In the spring of 1860, Apostle Ezra T. Benson and Peter Maughan advised the people living at the Elkhorn Ranch to settle near a sawmill built by Esais Edwards and Roy Kent for better protection. That same year, Apostle Benson organized a ward, and the small community of about sixty people adopted the name Millville. Although the sawmill was the only mill then in existence, the name soon proved fitting as several others were built shortly afterward, including two gristmills, a molasses mill, a broom mill, a cider mill, and a lathe and shingle mill. The first sawmill stood near this site and was built of wooden framework. Later, in 1882, D.W. Hammond built a gristmill at this location using stones quarried from Millville Canyon.