Caldwell County MO Archives History .....A STORY OF TOOLS AND TWINE 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 4, 2008, 1:18 pm

		A STORY OF TOOLS AND TWINE
	Narrator:  C.H. Bidwell, Island City, Oregon

     Chet Bidwell was reared in Hamilton, and from 1880-1883 he worked in the 
Hamilton Roller Mills under the late Frank Clark.  He told this story with a 
great deal of amusement.
     "I was employed in the Hamilton Flour and Grist Mills, and part of my 
duties was to attend to the exchange, which was quite a job, since from 10 to 
50 lots came in every day.  The mill was at the east end of town, quite a 
distance from Main street.  Farmers coming in, left their grist and went on up 
town to do their trading and to get their mail.  The old mill had a long porch 
and as each one came along, his grist was numbered and put on a record book.  
I had my oiling and other little jobs to do one day and then I began on my 
exchange work on the grists.  We had a table made out, showing the number of 
pounds of meal to give for the number of pounds of corn, and this was tacked 
up on the bin.
     I would take the grists one at a time, weight them and then dump them in 
the sink, then turn to the table and get the correct number of pounds of meal 
due them, weigh it and put it back on the porch, to wait for the owner, then 
go on to the next sack and so on.
     I had started the routine one day and was getting along nicely when I saw 
an old farmer who had brought in grists watching me closely.  Soon I came to a 
big sack, taller than I was.  I got the rruck under it, ran it inside, weighed 
it, and got ready to dump it.  I found it had a big long string on it.  
Wrapped 6 or 8 times round it, fully 4 feet long.  String was scarce with us, 
so I took my knife and proceeded to cut off what I needed to tie up the sack 
and place the rest on my string rack.  I turned around to the meal spout and 
drew out the meal due, weighed it out and started to put the sack back on the 
porch in the row, when the old farmer slipped up and grasped me by the 
shoulder, 'Young man, I hev bin going to mill fer fifty year, and I hev hed my 
grist tolled and stoled, and I hev paid a dollar a hundred to have it ground, 
but hang my hide, if ever I hed my string tolled afore, and dang me! if it 
won't be the last time you'll ever do it on me.'
     And sure enough that farmer never brought his grists to the Clark mill 
again in my time there at least."

Interviewer's note, the Clark mill has long ceased to be a mill.  It is now 
used as an ice plant.


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