Alfred Buffat, born in 1840, came to Knox County at age 10 with his parents from Switzerland in search of religious tolerance and economic opportunity. In 1851 the Buffat family began a water milling enterprise to supplement farm income, and during the Civil War the mill was held by both Confederate and Federal troops. According to Alfred Buffat's memoirs, it was at one time the largest gristmill south of the Ohio River. In 1859 Alfred Buffat took over the mill from his father, and eight years later he began building The Maples for his bride, Elisa Bolli, daughter of a Swiss consul. By then the mill, home, and related facilities had become the center of community life. Alfred and his father Pierre taught in a one-room schoolhouse on family-donated land, and the Buffat community, known as Spring Place, included one of the county's major gristmills, supplied much of the area with cut timber from the wood mill, operated a blacksmith shop, and farmed several hundred acres. A road to Knoxville, still called Buffat Mill Road, was built expressly to carry Buffat goods to the city. The mill stood on Loves Creek.