Little Old Mills, by Marion Nicholl Rawson, 1935.
Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small Friedrich von Logau: Retribution
An Ancient Aristocracy "Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the candle, and this whole hand shall be desolation............" Surely no one could better Jeremiah in his tribute to the humble gristmill, the silencing of the whose voice would bring despair. Thirteen times the Bible used the mill and its stones to express great meanings. Once it liken a firm heart to a nether millstone; once only it speaks of "taking the millstones to grind meal" as a humiliating punishment or perhaps a leveler; once it slows "behind the mill" as the place of childbirth for the maidservant; once it tells of the gathering of manna and the grinding of it in the mill, or the beating of it in a mortar, thus revealing that in the distant past the mortar had already been bettered. Again, it gives the picture of the two woman grinding at the mill, once of whom should be taken and the other left. The hurled millstone - broken in parts - is thrice mentioned as a means of sudden death to men and cities, "and all to brake his scull." Three times we are reminded of how much better it were that a millstones be hanged about our necks than that we should offend the little ones, and already we have seen that to pledge the millstone is to pledge life itself. All of this makes us feel that we are touching upon an ancient aristocracy, a rather basic symbol of the world's workadayness. Surely the millstones is the pearl of our oyster of mill consideration, since the first reason for all mills was to grind, and without the stone there could have been no grinding and therefore no mill. Stones per Se The material of the millstones varied with their locality, for many of the early millers and whatever hard stones could be found near by, and chiseled and hewed them into shape by smoothing off one side to make a flat face, chiseled a smooth band in a circular belt about it for the rum or circumference, and then cleaned off the rugged back to make it parallel with the front face. And then make its mate. The work of making a millstones was done much as Michael Angelo evolved his "David" out of a solid rock. The one saw a finished statue in a bulk of marble before ever he started chopping into, while the other saw a fine, heavy millstone and set about releasing it from its boulder. From old Mount. Tom, with its quartz-shot sandstone, set as guard over the Connecticut Valley, came the milestones for the settlements lying at its feet. Historic Old Hadley dug there for its grinders and in 1693 Old Deerfield gathered two of them in and set them up on Mill River. Farther north and east in New England they used the native granite of their hills and found it good. In the Frank Adams gristmill at Bellow Falls, Vermont, they recall that about a hundred years ago the famous hard New Hampshire granite, for all its hardness, was found to be too soft for millstones. One day some clever Yankee found some ballast rocks which had been loaded in England and cast out upon our shores when the return cargo was being put aboard. There hardness caught his attention and he cemented some of them together into a millstone about five inches thick. After that the "burr" millstones were manufactured here. The burr stone also came from France, and in about 1870 what was called "French burr stones" were discovered in our own Arkansas. English "millstone grit" was a siliceous rock found immediately below coal strata in thick beds of quartzose sandstone. When William Byrd set up his stone at Falling Creek, Virginia, between 1677 and 1699, he had millstones brought from England, valued at forty pounds, and those which Ralph Wormley, also from England, used in his mill between 1694 and 1703 were called "burr stones." Antedating both of these settlers, Governor Endecott of Massachusetts, received from London in 1629, "one hundred and ten burrs for making millstones" and they cost him two shillings each. A sandstone found in Ulster County, New York and in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and a burr stone much like the French burr, have been considered our best native stones and those are used in the one solid piece. It is their roughness and toughness, resulting from their cellular structure due to the presence of fossil casts, which have given them their preeminence. Millstones varied in size from less than a foot to nearly two feet in thickness, and from less than a yard to five, six or even seven feet in diameter. In the New York Historical Society building in Manhattan, two little millstones are preserved which were found near the present 32-34 South William Street, near which site a "horse mill" was erected in 1626. These stones are less than a yard across, have round "eyes" about four or five inches across, are about seven inches thick and bound with two-inch iron bands. These are of course one-piece stones. This may have been the first power gristmill in the country. (Note: There was a water powered grist mill built in Annapolis Royal (Canada) in 1599.) Mill Pecks and Furrows To make doubly sure that we realize the hardness of millstones the following simple saws may assist. Very long ago if a man said to another that he could "dive into a millstone" or "see far into a millstone" it was but a polite way of saying