Old Mills

Old Mills

By Esther Carter Harris

Transcribed by Laurie Selpien

Beach Bluff was settled many years ago by a man named Hampton Weed Wayne County History Records. “Mr. Weed built a mill at the place and sold goods around the 1840’s. It was then the most important place in the county. At Beach Bluff the people would build flat boats and load them with pork and corn and float them down to New Orleans.”

In the Wayne County census of 1845 there were reported seventeen horse mills, two distilleries, one carding machine, one cotton gin, five saw mills, seven tanneries, one steam mill for sawing and grinding, and four grist mills.

Jessie Lord had a saw and grist mill;

Horatio P. Porter had a tannery and bark mill; see below

Charles Wood had a water saw and a grist mill;

Abraham Martin had a horse mill;

Alexander Ramsey Sr., and Jessie Fly had each a horse mill.

James martin had a bark mill;

Newberry Cline had a water saw and grist mill;

George Campbell, Sr. had a horse mill.

John Kimmel had a distillery;

David Wright had a horse mill; Mr. Wright had come from the state of New Jersey, settled in Wayne County in the year 1819. He settled and improved a farm three miles south of Fairfield. “He started the first tan yard in the country using wooden trough, which had in time increased to 14 vats tanning all kinds of hides, even hog hide.

P. L. Funkhouser had a bark mill and engaged in shipment of produced on flat boats to New Orleans,

Hiram Stats had a tannery;

R. B. Slocumb, a horse mill;

H. H. Cook, a tannery;

James Harper a carding machine and a cotton gin;

John Skelton, a horse mill;

R. F. Jenkins, a horse mill;

Walter Burch, a tannery;

Enos Maulding, water saw and gist mill.

Able Dewitt and Francis Hayney had each a stump mill.

Daniel Gregory a horse mill;

William Halloway, a horse mill;

Moses Garrison a tannery;

Wesley Staton, a saw mill;

Jonathon Whitson a horse mill;

C. L. Carter, John Bovee,

James Cooper, and Banjamin each had a horse mill.

Lewis Meyers had a distillery.

Additional information

Always curious I wanted to know what a bark mill was and found the following information…

Bark Mills and tanneries are closely connected In the old days bark was crushed using a large stone wheel, much like a millstone, powered by an ox or horse. It was ground until it was the consistency of cracked corn, wheat berries, or a coarse powder. Most trees contain plenty of tannin. Tannin is a large, astringent (meaning it tightens pores and draws liquids out), molecule found in plants that bonds readily with proteins.) Tannin is water soluble and will be leached out of wood or bark when added to water. Tanneries were traditionally located on rivers and streams because they used so much water. Bark tanning (aka vegetable tanning) is an ancient method of creating durable, water repellent leather with a lot of body. It can be done to virtually any skin, but it is generally reserved for tanning grain-on leathers from large thick hides such as cattle, horse, buffalo and pig. It has been commonly used for saddles, canteens, stiff shoes, belts, wallets, holsters, harnesses, helmets, pouches, trunks, shields and gun cases. It is used as an integral part of many useful items from bellows, to hinges of trunks, to holding wagon wheels together. It is not a quick process though deerskin sized hides should remain in a full strength ooze for three or four months in moderate temperatures. Cattle and buffalo will take five or six months. The warmer the temperature the faster the process. Once they are tanned through, there is no problem letting them sit in the bath as they will not rot. Looser fibered skins will take the tan more quickly than the tighter skins. Once the hide is tanned it is rinse it in fresh water. Between each rinse it is squeegee out the liquid removing as much unfixed tannin as possible. It is then ready to be dyed or oiled. Of coarse this is an abridged version of the process. If you want to know more of the process I found my information on the following website

http://www.braintan.com/barktan/1basics.htm

The Cotton GIN: was a machine used to remove the seeds and to clean dirt from cotton, then after cleaning the cotton would go to the Carding machine, which is the process of pulling the cotton fibers into parallel alignment to form a thin web.

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