Evening star., 1896-08-13
AN OLD GRIST MILL.
1t Has Ground for Two Centuries and
It's Stones Still Turn Brlslkly.

It's Stones Still Turn Brlskly.
From the Boston Transcript.
Those who are interested in ANTIQUARIAN
lore. who delight to delve into the early his
tory of our New England towns and their
industries, may find an interesting field In
Watertown. On the banks Of the Charles.
In that town. is an ancient grist MILL which
has stood there and given forth the sound
from Its whirling wheels longer than any
man living can remember. There are old
men in the town who fail to recall the day
when grist mill did not stand upon this
spot, and who even assert that, with one
single exception only, here was first en-
ployed in America the force Of water as a
moving power for machinery. This excep-
ton noted is also grist mill. which STANDS
In Milton. on the bank of the Neponset.
The old grist mill In Watertown was es-
tablished. 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 1t is only until
within very recent years that the idea of
its public ownership faded from the min 9,
of the citizens. There are employees of the
mill today who well remember visits of out
lying farmers of Watertown, who had grist
to be ground. and who insisted that, being
citizens of the town, they were entitled to be
served IN preference to earlier comers who
CHANGED to have come from Newton,
Brighton. 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 yeoman soldiery of
Watertown, as vital to the sustenance Of
the people Finally 1t became private
property. and. at one time in its existence,
1t is said. the grist ceased to be ground. and
the mill privilege" was employed in the
manufacture of paper. In later years sam'I
Slater. young English mechanic. came
over from England with spinning frame
In his head for the paternal British gov
eminent desired to do all the cotton spin-
ming for this growing western country, and
forbade the expectation to America of cotton
machinery. He built the frame at Paw
tucket on the Blackstone and established
the first cotton mill in America A few
years after this old grist mill was employed
In the manufacture Of cotton. But whether
the experiment was q failure or no. the
story does not say At all events the old
mill soon returned to its original use as q
grist mill, and a grst mill 1t has remained
to the present day.
1t has had many proprietors throughout
its long life Of two centuries. OF its earlier
owners, who purchased 1t from the town the
tradition is silent, but Mr.. J. W. Magee,
WatertoWn's oldest miller whose name w,as
connected with the ancient mill for more
than forty years, and who now allows no
day to pass without paying a visit to his
longtime place OF business, well remembers
the name of Peter c. Jones as one of its old
time owners. Then the names of Perkins
and OF Magee are we'll known by the Water
town OF today as proprietors of the old grist
mill.
In all these years, although the advance
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
lcng ago discovered that 1t was much more
economical to raise the corn to be ground
from the street level to the bins in the up
per floor by means of power elevator
rather than by sending it up on the shout
ders Of laborers. But in the grinding, the
great stones. driven by the force Of the
water below. and regulated as to fineness or
coarseness of the grist by the turn of a
crank, has to them no superior in method
Although they are well aware that modern
times have brought into use in places the
steel rollers for crushing 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.