Name/Title
Round Rock White Lime Company [Cover]Description
September 20, 1905 cover from the Round Rock White Lie Company, Round Rock, Texas to Mr. L. L. Shield, Santa Anna, Texas.Context
Billed as the “oldest and largest lime works in Texas”, the Round Rock White Lime Company was once the largest employer in Williamson County. The company’s founder, William Walsh, was born in Limerick, Ireland in 1837. His family left Ireland during the famine, and at age 14 William joined the British Navy. After several years he went to New York and joined the US Navy, serving on ironclad ships during the Civil War. After the war he was sent to Texas where federal troops had been assembled against Emperor Maximilian of Mexico. There he found work with the Army rebuilding the frontier forts of Texas. While working on Fort McKavett in 1868 he learned lime processing, in which limestone is heated in a kiln to make white lime, which is used in mortars, cements and plasters.
In 1874 he married Dora Koch, a German widow he’d met in Galveston, and adopted her young son. William and Dora would have 9 more children, 5 of whom lived to adulthood. In 1879 he established the Mount Bonnell Lime Works west of Austin. The plant provided lime and Portland cement for many Austin landmarks including St. Edwards University and the Texas Capitol building. Walsh Boat Landing on Lake Austin is named for him.
After discovering a superior quality of limestone in Round Rock, Walsh relocated his entire operation there in 1896. The plant also made fire brick, Portland cement, plaster, and wooden barrels to ship them in. His family followed seven years later, moving into a 2-story house on San Saba Street, which is now a historic landmark. In 1904 a barrel of the new Round Rock white lime was entered in the St. Louis World’s Fair, where it won a first-place medal. William Walsh became legendary as a founding father of the area and the proud owner of the Round Rock White Lime Co. The Round Rock Leader once noted that William Walsh was the last private businessman to hire more than 300 people in Round Rock until Michael Dell.
After William died in 1908 ownership passed to Dora and their sons, with youngest son Edward in charge of operations until 1949. Under his leadership the company hired many immigrants who had fled the Mexican Revolution between 1910 and 1920, establishing the first sizable Hispanic community in Round Rock. Edward was an entrepreneur and rancher, was elected to Round Rock’s first City Council, and was the first person in Williamson County to apply for a liquor license after Prohibition.
William’s oldest son became a local retailer, opening the WJ Walsh General Merchandise store at 121 E Main in the 1890s and The Fair at 117 E. Main in 1900. The Fair was a company store serving the White Lime Company workers. WJ Walsh built a home on West Bagdad Avenue in 1931, which was a historic landmark until it was remodeled in 2006.
The Round Rock White Lime Company remained a major employer until it closed in the 1980s. One of its quarries was redeveloped as the Round Rock West subdivision, and its excavation pits is now the pond in Round Rock West Park.