William Walsh • Round Rock White Lime Founder
William Walsh • Round Rock White Lime Founder
Written by Karen R. Thompson Thursday, 03 April 2008
William Walsh, who died a century ago, founded Round Rock White Lime Company in 1896. It became the largest lime company in Texas, shipping limestone all over the world. One of the best known quarries he operated was at the present-day location of Deep Wood Elementary School at the corner of Deep Wood Drive and Saint Williams Avenue.
Walsh’s life took many turns before he settled in Round Rock and became the father of one of the largest, most prominent families in Round Rock. He was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1837 to impoverished Irish Catholic parents. Dec. 25 was the birthday Walsh selected for himself because he had left home at the age of 14 and did not remember having celebrated birthdays in his large family. He said if the date was good enough for Jesus, it was good enough for him.
Walsh enlisted in the British Navy and spent two years at sea. He then came to the United States and was 24 years old when the American Civil War began in 1861. He was paid to go to war in place of a wealthy Northerner’s son. He was known as “Captain” Walsh while serving as a quartermaster and gunner’s mate in the U.S. Navy of the Grand Army of the Republic.
After the war in 1868, Walsh went to work for the U.S. government, manufacturing lime for building forts in Texas, such as Fort McKavit in Mason County.
Walsh established Mount Bonnell Lime Works on Lake Austin in 1869, where he had purchased large tracts of land. He also built Austin’s first sewer plant and owned the land that is now Davenport Ranch. He cut timber from the Davenport land and floated it down the river (now Lake Austin) to his lime kiln on present-day Scenic Drive and Bridle Path in Austin.
A tall, blue-eyed, black-haired Irish Catholic, Walsh married a widow named Dora Koch in 1874. She is described as a plump, brown-eyed German Lutheran woman. Walsh adopted Dora’s young son, Willie, who became William J. Walsh. Together they had nine more children, four of whom died before reaching adulthood. The five remaining children were: Kate, born in 1876; Mike C., born 1880; James M., born 1882; Patrick A., born 1884; and Edward John, born in 1890.
When the quarry at Mount Bonnell was running out of limestone, deposits were discovered in Brushy Creek. So in 1896, the Walsh family moved to Round Rock where Round Rock White Lime would operate several rock quarries.
The Round Rock area limestone deposit was considered the purest in Texas, with a chemical analysis of 98 and six-tenths percent calcium carbonate. In 1904, a barrel of Round Rock White Lime was judged superior at the St. Louis World’s Fair and was awarded a first place gold medal.
Walsh had accumulated considerable wealth and was always liberal in contributing to the communities of Round Rock and Austin, especially to poor families.
After a long, hot day at the kilns, Walsh suffered a heat stroke and died Aug. 1, 1908, at the age of 72. Walsh’s son Edward J. “Mr. Ed” Walsh took over operations of Round Rock White Lime. He operated the plant until 1949, when it was sold to the Joe Bland Company. Round Rock White Lime closed in the 1950s.
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