The steam engine that powered the Sallee Bros. Handle Factory in Pocahontas from 1956 until the mill was converted to electric in the late 1980's generated steam by burning sawdust and wood shavings produced during the manufacture of striking tool handles. It turned a large flywheel that operated a line shaft running the length of the mill building, powering the saws, lathes, and sanders used to make hickory handles. Originally manufactured in 1898, the engine was moved in 1956 from a slave mill in Tiptonville, Tennessee, including a ferry crossing of the Mississippi River, and when Sallee Bros. personnel installed it, it replaced an older engine that had been in service since the early 1900's. Sallee Bros. Handle Factory was organized in 1908, when hardwood forest covered much of the land now farmed in rice and soybeans. Hickory trees were felled by hand and cut into 40-inch blocks, then transported by river to the mill on the banks of the Black River about 1/4 mile upstream, where the blocks were sawed into blanks, shaped by lathes into rough axe, pick, and hammer handles, and smoothed into final form by sanders. All of the power for this operation was provided by this steam engine.