters 
four by eight, inches. Many of the large timbers that could then be 
seen were sound and apparently good for a century or more. Parts of the 
old machinery that had been used in the grist mill were lying about under 
the eaves; the building was then used as a tobacco stemmery. See Joseph 
M. Wade (Bibl. No. 182), Ornithologist and Odlogist, vol. viii, p. 79 (1883). 
The old Audubon mill in more recent times was incorporated into 
a warehouse for the storage of leaf tobacco; it was burned to the 
ground on March 18, 1913. 
1 The mill is supposed to have cost about $15,000; of this sum Thomas 
Pears .is said to have contributed from $3,000 to $4,000, and William 
Bakewell a similar amount in the interest of his son, while Audubon 
presumably furnished the balance. 
Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. i, p. 47. 
