MONITOR DRILL

The Monitor Works, one of the first and certainly one of the most successful industrial endeavors in the early suburb's history, incorporated on November 9, 1892. It had its beginnings as Van Brunt and Davis, located in Horicon, Wisconsin. Willard A. Van Brunt (1847-1935) had worked with his father, inventing and developing a better seeder/planter or "drill." When his father was bought out, Willard established his own factory with partner Spencer E. Davis, who was originally from Cazenovia, New York. The company's grain drills sold for about $75 in 1882. (Davis was an uncle of Hennepin County Commissioner S. Earl Ainsworth.)

In 1883, Van Brunt sold his interest to Davis, who moved the company from Horicon to St. Louis Park and renamed it the Monitor Works, after the Civil War ship. The official line was that Davis moved west because he had suffered an electoral loss and/or wanted to be closer to his clients, the farmers, but someone who was there says that Davis split from his partner because Van Brunt's wife had eyes for Davis - or was it Davis's wife had eyes for Van Brunt? Whichever it was, Davis was on to St. Louis Park, and 25 families [13 men], including the fire-fighting Williams family, came with him. The firm began business in St. Louis Park with about 150 employees

The factory was said to be located on Factory Street near the railroad tracks.  Today, and as of 1933, there is no Factory Street.  It was likely that it was south of Highway 7, bounded by Lake Street, Hampshire and Monitor Ave. 

It operated in St. Louis Park from 1893 to 1929.  The factory eventually employed 300 men, and was known variously as the Monitor Manufacturing Company and the Monitor Drill Company, after the Monitor drill, the first successful grain drill. The company made about 150 drills in its first year, and in later years turned out a thousand or more machines a year.

In 1908, Davis retired and sold the company to the Moline Plow Company of Moline, Ill, which had built its first plows in 1865. Moline continued to manufacture the Monitor Drill in St. Louis Park until 1929.

In 1929, the Moline Plow Company merged with the Minneapolis Threshing Machine Co. of Hopkins and the Minneapolis Steel and Machinery Co. and became the Minneapolis Moline Power Implement Co. Operations moved to Hopkins, and the St. Louis Park building was used as warehouse space.  The building burned on February 14, 1930 under suspicious circumstances ("an accidental fire started by a watchman's stove burned some of the buildings doing $290,000 damage which was covered by insurance.")

The site became National Lead from 1934-1981.

See also the Williams Family chapter of Something in the Water.

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This information comes from a variety of sources: newspapers, books, yearbooks, phone directories, interviews, etc. Given the varied sources, we cannot guarantee that all of this information is correct, and welcome any additions and corrections. Please contact us with your contributions and comments.