THK SYCAMORE MILL. I05 



stood on the west bank of Ridley Creek, near the bridge, 

 come back to my memory from the fact that Mrs. Green, 

 above mentioned, and her family lived in one of those houses 

 at the time of the flood, from which they barely escaped with 

 their lives, as both houses were washed away. 



In those days it was the custom of the farmers within a 

 radius of three or four miles to take their grain to these mills 

 to be ground into feed for the stock and flour for family use. 

 They also hauled logs to -the saw mill to be sawed into lumber 

 for building purposes. My father was a farmer and I the only 

 son, and it was often my part to go to mill with grain. I 

 remember on one occasion, on a cold winter night, father's 

 hired man and myself, with two bags of grain of two and a 

 half bushels each, were sent astride of two horses to the old 

 mill for the purpose of getting it ground into feed for the 

 cattle. On arriving the miller carried the grain into the mill. 

 We asked him when it would be ground and he replied : 

 " Hitch your horses and come in. I will grind it while you 

 wait. It won't takeover two or three hours." We hitched 

 and went in. The miller poured the grain into the hopper and 

 took out the " toll " with a round wooden measure about five 

 inches high and six inches in diameter, holding one-tenth of 

 a bushel, which was the amount of grain they received in 

 those days as pay for each bushel ground. He then pulled 

 the head gate and turned on the water which supplied the 

 power that ran the wheel. After considerable screeching, 

 cracking and thumping the operation of grinding commenced. 

 W^e then betook ourselves to the lower story of the mill, where 

 the meal ran out from the burrs into a large chest. After 

 adjusting the burrs so the meal should be of the proper consis- 

 tency we sat down by the old fire-place to await the completion 

 of the grinding. The fire-place was about six or eight feet 

 long, filled with several large chunks of burning wood which 

 made a roaring hot fire, very agreeable on such a cold night. 

 In front of this was a long bench made of a slab from the 

 saw mill, with four round sticks as legs. On this we took our 



