Anatomy of a Mill
By Harold L. Kirk
Nowadays when people think of an old time mill, they picture in their mind a water wheel and a small, quaint, wood or log building nestled beside a picturesque stream. Such mills of course did exist. They were called custom mills and for the most part served one family or a group of farmers in a small area. The miller usually took a percentage of the grain for providing his services.
When we see pictures however, like the one shown here of Harborcreek’s Empire Mills on Four Mile Creek or Neeley’s Mill on Twelve Mile Creek, we wonder why they were so large and contained three or four floors when the custom mills were only one or two small rooms. These large mills were called merchant mills. They ground grain and produced flour for profit and export.
The milling process required to produce commercial grade flour is a lengthy one. The grain travels up and down from floor to floor and back and forth its length as many as seven times. Starting at the bottom of the mill the grain is picked up by a series of buckets attached to a conveyor belt and taken to the top floor and put into bins to wait its turn to be processed. When the bin is opened, gravity allows the grain to flow down to the main floor to be ground by millstones or by rollers as was the case in the Empire Mill. Three or four trips up to the second or third floor and back down were required as sifting and cleaning of the ground grain was needed following each rolling or grinding operation. To transverse the length of the building wooden conveyors or augers were used to move the ground grain to various sifters, separators, scalpers and graders where dirt, stones and bran are removed and various grades of meal and flour are collected. The last trip down to the main floor is then made where the final product is packaged for shipment or for sale at the mill store. The Empire Mill had a capacity of seventy-five barrels a day and was one of Harborcreek’s most profitable industries.
On August 3, 1883, about daybreak, fire was observed issuing from the windows of Cooper’s large flouring-mill on Four Mile Creek. Accelerated by explosions of fine flour dust, the fire had made such headway that it was impossible to save the building even though willing bystanders formed a bucket brigade.
The loss was estimated to be $30,000, upon which only $11,000 was covered by insurance. A few days earlier Mr. Cooper spoke of increasing the insurance, but his son advised him to wait. I guess his son never heard the expression, “Father knows best.”
All information for “Tales & Treasures” comes from source material found in the archives of the Harborcreek Historical Society. Such material may be based on facts, family legends or popular history. Anyone having substantiated conflicting data please contact the Society.
