Part 3

First, we have to pull out the temporary retaining walls next to the tailrace, dig down below the pool, and put in a brand new wall, so that the rush of water will not tear away the earth next to the State Highway which would stop all the dear people from dashing about on the State Highway, especially the tourists.

I have often wondered what I would do if this mill doesn’t work when we get through. All sorts of suggestions have come from skeptics, the practical ones being to install a gas engine or electric motor to turn the stones. I doubt very much that we will ever do this. We are still convinced that if the early settlers and tenacious people could make this work with their cumbersome and crude tools, we can do the same thing with our so-called improved modern equipment and tools.

So now the flume is finished, a good solid bridge is built over it, and we must go and dig out and repair the tailrace and get ready to place the new turbine in its position.

This tailrace runs from underneath the building, from the bottom of the turbine out to the pool near the State Highway and then under the State Road into Lewis Bay. All the rocks which attempted to retain the embankment adjoining the State Highway were merely dumped there by someone hoping they would shore up the embankment. The result was, over the years they were gradually disturbed and found their way into the pool, and, of course, a lot of the dirt and sand from the embankment slipped off into the pool and the bottom of the tailrace.

So we again call in our stout and genial mason, Joe Carapezza, and a machine to dig out the rocks, dirt and mud. Putting the rocks back into a firm and complete wall turned out to be a little more of a job than we planned on.

Every one of the rocks, some of which weighed from five hundred to a thousand pounds, had to be handled manually, as there was no room for cranes and the like to lift them up and work them around. After about two weeks of this, we finally managed to build a fairly solid retaining wall next to the tailrace.

Just about this time the herring began their annual migration to their spawning ground, so we had to raise the level of the mill pond so that nature could take her course.

It would seem that every time a weekend came around there was either rain, snow, drizzle, or some other sort of foul weather, which didn’t help things along a bit.

In browsing through some old pamphlets by one Daniel Wing, a school master who taught school in Yarmouth about 1900, I ran across the following interesting paragraph:

“The old gristmill directly opposite the Captain Baxter residence was known as Baxter’s mill. It was at one time owned by Captain Timothy Baker, Senr., (born in the first half of the eighteenth century) and later by his son, Captain Joshua Baker, born in 1766. The mill pond was fed by several streamlets which came down from the north, but its work having been completed, the dam has been allowed to wash away; and, there being some question as to ownership, we learn that this once beautiful and interesting spot is now grown up with rushes. _It seems as if the water power here might, in this day of improved machinery, be made again to serve a useful purpose._”

I wonder if Daniel can see the mill now.

The old turbine that we excavated from a side hill in Maine was lowered into place after much straining, blocking, and running around. George’s careful measurements and minute calculations paid off, because it fitted perfectly in the large hole cut in the bottom of the wheel pit. We had to call upon the machinist to fashion a coupling in order to fit the old coupling still left on the shaft coming down through the first floor into the wheel pit from the gears above.

While this was being done, George, Dick McElroy, and I managed to make a decent pen gate with the necessary worm gear attached to it so that we could block off the water in the flume and raise the gate when necessary.

At this point I happened to mention to one of my friends that I would like to find, somewhere, a metal wheel similar to a freight car brake wheel that we could use on the shaft to raise and lower the pen gate. A few days later, my friend left at the mill a real old timer. It was a wheel which was about two and one-half feet in diameter, and which was nicely adapted to the top of the rod of the pen gate. This wheel suspiciously looked similar to a wheel that would toll a bell on a church steeple, and when I suggested the possibility of this to my friend, he merely smiled and walked away.

X

We have used to a great extent Oliver Evans’ “_The Young Mill-Wright and Miller’s Guide_.” This book was printed about 1800, and I think I have referred to it before, but it has proved invaluable to us in the course of our work. The words and references in the book may have meant something to the millers one hundred years ago, but not us poor amateurs of 1961, the words millseat, flutterwheels, cockheads, cubocks, to say nothing of “tailflour,” confused us no end, but on closer reading and more attention to the details of the book, we did finally make some sense from it.

Under Article 108 in this ancient volume is found the following:

“Of Regulating the Feed and Water in Grinding.”

