DUANE
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Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, picture a Scotsman arriving in Belton, Texas, with an eye for iron and steam and the kind of stubborn ambition that crosses oceans. His name was Robert Naismith, born in 1859, and in 1893 he raised up the Central Manufacturing Company right here on this lot, in a two-story building.
Steam-powered equipment, the marker tells us. The man was running on steam before most folks in the area had thought much about it. He supplied machine parts, repaired machine parts, did iron work, did blacksmithing.
If something in the Belton area was broken and made of metal, Robert Naismith was likely the man you went to see. And then, every summer, the company cleaned the city water supply standpipe. Every summer.
You want to talk about a business that keeps a town running, well, there it is. Robert Naismith, born 1859, died 1939, built something that outlasted him by a considerable stretch. Because when he was gone, two of his sons, Robert and Willie, kept right on operatin' the business.
They carried it all the way to 1961. And here is the part that lands quiet but lands hard. When the time finally came to step away, the brothers made the property available for a city hall.
Not because somebody pressured them. Because their father had earlier requested it. That Scotsman with his steam engine and his standpipe and his iron work, he had already decided, long before the end, what this corner of Belton ought to become.
Some men build a business. Robert Naismith built a plan.
What the marker says
A Scotsman, Robert Naismith (1859-1939), founded the Central Manufacturing Co. in a two-story building on this lot in 1893. Using equipment originally powered by steam, he supplied and repaired machine parts for the Belton area. The company also did iron work and blacksmithing and each summer cleaned the city water supply standpipe. Two of Naismith's sons, Robert and Willie, operated the business until 1961. They then made the property available for a city hall, as their father had earlier requested. (1977)