that this other's claims to astuteness were becoming obnoxious; while one whose "eyes dropped millstones," was notoriously hard-headed, while one who "wept millstones" did not weep at all. Thus, when we come to the subject of pecking these old stones we find a real task. The nether stones is cut on its top and the runner upon its lower surface, into furrows pecked out of the rock with a sharp tool. These furrows lead the milled grist away from the center of the stone and are most ingeniously designed, as any one hwo knows some abandoned millstones can testify. The spaces between the furrows are called "the land" and the hole in the center "the eye." The man who pecks out these furrows and fashions the surfaces of the millstones is called the "millstone pecker." His tool is a "mill pick" or "mill peck" and was made first of the fine old iron but later of steel. The following recipe for the first marking off of the furrows is given entire: "A five foot diameter stone. Divide skirt into sixteen equal parts, called quarters. If stone is six feet divide into eighteen parts, if seven feet into twenty quarters. Make tow strips of board, one an inch, the other two inches wide, stand with your face to the eye, and if the stone turn to the right when it works, lay the strip at one of the quarter divisions; and the other at the left hand side, close to the eye, and mark with flat pointed spike for a MASTER furrow. All to be laid out the same way in both stones, so that when facing together the furrows cross each other like shears in best position for cutting cloth. Have six good pecks and pick out all master furrows, make edges next to the skirt and next to eye the deepest, and the feather edge not half so deep as the back. Then lay broad strip next to feather edges of all the furrows, mark headlands of the short furrows, then lay same strip next to the back edges, and mark for LANDS, and lay narrow strip on mark for furrows, minding not to cross the headlands, but leaving it between the master furrows and the shorter ones of each quarter. But if they be close country stones, lay out both furrows and lands with the narrow strip. The neck of the spindle must not be wedged too tight lest it burn loose. Bridge spindle again, put collar around the spindle neck on top of an old stocking with tallow rolled in it about a finger thick. Stiff leather collar, melted lead and plaster, test face with staff, and it's ready again for grinding." The "feather edge" referred to, and which was to be "not half so deep as the back," seems to have been a point difference between authorities, for another miller tells us that "the furrows should be made sharp at feather edge," which is the hinder edge of the furrow, and the foremost edge of the "land." Early New Jersey had her stones furrowed so that to the circumference." Oliver Evans, a well-known millwright and miller busy in the last quarter of the 1700's in Pennsylvania, wrote down many details of millering and mill construction and some of the following hints for millstone surfacing are from his pen. He makes us see the stones furrowed to carry the meal from the center of the stone to the edges with the "Right rapidity." They are set "with such a draught" that meal will not pass too far along without proper grinding, and they have furrows with depths enough to permit air to pass through the stones to carry out the heat generated by the grinding friction. It seems that millstones had to be kept sharp not only for the business of grinding but for this precious passage of air, since from all the old millers we have the same work, that "dull stones destroy the quality of the grain by causing fermentation and false rising in the baking, which made for a clammy, sticky products which stuck to the bolting cloth and clogged its meshes." Before proceeding further we must be sure that we remember that millstones always traveled in pairs, "a run of stones," and were as necessary to each other as the foxglove to the humming bird; that the lower stone was the "nether" or "bed stone" and, as a general rule, immovable, and that in such cases when it was made to turn it was called the "under runner," also that the nether stone was the harder of the two; that its mate was the "upper stone" or the "runner" which revolved with the mill spindle and could be raised or lower to need. Each stone was pierced by its "eye," a hole through which the spindle or shaft ran, and this eye was either round or circular with rectangular out cuts at tow opposite sides. Sometimes a pair of stones would be cut with the upper one a little convex and the nether slightly concave, but not made to fit exactly. Some nether stones were left perfectly plain and the runner a little concave. The center of a stone for grinding wheat into flour was always dressed to tough the other by one sixteenth to one twentieth part of an inch, the stones came gradually closer until within ten or twelve inches from the "verge" of the stones, from which point it began to fit nicely to the rim. This close part is called the "flowing or the stone" (or the flowering of the stone.") Whatever the space left between the stones, and it varied for different grains, the furrows in them grew more numerous towards the circumference in order that the final grinding might be the finest. Evans tells us that "the stream of grain entering the stone is about the