The Ol’ Millpond (part #2)

Last week we talked about how our ancestors would use the power of water to drive the local grist mills all around the country. But this week we will be talking about the actual grist mills themselves.

Seems the oldest evidence of man using stones to grind grains by hand was found in the northern part of Australia dating back some sixty thousand years ago. The oldest rotating millstones are thought to have originated in Spain around twenty-five hundred years ago.

These stones were quarried in full-size blocks. Early methods to mine these large stones was to use fire to heat the stone and then douse it with cold water to cause the rock to crack. When pneumatic equipment came along steam -powered drills and air driven drills were used to loosen the rock. In most cases metal hand tools such a chisels were used to round-out the shape of the stones. This was very hard manual work to get a finished stone.

Rotating millstones were made of granite or sandstone and averaged between four to five feet across. These stones could weigh as little as twenty-five pounds or as much as a ton. Each rounded stone had a hole called the “eye” drilled into the very middle of each stone. The eye of the stone served as a center-point to where the grain was filtered through stones to be ground. The eye required special tools and had to be precise measurements.

Next, to finish making the millstone a process called “furrowing” or cutting the groves into the surface of the stone had to be done. As we all know it takes two stones to grind mill. One stone was known as the runner (rotating stone) and it had furrows cut on the bottom. The other stone is called the bedstone or (stationary stone) and it had furrows cut on the top side. The pattern of furrows varied depending on what type of finished product you were grinding such as fine flour or cornmeal.

Some folks might not know, but our local 4H camp (Camp Millstone) out of Ellerbe, N.C. was first used as a rock quarry to mine and process these old millstones.

Most gristmills buildings were anywhere from two-story to four-story high. As the waterwheel turned so did the large gears and shafts inside the mill. As you can imagine a lot of the dust filtered through the cracks of every floor. This dust, plus the turning motion of the shafts and gears would cause a lot of friction and heat. Unless you kept the components well greased they would become overheated and the mill might catch on fire.

The grist mills were built by well-versed craftsmen and operated by a person (miller) that had to be just about a jack-of-all trades and have a lot of experience with this trade. The miller usually had a least one helper.

As the wind might blow, some of the grain and dust would fall in the millpond and the mill yard. All this extra feed would not only attract fish but also critters. Yes-sir, that free food was eaten by by mice, ducks, turtles, raccoons, and squirrels. With the abundance of small animals around the area, larger animals such as catamounts, deer, and even bears roamed the woods near by. Most millers allowed housecats to roam free to keep the rat and mice population under control.

Why some old gristmills were even considered haunted. A lot of times a miller might spend his entire life working the mill. He knew every sound and quirk the mill might make. Sometimes strange sounds and movements could be heard that seemed to be of the supernatural nature. At other times, the heavy feed pendulum scales used to weigh flour and other meals could be seen swinging back and forth for no reason. Sometimes strange lights could be seen moving around the millpond. On foggy nights and early mornings, ghostly figures rose up from the pond.

Time marches on and there are even a few old gristmills left across our country most have been replaced by modern mills that grind the grains by using electric-power and use cast iron or steel rollers to grind their products.

Hope you have learned a little bit about what life was like for our ancestors and how grain, right out of the fields, was made into the many products we use to prepare our foods.