Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1914-06-16

were stored in the MILL five hundred
bushels of winter wheat. one hun
dred bushels toll wheat, five or six
tons of buckwheat flour, two or
three tons of white flour, two hum
dred bushels of corn, two hundred
bushels of grists belonging to farm
ers. A kit of carpenters tools was
also in the burned structure. Dur
ing it's years of activity the mill
was also a postoffice and a small
store was kept in addition.
CHASE MILL.
In 1856 Sumler and Walter Will
son built a sawmill near the site of
the old Chase mill. This was, as
nearly as can be ascertained, the
first sawmill in Webster City. This
mill started upon its career auspic-
iously enough for the settlers were
in need of boards and shingles. In
1856 the Wilson's disposed of their
mill to Chas. B. Stoddard and w. S.
Pray. They established planning
mill in addition to the sawmill and
made shingles also. A little later
the aourishing industry added fur
niture factory, and the first work
done on turning lathe was execut-
| cd ~ or oil IN 1a
mand, and among those, who at one
time and another, won local fame as
cock, J. D. Sketchley, B. S. Mason,
Lewis Holcomb, Elisha Sackett and
Frank R. Mason. There are in the
town, pieces of the furniture made
here, still in use. They were built
to last lifetime and many of the
carefully constructed articles have
long outlived their owners. Gilbert
Perry has chair from this factory
and there are doubtless others. The
only collins used in the settlement
were made here and members of the
Pray family still remember how,
during a typhoid epidemic, the small
force of cabinetmakers worked day
and night to fill the orders for cof-
fins.
During these years a corn crack
er was added to the other branches
of the mill and J. D. Sketchley ran
it. Settlers hailed with delight this
addition and shelled corn by hand
to bring to mill, that they might OBJ
tain that delicious oldtime dish
hominy. "samp," was the pioneer
name given to the dish. In 1868
John Hill came to the settlement
with his family and bought the mill
of Stoddard and Pray April s, 1868.
He sold a third interest to Preston
kimbrell, his brother-in-law, who
held his interest until death. John
Hill was fine millwright and at
once proceeded to build an entirely
modern mill. He used every known
appliance in the construction of the
mill. Business was very good and
the flour put out was of excellent
quality. The pioneers were not crit
ical of their bread or their -four
however, for they were philosophers
enough to accept the goods of the
gods and be thankful. The times
made men philosophers; when hard
times came they plodded uncom-
plainly on; when good fortune smil-
ed upon them they as quietly accept
ed it.
John Hill in 1873 sold a half in
terest to Judge D. D. Chase and the
other half was sold to him in 1877.
Mr.. Chase employed various men at
different times to run the mill as
flour mill. Among these were the
La Barr brothers; then in 1882
Charles Closz rented and ran it for
about three years; successor to him
was P. G.. Stearns, who ran it as
feed mill for year or two, until he
bought and operated the Plansifter
Flour mills near the Crooked Creek
station. With the removal of Mr..
Stearns the Chase mill was aban-
doned. 1t rapidly lost it's windows
and began to assume the air of "bet-
ter days" that once useful or pop
ular person presents when he ends
his period of activity. But the tim
bers of which it had been built
it's bones and sinews-were of too
hardy material to so quickly sue
cumb as many of it's predecessors
had. So it stood for years, the last
mill upon the river, the "last leaf
upon the tree" in dignified solitude,
a sightless old landmark with it's
solid old walls as firm as they had
been fifty years before and became
the haunt of owls ano ;