Early settlers in this dense forested part of the Northwest Territory had to clear land, plant, cultivate, and harvest crops, then haul grain as far as Wabash, Indiana, over rough roads and former forest trails to have it ground into meal or flour until a local gristmill was built at New Cumberland. The miller became an important link between farming and industry, setting service tolls for each bushel ground and often taking customary shares such as one-eighth for wheat and one-sixth for corn because many settlers lacked cash and the miller also became a principal buyer of excess grain. Dennison and Kisner built the gristmill in 1853, with carpentry by the Dunn Company, one half mile east of the Covered Bridge on the south bank of the Mississinewa River. Built with huge timbers over a millrace channel cut from the river above a dam east of the building and returning water west of the mill, it used a water gate to control flow to a turbine under the first floor. Shafts and gears powered millstones, with grain fed from a hopper through a funnel to upper and lower burr-stones whose spacing could be regulated, while furrows cut into the stones increased the crushing action and the stones could be changed for different grains. Improvements later reduced the need to set aside days for single kinds of grain, and by the end of the nineteenth century the roller process had nearly revolutionized the industry. This old town mill, despite its crude operation, produced flour known as Matthews White Lilly Flour. Around 1860, Dennison and Kisner sold the mill to Thomas Dunn, who later sold it to Ed Harms, with John Walters as miller, and Walters was responsible for making the flour. Around 1915 George Morgan bought the mill, but business declined after the Elliott Elevator began operating in Matthews, and around 1920 the mill was moved to a farm west of Gaston, Indiana, where it was used as a barn for many years.