Graue Mill in Oak Brook, Illinois, is a rare surviving water-powered grist mill that grew from the early farming village of Fullersburg. Built in 1852 by Friedrich Graue, a German immigrant skilled in waterwheel milling, it followed a sawmill he had operated with William Asche on Salt Creek. Graue and his family drained the site, made bricks from its clay, and equipped the mill with French buhrstones to grind local corn and wheat. The family, Pietist Germans who opposed slavery, also tied the site to the Underground Railroad. Restored in the mid-20th century, the mill endures as an operating historic remnant of Illinois’s post-frontier past.

Hinsdale, Illinois · USA