thickness of a man's finger but is constantly spread everywhere over the whole face of the stone, the stream thus growing thinner and passing slower at it became finer, the stones being kept apart by the bran." This regular stream was made possible after the human hopper boy had been followed by his mechanical successor. It comes as a surprise to those who believe New Hampshire granite to be the hardest of the hard, to learn that it is "so soft that the stones must be dressed once a month." Evans advocated sharpening the stones twice a week. Even with a once-a-month dressing, or facing, or sharpening, it was a tedious task. The Wheel Hoop The millstones was encased with a wooden box made circular to fit their shape, and known as a "vat" or a "hoop," "husk," or "curb." One type of hoop was made of white pine or poplar boards eight inches longer than the circumference, and two inches wider than the diameter of the stones. These were set to soak for a couple of days until they bent to that there ends met closely enough to be nailed together. The cover was made of eight pieces of board lapped one over another, with a large opening left in the center. Another type of hoop had boards running vertically and bound with iron bands. Inside of the hoop the stones are all but hidden, and when they need pecking must be raised from this shelter. Built above the stones is a heavy permanent plank or iron arm or crane from which hung great claw-like iron clamps which can be swung out above the stones, grasp them and lift them from their position by means of a great screw, pulley or other device. The mill peck is a hammer like tool which measures about seven or eight by an inch and a half, in the head, with the ends running down to perhaps a half-inch thickness. There is also the "brush pick" made of four blades of iron bolted together like an automobile spring, which is used for smoothing out the roughness of the peck's work. There was also a "staff" or "straight staff" which was used in the pecking and testing. When all was in readiness, the mill pecker took his tools newly sharpened by the blacksmith and began a work which was not finished until each furrow had been deepened and sharpened. One way of dressing a stone was to pour a bushel or so if fine, sharp sand gently through the eye of the upper stone while it was moving slowly, and grind for an hour or more. Then the stones were taken up and swept clean and the spots which had become shiny and smooth and had not responded to the action of the sand, were pecked rough with the peck, and ground some more. One old miller said, "a red stick painted with red paint and water rubbed over the face will mark the high spots to be dressed down or picked." When it was all finished and the stones replaced it was important that "the spindle should be made tight in the bush." Controlling the Stones The "bush" is the metal lining in the eye of the nether stone, fastened there by wedges. The "balance rynd" or "mill rind" or "millstone bridge," is a curved iron bar which crosses the eye or central opening of the runner on the under side at the margin of the eye and supports the stone. The supporting bearing of the balance rynd is a central socket called a "cock-eye," and the supporting point of the spindle which fits to the cock-eye is called the "cock-head." Now a good miller knows his meal and flour through the tips of his thumb and fingers, and it is at these points where his greatness, his middlin'ness, or his poorness as a miller is decided. His trick was to know just how much his upper stone should be raised or lowered, both for giving sufficient air and for perfect grinding of each sort of grains. He could rub the meal under his thumb and know whether it would best make Election Day Cake or Johnny Cake, whether it had grown too warm in the grinding or was in a perfect state of coolness, and whether the stones would need pecking the next day or the day after. Folks have been known to claim that only the meal ground between native stones of this State was fit to put in their mouth, but in all probability it was the miller's thumb rather than the stone which brought perfection. Seated beside his stones with his brake rod, or rope close by to chinch the wooden brake about the spindle, or the leather strap over the wheel, and his bridge tree, a rod, and lighter screw to adjust the spindle, balance rynd and runner stone what the last named needed raising or lowering, he held his world in his hand, and might even fall asleep for a while with impunity, knowing that the unique sound of the stones after the hopper had been emptied, would awaken him. This does not mean that the miller had to sit close by like a nursemaid all the time that his grain was grinding, for much of it could take care of itself, but when the stones needed "tentering," either up or down, he had made things handy for himself. There stood the wide throated hopper, ready and waiting for "more sacks" to the mill whenever a team drove up with a load of bags or a man came crosslots with tomorrow's batch of bread slung across his shoulder. Through the hopper it would go, into the "shoe" which hung loosely so that it might the more easily vibrate when the "damsel," a short of trundle wheel, chattered against it to keep the grain slipping evenly into the eye of the stone.
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