“The stone being well hung, proceed to grind, and when all things are ready, draw as much water as is judged to be sufficient; then _observe the motion of the stone, by the noise of the damsel_, and feel the meal; if it be too coarse, and the motion too slow, give less feed and it will grind finer, and the motion will be quicker; if it yet grind too coarse, lower the stones; then, if the motion be too slow, draw a little more water; but if the meal feel to be ground, and the motion right, raise the stones a little, and give the motion right, raise the stones a little, and give a little more feed. If the motion and feed be too great, and the meal be ground too low, shut off part of the water. But if the motion be too slow, and the feed too small, draw more water.”

I doubt very much that the venerable Mr. Evans would have relished “the noise of the damsel” if he had observed George one sunny afternoon pick up a luscious creature of the female sex, heave her over his shoulder and transport her into the depths of the mill, all in plain sight of the general public. It seems that it was a little too muddy for this fair lady to walk to the mill, but the following week, however, the same damsel was there and took the same ride on George’s shoulders into the mill.

We could not and did not observe either the motion or the noise of the damsel, which probably is just as well.

The damsel referred to by Evans, however, is nothing more or less than a square wooden shaft which turns against a shoe suspended under the spout of the hopper to regulate the flow of grain into the stones themselves.

There is, of course, a definite rhythm to the clatter created by the damsel, and this is what Evans was speaking about in “noise of damsel.”

Farther on in Evans’ book, it states that we must “pick up the stones” and sharpen them, but as I said before, we found that we were too ignorant of the art of sharpening the stones, and that is why we obtained the services of Mr. Mattson, who did an excellent job in “picking up” the stones.

It is interesting to read Evans’ book, and I have taken the time to copy directly from the book the chapter on the “Duties of the Miller.”

“CHAPTER XVIII

Directions for keeping the mill and the business of it in good order.

ARTICLE 116

THE DUTY OF THE MILLER

The mill is supposed to be completely finished for merchant work, on the new plan; supplied with a stock of grain, flour casks, nails, brushes, picks, shovels, scales, weights, etc., when the millers enter on their duty.

If there be two of them capable of standing watch, or taking charge of the mill, the time is generally divided as follows. In the day-time both attend to business, but one of them has the chief direction. The night is divided into two watches, the first of which ends at one o’clock in the morning, when the master miller should enter on his watch, and continue till day-light that he may be ready to direct other hands to their business early. The first thing he should do, when his watch begins, is to see whether the stones are grinding, and the cloths bolting well. And secondly, he should review all the moving gudgeons of the mill, to see whether any of them want grease, etc.; for want of this, the gudgeons often run dry, and heat, which bring on heavy losses in time and repairs; for when they heat, they get a little loose, and the stones they run on crack, after which they cannot be kept cool. He should also see what quantity of grain is over the stones, and if there be not enough to supply them till morning, set the cleaning machines in motion.

All things being set right, his duty is very easy--he has only to see to the machinery, the grinding, and the bolting once in every hour; he has, therefore, plenty of time to amuse himself by reading, or otherwise.

Early in the morning all the floors should be swept, and the flour dust collected; the casks nailed, weighed, marked, and branded, and the packing begun, that it may be completed in the forepart of the day; by this means, should any unforseen thing occur, there will be spare time. Besides, to leave the packing till the afternoon, is a lazy practice, and keeps the business out of order.

When the stones are to be sharpened, everything necessary should be prepared before the mill is stopped, (especially if there is but one pair of stones to a water-wheel) that as little time as possible may be lost: the picks should be made quite sharp, and not be less than 12 in number. Things being ready, the miller is then to take up the stone; set one hand to each, and dress them as soon as possible, that they may be set to work again; not forgetting to grease the gears and spindle foot.

In the after part of the day, a sufficient quantity of grain is to be cleaned down, to supply the stones the whole night; because it is best to have nothing more to do in the night, than to attend to the grinding, bolting, gudgeons, etc.”

Shades of the coffee break and the forty-hour week! Apparently Evans and his millers hardly found time to stop and get a bite to eat.

Interesting, the old methods and way of life compared with our present day methods and ways of existence.

