The windmill was part of an active water supply system for the farm. Its rotating blades pumped water from the well beneath the windmill into a storage tank in the tower, and from there gravity carried water to wherever it was needed on the farm. The farm also had two other unrelated earlier wells and a rainwater collection system that channeled water into a stone-lined cistern beneath the woodshed. In 1928, electricity in North Guilford made possible a system for bringing water up from the West River.