Shelby  Mills


This flouring mill was located at the site of Porter Pool, using the Big Blue River for its power.

Picture compliments of George Young

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MILLING  IN  SHELBY  COUNTY.
          Next to a suitable cabin in which to live, the matter of a place to obtain milling was uppermost in the mind of the early settler in Shelby county.  These first settlers must at least be supplied with bread stuffs once a year from other sources than their own hands.  The first crops, be they ever so abundant, gave only partial relief, there being no mills within the county.  Hence the necessity of grinding by hand power, and many families were but poorly provided with means of thus doing.  The tin "grater" was used by many, and in many cases the "hominy-block" was resorted to.  It was more than three years after the first settler set his stakes here in Shelby county here before a mill was put in operation for the grinding of corn and wheat.  Hence home-made flour was used, unless the settler took the time to "go to the mill" at White Water, Franklin county, forty miles away and wait fays at a busy season of the year in taking his turn to get his wheat ground.  A little later a mill was built and known as the "Quarry's Mills," near Moscow, Decatur county.  Next came the home mills in Shelby county.
          One pioneer who passed through those days of privation and difficulty has said "Was quite an undertaking -- this going to mill.  It was a two or three days' journey.  Sometimes it was made by a pair of oxen drawing a two-wheeled cart; but frequently the farmer went on horse-back, seated on a big bag of grain.  This made the journey tedious, and his return was anxiously awaited by mother and children.  There are some recollections of 'going to mill' not in poetry of today, but in actual experience, that brings a tinge of sadness to one's heart.  The true picture of weary watching wife and mother, when nightfall came and the pioneer father and husband did not return as expected.  Too many grists ahead of his was the true cause of his long delay.  These were dismal phases of pioneer life in Indiana.  When the darkness closed in upon the anxious mother by the half open doorway and crying children about her; the winds beating on the rude cabin, bringing to their ears unwelcome sounds, laden with howls of half starved wolves and when the inmates of the cabin were pressed heavily for something to eat.  But generally speaking, the true housewife became equal to the emergency and sometimes pressed the old coffee mill into service and ground a mess of parched corn for the children to eat until the pioneer returned with 'white flour,' when a royal feast was enjoyed by all the family."
          It is quite certain, from the best evidence at hand at this late day, that the first mill within Shelby county was that built by  John Walker  on Blue river, at the present site of the Shelby mills.  This was a small frame mill, erected and running early in 1823.  Nathan Johnson  was the millwright.  During the same year, Abel Summers  built a mill in Marion which stood where later was built the Marion Flouring Mills.  About the same time, possibly a trifle later, was built the  Ira Bailey  mill, on Blue river in the town of Freeport; this was managed by  Lathrop Francis.  This mill is still [1909] in an excellent state of preservation with stone piers, stone dams and stone race and flume and a high grade of flour is made there.
          It was the law and custom at an early date to obtain what is known in legal parlance as an  ad quod danum, or a permit to construct a mill-dam, which provided for damages in case of overflow on crops, etc.  Sometimes this right was waived, as settlers wanted mills, and they did not require the process to be perfected before actual milling was done.  The record shows that  Isaac Drake  built and operated a flouring mill on the northeast quarter of section 25, township 11, range 6, on Flat Rock river, some time prior to the summer of 1823, when the writ was actually fulfilled.  To nearly all of these mills was attached saw-mill machinery, as well as grist mill appliances.  A few years later this branch of milling proved the better paying of the two, and large quantities of lumber were cut and sold for building purposes.  Oak, poplar, wild cherry, black walnut, maple and other varieties of native timber were also cut and shipped to distant sections of the country, where suitable timber was scarce.
          Paragraph on Star Mills
          The Water Mill, usually styled the "Shelby Mills," was the old original mill, to which the successor commenced operations many years ago, even before the settlement of the county had amounted to much.  Year after year its ponderous wheel revolved and its machinery clanked under the burden of its load.  The first saw and flouring mill in Shelby county was built by John Walker in 1822, upon the present site of the Shelby Mills.  Early in 1842  James Elliott  purchased this mill property; it then consisted of an old grist mill with two run of buhrs, and the remains of an old saw-mill.  The latter was immediately rebuilt.  In the spring of 1844  John Elliott  came to Shelbyville and took a a half interest in the property, and the same year a wooden mill was erected just above the race bridge, between the race and the river.  In 1846 the sawmill was removed and the present flouring mill built on the same site.  It was greatly enlarged in 1856, being increased also to six run of buhrs.  Its output was one hundred barrels a day at that time.  The property in 1850 passed into the hands of  Jacob Vernon  and  W. O. Rockwood.  The latter was soon succeeded by  Evans Elliott, under the name of  Elliott & Vernon.  Steam was added to the water power furnished by the river.  On account of an accident the health of Mr. Elliott failed and he was compelled to retire from the business.  In 1859 the mill passed to the hands of  Alexander Cory,  who held the same at the date of his death in 1864.  It was then purchased by  David Kemp, but a year or two later it was purchased by  William Elliott,  David P. Campbell  and  A. O. Porter, who operated under the firm name of  D. C. Campbell & Company.  J. M. Elliott  was admitted to the firm in 1866.  Later the firm was known as  Elliott, Kennedy & Company.  In 1870  G. W. Kennedy sold his interest to  John Messick, now president of the First National Bank, after which it was operated as  Elliott & Company.  In 1881  George E. Kent  became a partner, and two years later William Elliott retired, Mr. Kent taking his interest, after which the style of the milling firm was Elliott, Messick & Campnay.  The mill was overhauled, remodeled and "roller mill" machinery placed in instead of the old time buhr system.  In 1884 John Messick disposed of his interest to George W. Senour, and the firm consisted of the equal partners, J. M. Elliott, George E. Kent and George W. Senour, but worked under the name of Elliott, Kent & Senour.  As it stood in 1887 this mill was fifty by eighty feet, and four stories high.  It was about 1894 when this milling plant was remodeled and the patent, or "roller process" was installed, having a daily capacity of two hundred barrels.  It is under the present proprietorship of  C. H. Billman & Son.
          At an early day what was styled the "Hanover Mills," in the northern part of the county, did a large flour-making business and rivaled, if not exceeded the mills at Shelbyville.  But these mills have long since gone to decay, and little left to mark the spot once so busy with the grinding of golden grain, by water power and the old mill-stone system.  In 1876 there were three different flouring mill plants in Shelbyville and many here and there throughout the county.  Saw-mills and tanneries were also located in various sections of the county, but owing to a changed condition of industrial life and activities in the country many of these once prosperous concerns have disappeared, having been swallowed up by trusts and different methods which have come to obtain in our progressive land.  The chief milling business of the county is now done at the two great flouring mills at Shelbyville.
History of Shelby County, Indiana,  Edward H. Chadwick. B. A.,  B. F. Bowen & Co, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1909,  pp 317-318.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

The  Shelbyville  Republican
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Thursday, October 25, 1883
Page 3
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Big Rush.
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          Everybody who has tried the fine flour made at the Shelby Mills is pleased with it.  It makes bread as white as snow.
Contributed by Phyllis Miller Fleming

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