Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-04-04
HISTORICAL RUINS.

HISTORICAL RUINS
D.ssr.es,o. q tho Oldest saw-lln in shs
United States.
What remained of the oldest saw.
mill in the country has been torn dowu
and upon its site is building q new
grist mill, the property of E E. Bill
lings. This historic spot. situated in
the town of Rocky Hill. has long been
favorite trysting place for lovers Of
the antique, and the visitors who have
paid their respects to the place by de-
facing the crude logs are numbered by
the thousands.
But the mill will be visited no more.
It was known far and wide as the old
Ephraim Goodrich saw-mill and was
of the most pristine construction
imaginable. The saw was cumber-
some horizontal affair, set in a mon
strous wooden frame, propelled by a
natural waterfall upon a blg wooden
wheel, an invention of past ages. When
the machinery was set in motion the
earth for miles around reverberated
with the most hideous noises, and the
work was slow. It is told of old
Ephraim that, after starting a
prodigious log upon its road
of separation, he used to lie down
upon the carriage and sleep the dreary
hours away, awakening when the log
had run its race by the comparative
stiffness of the mill. He became
afflicted, so the story goes, with q
peculiar disease. contracted by this
habit. which prevented him from sleep
ing in quiet spot. and he then took
to running his saw-mill at the dead of
night for his own personal benefit. and
to the detriment of lethargy of his
neighbors, who, unable to stand it any
longer, swooped down upon the old
man and his mill one dark and gloomv
night, and spiked the water-wheel
down. That was 1850. year after the
mill had been founded.
Old Ephraim. who was fast becom-
ing aged, finally deserted this indus
try, and his son, also bearing his
name. took the business and
ran it to the satisfaction of the Plebes,
his neighbors. But the mill out-lived
the family, and in 1920, the Goodrich
stock having become depleted, it passed
into the hands of William and Thomas
Tryon. These men were the Connec-
ticut lumbermen of their day, but after
some five years they too deserted the
mill, and let it fall into a state of desue-
tude. Then came the great Morus-
craze. Thousands of men
became inbued with the. idea that
they were to make their fortunes by
raising silk worms, and the greatest
excitement prevailed. Acre after acre
was planted with mulberry trees.
Year-Old shoots bearing one bud were
sold for one dollar apiece, and worms
were imported by the thousand. Rev.
Israel Williams, Captain William But
Ter and several others were among the
most enthusiastic. and they at once
seized upon the Goodrich mill and
were to build an extensive addition to
it. preparatory to turning it into silk
mill. But the craze fell through be-
fore one log Of the old mill had been
displaced, with nothing but the stone
of the extension erected,
and at an enormous loss to hundreds
of people. Since that time the prop
erty has remained in statu quo, cher
ished by the descendants of the set
tiers of Rocky Hill as a monument to
the noble deeds of their ancestors. the
pride of antiquarians and the idol of
itinerant sketchers and embryo artists.
But the only thing which now remains
to identify it with the past is the old
wheel, almost rotted away, which lies
upon IA high embankment. few. hun
dred feet down the stream, where it
was washed by last years fiood.-NOr-
witch Comm Letter.