Freestone Co. TX - Stewards Mill Store in 1969

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Freestone Co. TX - Stewards Mill Store in 1969


Dallas Morning News - 11 May 1969 edition

"Texas Tours------X
Rural Serenity Reigns Around Old Mill Store

It's too bad that these stories must be published two or three weeks after I've
made the tour.  When I drove to Fairfield and Elkhart on one of our rare
beautiful April Fridays, the red clover's royal carpet of welcome was rolled
out along every highway.  Bluebonnets, paint brush, wild larkspur and phlox
added in the riot of color.  There were even a few late-blooming dogwoods for
bright exclaimation points.

The early spring flowers have faded now, but the domino table is still set up
on the porch of century-old Stewards Mill country store.  The crusty leaves of
bran bread are still from the oven in Woody's Resturant in Fairfield; and the
birds still sing in the trees that shade the churchyard of the oldest
Protestant church in Texas at Elkhart.

There's little to slow you down on IH45 until you come to old Hwy. 75 past
Richland.  Then start watching for Farm Road 833.  Turn left and drive through
rural serenity for two or three miles.  Steward's Mill is at the intersection
where the roads turns south toward Fairfield.

Prior to the Civil War, Washington Steward built a grist mill at this location,
the only one between Houston and the Dallas-Sherman area.  Yankees burned the
store during the war; and in 1867 Steward rebuilt with his son and Dr. James I.
Bonner, as partners.  Mr. and Mrs. Frank Bragg are the present owners and
operators;  Mrs. Bragg is a direct descendant of one of the original owners.
 
One of the old millstones serves as a doorstep at the side entrance.  Inside,
the original counters, cabinets and bins are still in use.  In addition to a
small stock of canned goods and staples, there is a heterogeneous collection of
old branding irons, early-day household items, and heirloom handwork.

Typical charge entries in the old ledgers, in fine Spencerian handwriting,
reveal much of the customs and the economics of the 19th century: "3 Yds.
buckskin $3; shot, caps and powder, $1.15; 1 corset, $1.00; 1 Qt. whisky,
$1.00; 1 barrel flour, $6.00; 2 coffins, $25.75; paregoric and Godrey's
Cordial, 50 cents." 

By Pauline Crittenden"