About 1880, he purchased the Burdick mill, or what was then known as the lower mill, in South Muscatine, which he practically rebuilt, increasing its capacity almost to that of the upper mill; and, in addition, he purchased a mill site on Lake St. Croix, at Stillwater, Minnesota, and there erected another mill with a capacity of 25000000 feet per annum, the product of which was also for a number of years marketed at Muscatine, being rafted and towed to that point.