Mike,
first place to start with is The Society for the Preservation of Old Mills -
SPOOM - www.spoom.org. More mills than you
want to know about. Now when that whets your
appetite....
Gomez
Mill House. At our Gomez Mill House, there were three mills. In 1714 the first
owner had a certificate of denization that allowed him to buy and sell property
(more to the story than that!) and he then built a saw mill on "Jews
Creek." . So he sold the land to the new families and then the new
settler carried the timber to the mill and Mr. Gomez cut it into
planks to build their homes. Good thinking.
The
next owner, Wolfert Acker or Ecker - in 1772 - added a grist mill to take
care of the crops of the farmers in the area.
Both
men were, of course, in business to make a profit with the
mills.
The third owner - 1912 to 1918 - was the artist
and papermaker, Dard Hunter. He built his mill in the shape of a Devonshire
cottage - rye thatched roof, wooden beams, old brick, wooden wheel -and
experimented in and taught papermaking. And like all teaching, didn't do it
for the profit.
You can see how the first two mills followed each other
naturally. The third mill - and the one restored - was an artist's
studio.
The NY 3rd graders learn about the "community."
Certainly the mills were a center of community
activity.
Check out www.gomez.org for more details or better yet,
come visit.
Bill Maurer
Director
-----Original Message-----
From: A LISTSERV list for
discussions pertaining to New York State history.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of M. Riley
Sent:
Monday, September 23, 2002 6:42 PM
To:
[log in to unmask]
Subject: 19th century
waterpower
Greetings to the List,
I am working on a paper about 19th century
waterpower, and it's impact on society. I have been scanning the net for web
sites related to this topic, but would like to find all the working grist, saw
and any other mills in New York State and our neighboring states.
I also would like some ideas on books or papers
that could help me understand how these mills impacted the local economy.
Mike Riley
Town of Mentz Historian and Empire State College
student.