Posts from the ‘History of the Mill’ Category

The 1895 Emlenton Industrial Souvenir describes the Mill as follows: “The main four story frame structure is 80 x 40 feet, the engine and boiler house is 60 x 30 feet and a large office has been added to the front of the structure. The motive power is furnished by an 80- horsepower boiler and the machinery is driven by a 70- horsepower engine of the latest improved pattern. A private switch running from the main track of the Allegheny Valley Railroad has been added for shipments” At that time the Mill’s boilers were fueled by natural gas of the Emlenton Gas Light and Heat Company- gas which flowed from the Agnew wells in Richland township through pipes laid along the former right-of-way of the Emlenton, Shippenville, and Clarion Railroad. With the Mill producing high grade flours and feeds in greater quantity than before, the growth of all kinds of grain was encouraged in the area. Farmers were given the option of exchanging their grain for flour or being paid in cash. It was not unusual to see as many as ten teams lined up to load flour and feed or unload grain at the side of the Mill.

Source: A Stroll Through Historic Emlenton June 1997

By 1899 the Mill was under the ownership of WJ McConnell and Albert Cochran, brother-in-law of James Bennett. The plant was described as consisting of engines and boilers of 60 horsepower, nine sets of rolls (short process), with a capacity of 150 barrels a day. In 1894 a new group of men were owners: Sam Barnard, Chairman; EB Borland, Vice Chairman; George F Fox, Secretary and Treasurer; Sylvester Logan, Miller and Millwright. Mr. Logan lived in the small miller’s house adjacent to the Mill, as had his predecessors. At this time, (only 2 decades after opening) all the old machinery was taken out and replaced with the “latest improved new machinery and appliances used in the prosecution of the business.” Newton A Carroll was brought in from Attica, New York, for the rebuild, While here he met and married Eva Sands, daughter of local oil producer and businessman Franklin Sands.

Source: A Stroll Through Historic Emlenton June 1997

The Emlenton Mill was built in 1875 by James Bennett and his brother-in-law Albert Cochran. In an 1895 advertisement Mr. Logan recently of Warren, Ohio was the Miller and lived in the house beside the Mill (Amy’s Closet). His specialties are ‘Banner’- a strictly straight grade winter wheat flour, ‘Calla Lily’ – a blend of spring and winter wheat flour, ‘Old Gold and ‘Medal’- both made from Minnesota No. 1 hard spring wheat. The Mill also sold buckwheat flour.

Source: A Stroll Through Historic Emlenton June 1997  (Photos: 2006)

The mills are capable of grinding one hundred barrels of flour and four hundred bushels of chop each twenty-four hours, thus affording the farmers of the surrounding districts a first-class market for their produce. Such grain as cannot be procured from this source to keep the mills constantly employed will be imported from the west by rail. As may be imagined, the opening of this splendid institution has already contributed largely to the increase of all branches of business. Vast quantities of grain have been received from the townships, the thrifty ruralists promptly availing themselves of the advantages of a cash market. The demand for the products of the mills exceeds the most sanguine calculation, and the owners enjoy facilities that will enable them to compete with Pittsburgh for the vast flour trade of the lower oil fields. It is intended soon to begin the manufacture of flour barrels on an extensive scale, thus still further augmenting the circulation of money and employment of skilled labor. No event of greater importance than the completion of the “Emlenton Mills” has ever before transpired in this section, and it is gratifying to believe the spirited projectors will be abundantly rewarded for their commendable enterprise.

J.J.M. Oil City Derrick 2/4/1875

The engine room, thirty-eight feet by twenty-two, accommodates an immense stationary boiler and an engine of seventy-five horse power, both of Erie manufacture. The fly wheel weighs four tons and is eleven feet in diameter. So excellent does this powerful machinery perform its work that the cost of fuel is reduced to the minimum of expense. The coal used is principally obtained from the immediate vicinity, at very low figures. J.T. Noye & Son, the celebrated Buffalo millwrights, took the contract for the whole establishment, every portion of which has been erected with scrupulous fidelity in the best manner known to the mechanic art. Bennett, Brewer & Co. are the proprietors of this grand enterprise, which forms so valuable an addition to the manufacturing resources of the community.

Oil City Derrick 2/4/1875

The grain received from the cars is poured into a trough next to the track, sliding into a hopper , and when weighed dropped into a receptacle connected with the elevators that speedily deposit it into huge storage bins on the top most floor. The second story has a novel arrangement termed a “Middlings Purifier” which screens the shorts on an approved plan and materially increases the yield of superior flour. There are also bins for storing feed and bran on this floor, as on the one above, in which the beltlag machinery is placed.

Oil City Derrick 2/4/1875

Pictured below, I believe, is Newton A. Carroll II (1894) on the second floor of the Mill.

Does anyone have information on him?

Near the centre is a retail chest where flour is filled to execute small orders and a magnificent flour packer, of the latest design and highest finish. A comfortable office is fitted up in another corner overlooking the railway track and the river. Here the weighing is done by a pair of Fairbanks’ Hopper scales, which have a capacity of fifty bushels at a draft.

Oil City Derrick 2/4/1875

The new flouring mills, whose completion had for several months been eagerly anticipated by the citizens, is now in full operation, having ground the trial installment of wheat on this twentieth [of January]. The main building is a massive frame structure, forty feet long by sixty, four stories high, with a basement and a commodious engine house attached. The basement contains the pit machinery, which is of the most approved construction, the elevator hoppers, a first class corn sheller, a smut machine, and a large space for the storage of empty barrels. On the ground floor are four run of French burr mill stones of the finest quality, two of them for grinding wheat, one for chopping feed, and the fourth for again operating the middlings. A magnificent separator, for ridding the grain of all foreign seeds, occupies one corner, directly above the smutting apparatus.

Oil City Derrick 2/4/1875

James Bennett, born in Franklin, PA June 14, 1827 came to Emlenton in 1858 to hire out as a tinner with the Widel and Crawford Foundry, at $1.25 a day. He stayed to become Emlenton’s most prosperous and respected citizen. Mr. Bennett built and set in operation the Emlenton Flowering Mill in 1875.

The Emlenton News Thursday 2/5/1959.