A farmer paused while plowing a field on a warm spring day to wipe the sweat from his brow. Though it was only noon, he’d already had a productive day, rising before dawn and getting right to work. But he wasn’t done yet. As storm clouds began to gather, he loaded his family into the wagon and headed a few miles down the road to the nearest gristmill, hoping to reconnect with friends.
In the days before electricity and other modern conveniences, scenes like this played out every day. Gristmills served as the foundations of communities, providing a valuable service that attracted other industries and strengthened ties between neighbors.
“When it rained and they couldn’t farm, they would all get on their mule and wagon, go down to the mill, gather up and socialize,” says 80-year-old Hines Bowman, who was born and raised near the Old Tabernacle community in Coffee County.
Few remnants of these massive, historical structures remain, but they aren’t invisible. The dam that helped create Pope’s Mill, now known as Snellgrove’s Mill, can be seen, and much of the Prestwood Mill near the Roeton community still stands.
Oh, the stories these structures could tell — love and loss, gains and subtractions. All of these mills helped shape northern Coffee, Pike and Crenshaw counties into what we now experience.
The Milling Boom
“It is highly favored with respect to its climate and superior healthfulness. It lies in the heart of the great Timber Belt, and all the characteristics which belong to that beautiful region are found existing here — extensive domains of forests of pine, with here and there a stream of crystal clearness, and carpeted through- out with pastures of perennial green; with a slightly undulating surface, affording lands of varying fertility, and with conditions of soil favorable alike to the pursuits of agriculture, horticulture, and stock-raising.” — Benjamin Franklin Riley, describing Coffee County in the book “Alabama As It Is,” 1887
It is believed the first settlers of northeastern Coffee County, site of many known mills, were members of the Cole family from South Carolina. Thomas Delorum Cole built a bridge across the Pea River on what is presently Coffee County Road 138. Given Cole’s father, Daniel Preston Cole, died in Pike County in 1831, the family apparently settled the area well before the Civil War erupted.
“Thomas Cole moved all of his stuff here, and when he got here, he said, ‘This is the promised land,’” Bowman says. “There is a field close to his grave that people say used to be a lake. You can go down there and see the trenches, see where he ditched that lake off and planted corn.”
For corn to be most profitable and usable, farmers took the crop to be milled into various forms. Some of it would be cracked for livestock feed, but often millers ground corn into a meal or flour for farmers’ cooking purposes.
As the Coles experienced success farming in northern Coffee County’s red clay hills, others followed in hopes of making a profit. This led to the proliferation of gristmills large and small. For instance, the Pope family tapped into the power of the mighty Pea River with a water wheel near Cole’s Bridge to create one of the area’s more prominent mills.
“They built them all over the place. They built little ones on every little creek,” says Bowman, whose great-grandfather settled the area in the late 1800s. “The farmer couldn’t travel a lot of miles. He got up, shelled his corn and put it in a sack. He carried it to the mill. I can remember where a lot of the mills were.”
By the mid-1880s, Truman H. Aldrich’s Geological Survey of Alabama recorded eight large flour and grist mills operating in Coffee County. At least five of them were in the central and northern portions. Several others — like McDaniel Mill and Marley Mill — operated just across the county line in Dale County, while Aldrich’s book recorded 13 significant mills in Pike County.
Milling: A Way of Life
While the mills primarily converted corn into several food sources for people and livestock, they carried more value for the people who lived near them. They often attracted other industries or services. For instance, an ice plant, a sawmill and a cotton gin operated near the Pope mill.
Bowman’s grandfather worked at the Pope mill, and he recalls watching workers process cotton through the gin. But he says his “coolest” memories involve the ice plant.
“The ice was in about a 200-pound block. They cut it off in 25-pound chunks,” he says. “My daddy had a truck, and they put it in the back. He put a tarp over it and drove around to the houses. People had iceboxes. In the top was where you put the ice, and the bottom was where you put your stuff to keep it cool.”
A mule barn eventually accompanied a mill in the New Hope community, turning that area into an important hub of activity once a year.
“The mules would come out of Tennessee, and in the spring of the year, they’d have a barn full of mules that they’d trade,” Bowman says. “People would trade mules like they trade cars, but they’d get new mules and break them. This went on in the 1940s and 1950s.”
And because families lived on large tracts of land — Bowman’s maternal grandparents managed 500 acres, for example — the mills became important for developing the social aspects of small communities. Bowman recalls how some of these gatherings would include songs and dances. One could suppose import-ant decisions that shaped the community occurred there.
“People would come to the mill closest to them,” says Shirley Bowman, Hines’ wife. “My granddaddy was born and raised close to New Hope, so that’s where they went.”
End of an era
“The county is without river or railroad transportation, and relies mainly upon Troy, in the adjoining county of Pike, as a market, and as the nearest accessible point of transportation by rail. Railroads have been projected through the county, and it is believed that at no remote period, the county will have its slumbering resources recognized by reason of the existence of these great agencies of development.” — Riley, “Alabama As It Is”
Today, these mills have almost disappeared, in large part because of technology, the Bowmans say.
“People got to where they could go to town to conduct business,” Hines Bowman says, noting his father first used a truck for farming purposes in the late 1950s.
“The development of other machinery was probably one thing,” Shirley Bowman adds.
For instance, her father owned a portable mill, which he would carry by truck to farms in the area. With it, he ground corn and hay for livestock purposes.
Sometimes unfortunate accidents happened, too. The Pope/Snellgrove Mill stood until the mid-1960s, when a fire consumed most of the structure.
Still, without these once immaculate facilities, settling the region would have been difficult until the 1900s. Given the lack of transportation options, becoming profitable through farming would also have been difficult.
That’s why even the mills’ remnants still tell vital stories for southern Alabama — just like those shared by farmers around the mills decades ago.
Genealogical information courtesy of Pea River Trails, Volume 21, No. 3.
Grinding Out a Future
Gristmills shape development of southern Alabama
In the 1800s and early 1900s, few places were more important to agricultural areas than gristmills.
These mills provided an essential service to area farmers. Millers cracked corn needed to feed livestock and also ground corn into meal — vital for cooking in the traditional farmhouse.
Because of their importance, mills became hot spots for social gatherings. They also attracted various other businesses, like mule barns, needed to help the area flourish.
Today these mills have all but disappeared, existing only in the names of some communities. Without these mills, though, development of Pike, Coffee and Crenshaw counties would have been slower.
These mills existed near the turn of the 20th century. Some mills may have been constructed later, but many of the major ones existed by 1900.
Crenshaw County*
- Lasseter Mill, Bullock
- Morgan Mill, Bullock
- Folmar’s Mill, Goshen
- Skipper Mill, Honoraville
- Daniel & Co., Lapine
- Marsh Mill, Rutledge
- Sasser Mill, Luverne
*Some mills were near county lines.
Coffee County
- Ino Mill
- Bell Mill
- Enterprise Mill
- Harper Flour Mill, Brockton (New Brockton after 1888)
- Prestwood Mill (Shown in picture)
- McIntosh Mill
- Wise’s Lower Mill, Elba
- Wise’s Upper Mill, Elba
Pike County
- Youngblood Mill
- Ingram Mill
- Cotton’s Mill
- Dees & Murphee Mill
- King Mill
- Lewis Mill
- McQuaggis Mill
- Williams Mill
- Slatting’s Grist Mill
- Motia Mill
- Bowden & Daughtry Mill
- Brown Mill
- Howard Mill
Source: Geological Survey of Alabama by Truman H. Aldrich via Alabama Genealogy Trails website