Untitled Document

MILLS.

Grist-mills were quite scarce and steam-mills unknown. What few mills there were were run by water-power. The first grist-mill and. sawmill in the precinct was built on South Henderson creek. two and a half miles east of Gladstone, by Mr. Shell Ward, to whom belongs the honor of building the first mill in the precinct and the second one in the county. It was built about 1848, on Sec. 2. It was three stories high besides the perline story, 36x 50 feet, with three run of French burrs in complete operation, calculated for one run or more, with all the machinery necessary for doing country and merchant work in the best manner ; also, a saw-mill, with good cutting capacity. Both mills, together with the dam, have foundation on solid rock. The dam affords a fall of eighteen feet for both mills. The original mill was torn down and rebuilt and changed into the present one, which is still running.

There were two other mills running about this time in the county, one near Oquawka, called Jack's mill, and one at Warren. The streams which fed these mills would in very dry seasons fail to supply the required quantity of water, and remain motionless until there was water enough to turn the wheels. It was during these times that the people had to travel long distances over a roadless country and. bridgeless streams, with nothing but the sun and stars as their guides. -When we now have to go ten to fifteen miles to mill it is a long way, but what would some of the young farmers of to-day think if they had to travel seventy-five or eighty miles to have a grist ground, which the early settlers of those times were compelled to do or go without bread ? In performing the long journey to and from the mill they would sometimes get lost, lay out all night on the prairie, not knowing where they were or what might be their fate ere the dawn of day. They would often be gone a week or ten days before they returned to their log huts, their homes ; though they were humble they were dear.

Such were some of the early times of the history of South Henderson precinct. It is related of John Woods and John Tweed, Sen., in December, when no grinding could be done at their home mills, they went to Burlington to have their grist ground. They hauled it to the Mississippi river with a team, then put it on hand sleds and dragged it across the river on the ice, and, as the narrator says, " had three grains knocked into one, and it was the best bread I ever ate."

The first threshing machine, if they may be called such, said to have been used in the precinct was in 1842. It was what was called in these days a chaffpiler ; that is, the straw, wheat and chaff came through the machine simultaneously, all in one heap. The straw then had. to be separated from the chaff and wheat. After this was accomplished the wheat and chaff were sent through a fanning mill, which separated the chaff from the wheat. This was considered a great im provement over the ancient process of tramping out the wheat by either horses or oxen, saving time and being much the cleaner mode of the two.

They cut their wheat, rye and oats with the sickle and cradle, and were just as well contented to cut their grain in that way as we are to cut our grain with the reaper, harvester or self-binder. A day's work with the sickle was one-half an acre. A day's work with the cradle was called from two to three acres.

History of Mercer and Henderson Counties.

Illinois Ancestors