The Lowell Area Historical Museum presents a new weekly online series. Missing Along Main explores the buildings that once occupied Main Street but are no longer there.
Flour Mill
City parking, south of Main Street and east of Flat River
Cyprian S. Hooker built the first frame dwelling house in Lowell township in December, 1846. It was located where the Flat River Grill is now. Hooker’s next project was to erect a bridge and dam across the Flat River and the first Flouring Mill across the road from his house. Mr. and Mrs. Montague and 2-year-old Anna came to Lowell in the spring of 1847 to carry out a contract with Cyprian Hooker “to erect a grist mill on Flat River.” The land for the site was purchased from Daniel Marsac and the water-power was granted by the government. The grist mill began operations on July 4, 1847.
Unfortunately, in the fall of that year, Mrs. Montague was killed by a falling tree. Mrs. Hooker took care of Anna for the next 3 years, after which she lived with Mrs. Dr. Richards until her marriage in 1864.
The mill building was of wood frame construction. The logs were floated down the Flat River from Jim Kidd’s sawmill near Greenville by Cyprian’s 17-year-old son, John Hooker and local Odawa. The timbers were hewn by hand and oak pegs held them together. The mill was so well constructed that the corn mill being used in 1949 was still part of the original structure.
Mr. Hooker called the mill “Forest Mills.” He ground wheat by milled stone and his capacity was four bushels per hour. It was a grist mill which means the farmer would bring in his own wheat and the mill would grind it and give him back the flour made from his own wheat.
In 1854, Mr. Hooker sold the mill to Tolford & Chapin. In 1855, William W. Hatch purchased one-third interest in this mill. In 1857, Tolford sold his interest to Chapin and consequently Chapin & Hatch were the proprietors. In 1858, James O. Fitch purchased one-half of Chapin’s interest and in 1859, Chapin sold the remainder of his interest to E. R. Craw. In 1859, Fitch sold his interest to Hatch and Craw. Hatch and Craw operated the mill from 1859 to 1880 when Craw retired. Hatch soon sold to E. E. Wisner and the name changed from Hatch & Craw back to Forest Mills.
In the 1860s, Hatch and Craw added a section to the building. Then they built a second flour mill on the west side of the Flat River called the Lowell Mills (1867) which became Superior Mills in 1890 when the new King Milling Company purchased it.
The Forest Mills building was rebuilt in 1880 by Mr. Wisner (a portion of the old building was still utilized) and roller mills were installed. In 1887, Edgar Wisner died and his brother Charles W. Wisner took over operating under the name of Wisner Bros.
In 1896, Wisner Bros. consolidated with King Milling Co. and converted the east side mill from flour milling to a corn, buckwheat, and animal feed mill.
In 1925, a section of the west wall fell into the river with a bin of shelled corn containing about 40,000 pounds worth $2,600. The break occurred in the new structure where the two joined. No one was injured and it was soon repaired.
Extensive repairs were made to the 82-year-old building in 1929. Heavy oak timbers replaced the first ones and a new flume was built. The original water wheels were still good.
In 1937, the foundation under the northwest corner of the mill was washed out so that the corner of the mill dropped down several inches. The mill wheel dropped down, throwing it out of gear. The damage was caused by the river washing out the sand and gravel put under the piling when the new bridge was built two years previous. It then washed out the supports of the flume gate and the supports of the feed mill.
The east side mill building was razed in 1965 to make room for a much-needed city parking lot.
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