The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-08-31
wATERTowN's OLD MILL.
1t Has Ground It's Grist For zoo
Years and still Its Stones Turn
Briskly.

The old grist mill in watertown was
established, SO says tradition, near the
close of the seventeenth century 1t was
at first town mill. erected at the public
| expense, for the accommodation Of the
farmers who had corn to be ground. 1t is
long since the old mill ceased to be owned
or controlled by the people Of the town,
but it is only within recent years that the
| idea of its public ownership faded from
the minds Of the citizens. There are en-
ployees Of the mill today who well re-
member visits of outlying farmers Of
WatertowH VINO had grists 10 be ground
and who insisted that. being citizens Of
the town, thew were entitled to be served
III preference to earlier Corners who
CHANGED 10 nave come from Newton
Brgton, Cambridge or Belmont.
For many years after its erection, then
the old grist mill was town institution,
and during King Philips war it Was care
fully guarded by the yeomen soidiery Of
WATERFOWL. as vital to the sustenance OF
the people Finally it became private
property. and at one time In it's existence,
1t is said, the grists ceased TO be ground
and the mill privilege" was employed
In the manufacture Of paper. In later
years Samuel Slater, a young English
mechanic, came over from England, with
a spinning frame in his head" for the
paternal British government desired too
do all the cotton spinning for this grow
ing western country and forbade the ex-
portation to America OF cotton machinery.
He built the frame at Pawtucket, or the
Blackstone, and established the first cot
ton mill in America a Few years after
this old griSt mill was employed in the
manufacture Of cotton. But whether the
experiment was a failure or not the story
does not say. At all events the old mill
soon returned to it's original use as a grist
mill. and grist mill 1t has remained to
the present day.
1t has had many proprietors through
nTfr c ma ftf rio TNc g..
earlier owners who purchased it from the
town the tradition is silent; but j. W.
Magee, Watertcwn'S oldest miller. whose
name was connected with the ancient
mill for more than forty years, and who
now allows no day to pass without paying
visit to his longtime place Of business
well remembers the name Of Peter C.
Jones as one or ITS oid-t1me owners Then
the names Of Perkins and Of Magee are
well known by the Watertown of today
as proprietors of the old grist mill.
In all these years, alfhocgh the advances
of modern invention has been rapid the
prOprietors of this mill have found nothing
more satisfactory for the grinding of corn
than the old-fashioned upper and neither
millstones- This is not because they are
not enterprising and progressive, for
they long ago discovered that it was mTIeA
more economical to raise the corn to be
ground from the street level to the bins
in the upper floor by means of a power
elevator rather than by sending it up on
the shoulders of laborers. But in the
STluulHS, IIe great stones, driven Dy Inc
force of the water below, and regulated
as to fineness or coarseness of the grist
by the turn of a crank, hove to them no
SUPERIOR in method. Although they ara
well ware that modern times have brought
into use in places the steel rollers for
crushing the grain into meal the old mill
at Watertown is pushing along into it's
third century of existence in the good old
way. to the satisfaction of all-Boston
Evening Transcript.