Gristmills
GRISTMILLS
GRISTMILLS. From colonial times and into the first half of the nineteenth century, gristmills flourished in America by meeting an important local need in agricultural communities: grinding the farmers' grain and levying a toll, usually in kind, for the service. In some especially productive localities, mills grew large and millers operated as merchants, buying and exporting the area's surplus grain. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, however, the opening of the great grain-producing areas of the West, railroad construction, steam power, and the growth and concentration of industry eventually drove most of the small local mills out of business. Relics of the once decentralized American milling industry can still be found along the streams of many of the older states. The massive grinding stones of gristmills were once much sought after as ornaments for courtyards or gardens.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lockwood, J. F. Flour Milling. Liverpool, N.Y.: Northern Publishing Company, 1945.
Storck, John. Flour for Men's Bread. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1952.
W. A.Robinson/c. w.
See alsoAgriculture ; Cereal Grains ; Corn ; Elevators, Grain ; Wheat .