The Grist Mill

Originally known as the St. Lawrence Mill, this three-story brick grist mill was erected by Lucius Moody in 1859-60 and for many years was owned by D.W. Sherwin. Built out onto bedrock into the river, it used power directly from the dam, with a raceway nearly 100 feet long from the inlet at the dam providing water power for the grist mill and the sash and blind factory. The mill was vulnerable to floods, ice, logs coming down river, and severe weather, and although it suffered significant damage in the late 1800s and was repaired, it was finally washed out by flood waters on November 18, 1927. By the early 1900s, large Midwestern mills were also flooding the East with ground grain, corn, oats, wheat, and barley. The water wheel was probably a breast wheel, possibly 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and the two millstones on the bank, known as French Buhr stones, were probably made in London or France from fitted pieces of stone held together with plaster or cement-like material and an iron band.

Canton, New York · United States