Manuscript on the Spangler Mill THE SPANGLER MILL AT CIRTSVILLE The Spangler Mill at Cirtsville was built in 1884 by Asa Spangler and Edward Kidd on property owned by Curtis Vass. Before coming to Cirtsville, Asa Spangler owned a grist and flour mill at a place called Worley in Raleigh County. This mill was traded to Mr. Worley for a saw mill. The saw mill was brought to Cirtsville and used to saw the lumber from which the mill was built. The mill was operated by a steam engine, which was the first steam engine in Raleigh County. The machinery for the flour mill was shipped by rail to Fayette Station and hauled by horse and wagon to Cirtsville. Later, Lawson Carper bought out Mr. Kidd and some time later Asa Spangler bought Carper's part, becoming the sole owner of the mill. The mill was operated by Asa Spangler and his son, John, who later took over the management of the mill and operated it for many years until ill health prevented him from working. At his death, Duff and Ross Spangler inherited the mill and property but never operated the mill. It was torn down in 1942 to make way for the West Virginia Turnpike. COMMENTS ON THE OPERATION OF THE SPANGLER MILL By Ross D. Spangler (Sep 10, 1904 - Apr 9, 1993) January 21, 1982 I discussed the date of the picture with Inez (Stover) Spangler and we arrived at 1910-1912 as the approximate date. I will comment on the horses and wagons in the picture because they are a part of the story of how the mill operated. These belong to the people who brought grain (mostly wheat, sometimes buckwheat) to the mill to be processed into flour and bran. They came from as far away as 15 miles over mountain roads. The one-way trip would take a full day. They would arrive at the mill near the end of the day and Dad would work all night by the light of kerosene lanterns as rural electrication would wait another 20 years or so until Franklin D. Roosevelt became President. This way the farmers could start back home the next day. The farmers tied their horses to their wagons and they themselves slept on wheat straw in the wagons. Dad's pay was one gallon of grain for each bushel that was processed; no money changed hands. While grinding corn into corn meal was an important part of the milling operation, it was done on a different scale because corn meal will spoil if kept too long. To handle the corn in the desirable small quantities, say one bushel amounts, one day a week, "Mill Day" was set aside for this purpose. The farmers would bring their "turns" to the mill more often than not on horseback and wait for it to be ground. I have the mill stones that were used to grind corn at the Spangler Mill. I also have the silk bolting cloth that was used to screen the flour from the ground wheat. Mark Spangler brought it to me this past spring (1981) when we met on Greenbrier Mountain to hunt wild turkeys. Lumber was also processed at the mill all the way from saw logs to the finished product, including tongue-and-groove flooring and ceiling. We always had plenty of lumber around, and much of it was used by one or more of seven brothers for things useful, such as fixing up the house or building a privy or things for fun such as ox bows for working the young calves on the farm or for making bob sleds to coast down the hills. There was always enough lumber around that it did not seem pertinent to me to ask if a particular piece of lumber was reserved for a particular purpose or not, so when I wanted a nice wide board for a project (it could have been the seat in the privy), I went looking. I found just what I wanted - a very nice board. I picked it up and had it on the way to a work bench when Dad observed me and the board. He pointed out that the board was some lumber that he had cut for the purpose of making a coffin for a certain elderly gentleman. My participation in the operation of the mill may be of some interest. My earliest recollections of such participation were of carrying Dad's and perhaps Duff's dinner to them when one of the all night operations was going on. Duff was old enough at that time to fire the boil for the steam engine that ran the mill. Later on when we, the boys, were of school age but on spring vacation, the mill stones were scheduled for a dressing. This consisted of taking the stones from their normal operating positions and adjusting the depth of the notches and the slant of the surface from the center to the edges. This was accomplished by chalking the surface with special tools and chipping away the chalked areas with another special tool that looked much like a hammer but had working edges like the chisel edges which were tempered to a high degree of hardness in order to cut the very hard stone. At about this age, we also helped with the sawing of the logs. It took a crew of at least five people to operate the saw mill; a sawyer, a block setter, a fireman, a saw dust boy, and a man to take away the sawed product. I, at one time or another, worked at all these jobs except that of sawyer. Dad was the sawyer and at some stage, Duff advanced to sawyer. It is interesting to look back on those early days and contemplate how self-sufficient we were. Dad, besides the mill, also owned a West Virginia hillside farm on which there was considerable timber (about 75% of the surface of West Virginia is still in lumber). So we could cut timber, saw the logs, process the lumber to the needed form, and build a house without going off our own property except to pick up a few nails and maybe some hinges. Also, some of the fields were tillable so we grew wheat, corn, buckwheat, potatoes, beans, etc., and maintained a large vegetable garden. Then there were the horses, cows, sheep, hogs, and chickens. We never had much money (though I was never aware of how much or how little there was) but who needs money, if one can have hot biscuits with fresh pork gravy or buckwheat cakes with homemade butter every morning for breakfast; a big plate of beans well seasoned with pork for lunch; and cornbread with a selection of meat and vegetables for the evening meal. I almost forgot something; a necessary factor in the above was a lot, and I mean, a lot of hard work. Along with almost any form of human activity there evolves tall tales or jokes. One related to the mill activity comes to mind. A local man rode his horse to the mill one day with his sack of corn on his shoulder rather than in the customary place of over the horse's back. When asked why he did it that way, he replied that he did it to save his horse from having to carry both him and the corn! Submitted by Rebecca **************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Files may be printed or copied for personal use only. ****************************************************************