A steam engine is believed to have begun its working life on this Dickson County property with the Cowan Lumber Company, which was established in June 1923 and built many residential and commercial buildings, including Dickson’s War Memorial Building. The property was later sold to the Dickson Planing Mill Company, which also used the engine, and then the engine, buildings, stock of materials, and land were sold at public auction to the A. H. Leathers Manufacturing Company on August 15, 1934. Leathers resumed operations here after its original Dickson location burned on July 4, 1934. The company had begun in 1879, moved to Dickson from Pennsylvania in 1898, and located between College Street and the railroad tracks near the site of the Old Dickson Normal College. Over the years, the mill employed many people and produced baseball bats, tool handles for picks and axes, and hardwood flooring. A. H. Leathers, the founder, died in 1932, and his children owned the company until 1955, when Harry R. Leathers, Jr. purchased the entire business. Tennsco Corporation purchased this property in 1998, after which the decaying buildings from a large part of Dickson’s early history were demolished and preservation of the engine began.