XI

The summer of 1961 is now hard upon us, as is the horde of vacation seekers; so, at least for a while, we are forced to give up our labors at the mill and go to other pursuits, but just as soon as autumn comes around we start in again Saturday mornings at the old mill site.

The mill stones had to be sharpened and we found out that this was really beyond the scope of our knowledge and skill.

Inquiries at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts led us to finding one of the few men left who could “pick up” the stones. This gentleman, Arthur Mattson, of Plainville, Connecticut, consented to come, and finally did come to the Cape, and in a matter of hours had sharpened the stones to the nth degree.

While he was here, we gleaned as much information from him as we could, in the course of which we found that he owned five mill stones which were grinding out stone ground flour, and that he had been supplying, for many years, the stone ground flour to the Pepperidge Farm Mills in Connecticut, famous for their Pepperidge Farm Bread.

Among other things, he showed us how to construct a “damsel” (which is nothing but a small flutter board hung below the mouth of the hopper) and wiggles just enough to let the grain drop into the stones at the proper quantity.

About a year from the date we started to work on the mill, to wit: August 3, 1960, we are able to open the pen gate, let the rushing water fill up the flume and wheel pit, raise the skirt in the turbine, and with a feeling of great self-satisfaction, see and hear the stones turn, albeit, a little slow at first, since the stones were not properly balanced, but, nevertheless, lo and behold, all our work finally paid off.

Someone shouted, “Ho, ho, she starts, she moves, she feels a spark of life.” You can well imagine who that was.

As near as we can figure, these stones had not been turning for exactly seventy-one years, and frankness would be lacking if we did not feel proud of our hard work and efforts.

The mill actually ran smoothly, and with very little noise, but to be sure that we were not subject to hallucinations we spent the better part of the afternoon turning the wheel off and on. The wheel and its heavy but simplified gears responded with slow speed and gradual pick-up of revolutions to a very deliberate cadence.

Again I was struck with the simplicity of the working of the turbine and wheel, and perhaps the economy of the whole affair was intriguing. One had only to look at the water pouring into the wheel pit to see the power of the stream and to reflect upon the fact that it cost absolutely nothing for this power. Gear grease, oil or other lubrication was absolutely unnecessary to maintain the operation.

The stones were originally enclosed and covered with a wooden casing, half of which we found in the mill, but the other half we had to build ourselves and make them, of course, exactly as the first half. As usual the boards that were available at any lumber yard were not the same thickness, so again we had to have proper boards milled out to match up with the old. Finally, George found an old blade adequate to make the same beading on the edge of these new boards as the original beading, and it was not too difficult to do with the aid of this old fashioned plane.

About this time we received in the express from Mr. Mattson, the genial gentleman from Connecticut, who had sharpened the stones, a cradle and a shoe. The cradle is to hold the hopper and the shoe is for support, as I said before, underneath the spout of the hopper.

The cradle was practically a perfect fit on the top of the wooden casing, and the hopper fitted the cradle perfectly. This was one time something really did fit.

And so - - - - just before the Christmas Holidays of 1961 everything seemed to be about finished. We procured a bag of whole corn, part of which we dropped into the hopper, opened up the pen gate, and lo and behold, yellow gold came flowing out of the chute. To be sure, at first the meal was a bit coarse, but after George maneuvered the “tenterer,” we obtained about the correct texture of meal.

It has been said that the end of something is better than the beginning, but I think I felt a little sad that we were finished and somewhat surprised that the mill actually worked. Sad, perhaps, because we had no more to do to complete the mill project. We were constantly uncovering new sights in the ancient mill. The actual work, the research, the conversations with new people, the reading of stories of old mills, seeing the old mills, some of which were restored and others abandoned, and being able to finally rebuild this old mill and to renew a small part of life now long forgotten, has been most fascinating.

George just called me on the phone, saying,

“Harold ... you know what?”

“No, what?”

“I think I have found an old tide mill - - - -”

Transcriber’s Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced. Two typographical errors in quoted text on page 37 were corrected after consulting a copy of the book from which the quotation was taken.

The illustrations at the ends of chapters I, II, VI, VIII, and X are simple decorative tailpieces.