OLD HOMESTEAD 



it is that of an old wreck and ruin, both mill and dam. The 

 decrease of water and the insecurity of the old dam, which fre- 

 quently gave way at its south end, suggested building the new 

 mill; so a four-foot dam was built across the creek near the old 

 potashery, which turned the water into a ditch from twelve to 

 forty feet wide, leading down and across the old, stony pasture, 

 and brought it to the north-and-south road near the corners. 



A big, round trunk, called ''barrels," conveyed the water 

 across the road and into a big, high flume, giving sixteen or 

 eighteen feet head. To build the ditch was quite a task, as it 

 was through a bed of big boulder rocks embedded in the hardest 

 kind of clay cement. In the removal of these rocks and in the 

 plowing of this hardpan clay a very fine team of horses — one 

 brown and the other gray, known as Tom and Dick — were both 

 made blind by being overdrawn. 



The fit-out of the new mill, which was completed in 1843, 

 was the old " flutter wheel," which was simply flat boards or 

 blades made of hardwood set into a shaft, on the end of which 

 was a crank from which the pitman connected directly with the 

 gate or saw-frame — the cheapest, oldest and simplest wheel 

 and arrangement known for water mills. I remember when it 

 was taken out, in 1846, and a "March" wheel — a direct-issue 

 wheel with a scroll — substituted. After getting the ''March" 

 wheel in, some one had to be paid five dollars for the right to 

 use it. This ran till 1852, and then came the "Ferguson" 

 side-issue reaction wheel, when a new flume and general over- 

 hauling was required. 



All of these wheels took oceans of water to run them, and 

 as the water became scarce, father was looking for something to 

 which he could change that would run with less water. In 

 1855 he rebuilt the mill and flume and put in a big breast 



