HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY                      25

John Graves, who founded the town of Harmony at an earlier date than
the founding of Brazil, put up a horse-power mill of double capacity at
that place for the grinding of grain and the sawing of lumber, which;
from some defect in the adjustment of parts, or other cause, was never
operated. But the Cooprider mill at Middlebury was preceded by that
of Thomas Gillaspie, who then owned and occupied the Weaver place
on the east side of the town site, on which his primitive mill was located
and operated, near the present Weremeyer orchard.
    Another of the home-made devices and appliances of the primitive
population was the hominy mortar and pestle. To provide this, fire was
built on the top surface of a large, solid stump, usually oak, in which
a hole was burned in the shape of a kettle, and when of sufficient capac-
ity, smoothed and cleaned out, when it was ready for use. Shelled corn
boiled sufficiently to loosen the skin or covering of the grain was put into
this receptacle and thoroughly pounded by use of the pestle, usually an
iron wedge, with wooden handle attachment for manipulating it forcibly
and effectually, by which process the skins were removed from the grains
and the pulp used for bread. To provide clothing, cotton and flax
were cultivated, and sheep husbandry introduced at an early day. As a
necessary step to the weaving and production of fabric, the fiber of cot-
ton, flax and wool must be twisted into thread, which was done by spin-
ning. A process intermediate, between that of spinning and weaving, was
the reeling. Thus, to convert the fiber into fabric, the spinning-wheel,
reel and loom were the essential implements, which were the product of
home industry. Shops for the manufacture of these utilities, especially
the spinning-wheel, though not plentiful, were accessible to the pioneer
population generally. In those days the distinction was drawn, popularly,
between the tradesman who made wheels for spinning and him who made
wheels for vehicles, the former known as “the wheel-wright” and the
latter as “the wagon-maker.” Then, too, when a pioneer mother or
daughter spoke of her wheel, she meant her spinning-wheel, and not her
bicycle. But preparatory to the spinning there were several processes
for making ready the fiber from the raw material, as the brake, the hackel,
the scutch, etc., which were also of home manufacture. For the prepa-
ration of wool there was a pair of cards, or wool-combs, having a great
many hooked or bent wire teeth, one of which was manipulated in each
hand in converting the wool into rolls. This tedious and tiresome process
was in time relieved by the infant woolen-mill, known as the carding
machine, designed and operated exclusively for the making of rolls, in
other words, for preparing the wool for the spinning wheel.
    The first pioneer carding machine, or infant woolen factory, in the
county is said to have been built by Henry Moss, in the town of Bowling
Green, which, after operating it a few years, he sold to Samuel Heaston,
who moved it onto what was afterward known as the Adam B. Moon
place, and a little later on took it to Iowa. Samuel Miles then estab-
lished an industry of the same kind at Bowling Green about 1848, which
was burned several years later.
    Manufacturers of spinning-wheels accessible to the people of the
south end of the county were John Neal, in Lewis township, John Fiscus
and Israel Correll, in the border of Owen county, with Ransom Renner,
of Harrison township, who supplied parts and made repairs. Within
reach of the spinsters of the northeast quarter of the county was John
Bard, of Jackson township.