Sawmills and grist mills formed the nucleus of every early 19th-century village. In 1809, Allen Penfield purchased waterpower rights a few hundred yards farther down the creek and promptly built one of each. The partnership of Penfield and Taft sawed Adirondack timber into lumber. Taft supervised the works here, but Penfield continued to live in Pittsford, Vermont, until the discovery of iron in 1826 convinced him to move here permanently. Children walking to school from Brooklyn could cross a bridge by the sawmill that they called the white bridge because it was not soiled by charcoal dust and soot. Timber turned into lumber at the sawmills was used to build all the buildings in and around the forge.