Breckinridge County KyArchives History .....Water Mills 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 September 23, 2006, 7:23 am

Book Title: A Glimpse Of The Past




The earliest of all industries were water mills for grinding corn.

Since the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1620, until the last quarter of 
the nineteenth century, the water mill was the source of all ground grain for 
bread and food for man and beast.  Twoo hundred and seventy years of 
continuance with little improvement in grain processing is, no doubt, 
unbelievable to late generations, accustomed to this jet age progress.  These 
mills were of two types depending upon the manner in which the water was 
directed to the water wheel.  When the sluice of water poured over a dam or 
waterfall in buckets attached around a wheel, they were called overshot mills.  
The buckets filled on the front of their wheel and their weight kept the wheel 
turning forward as they emptied on their trip to the top for another assent.  A 
shaft with cogs and pulleys to control speed was secured through a hole in the 
center and extended to where cogs and belted pulleys were attached to control 
the speed of the grinding stones.  The undershot mill was identical except in 
the manner in which water was applied.  The wheel was mounted upright or 
horizontal, with paddles attached to the outer rim, so as to meet a sluice of 
water from beneath the water pool directed by wooden channels built for such a 
purpose.

The stones that ground the grain were called burrs and made of a special 
texture of limestone rock, tooled about five or six inches in thickness, and 
from 24 to 36 incehs in diameter.  Two of these stones made a set of burrs or 
millstones.  Each was grooved at intervals from the center to the outside to 
catch and crush the grain into meal as it was fed from a hopper above the 
stones into an opening in the top grinding wheel.

The grist from the ground grain was fed through the grooves in the stones into 
a grist bin, from which it was transferred to bags.  The miller took a small 
amount of grain from each bag or turn for his services.  This was called toll, 
and the amount taken was established by the individual miller, and varied from 
one-eigth to one-tenth of the grain ground.  All grains were ground into meal 
in one operation, leaving bran and unwanted particles to be sifted out by 
housewives before using.

It was in late 1800, before rolling or grain mills were introduced, that 
graded, sifted and bleached in one operation.  Nearly all the old water mills 
are gone, but not forgotten.  Artists continue to paint pictures of their 
grandeur, while writers and poets glamorize them in literature, which will 
revive memories of the old, and continue as a legend of truth to our youth.  A 
few of the old time mills are still grinding grain for the market; some are 
kept only in remembrance of an obsolete mechanical age.  The others have passed 
away.

In the early 1900s mills were also powered by steam and gasoline engines.










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