CHAPTER XXIX

AN HISTORIC OLD MILL-BUILT IN 1859 BY A. K. HANSBERRY WHO LIVED WITH HIS FAMILY IN THE LOWER STORY-KNOWN AS BEED'S MILL OVER A HALF CENTURY-BEED'S LAKE AND PLEASURE RESORT.

A beginning was made on the mill property by A. K. Hansberry in 1857. He built a dam, where a portion of the present dam is, but was not as high as the present one by at least ten feet. He also dug a race nearly parallel with the present one, but it was ten feet lower than the present one, and not over three and a half feet deep.

Hansberry first built a sawmill that stood west of where the gristmill is, and utilized it to saw out the oak lumber used in the construction of the mill. In 1858 the stone work of the mill was done but the building and fixtures were not completed until 1859. The original building was not one-fourth the size of the present mill, being but two stories in height and sloping down to one story on the east side. After it was in operation, Mr. Hansberry and family lived in the lower story, and the flour, when any was made, came down into a room adjoining the one in which the family lived. During the winter seasons much of the time the mill did not run, for the reason that the water in the race froze clear to the bottom, and Mr. Beed remembers that in two or three dry spells the water in the race was so low that the mill was compelled to suspend operations.

Hansberry was a Campbellite preacher and was away preaching much of the time, leaving matters at home in the hands of hired help who were not always honest or faithful, and his venture was never a paying one. Mr. Beed thinks that a relative of Mr. Hansberry, John McDonald, of Marietta, Ohio, furnished what funds were put into the venture, and in 1861, Mr. McDonald came on from Ohio and took possession of the property, employing a man named Albright as manager of the mill. But he made no material improvements in the property, and November 16, 1864, he sold the mill, including 134 acres of land and the right of way occupied by the race, to Mr. Beed for $6,500. Mr. Beed immediately commenced improving and add

ing to the property, and kept adding to it the latest improved fixtures and appliances so that it kept up with the times.

The only store ever at the mill was when a few goods were kept in the little building, yet standing on the north side of the road just west of the mill, now filled with discarded and worn out mill grindings, where the late Nial McDonald occupied it as a dwelling during a year or so of the time that his brother, John McDonald, owned the property. The stock consisted of a few groceries and the whole outfit could be packed into a peddler's wagon, and in fact we believe that Nial McDonald did run such a wagon. At all events, the place never cut any figure as a store, and the stock, such as it was, was closed out a year or two before Mr. Beed bought the property.

Mr. Beed entered the mercantile business in Hampton in 1859, buying out a Mr. Keyes, who was a partner with James Thompson, and after remaining in partnership with Mr. Thompson about two years, bought him out in 1861 and continued to trade in Hampton for many years, as many of the people will remember.

During the years when wheat was the main crop in this portion of the state and custom work was being done, the mill made money, but Mr. Beed expended all its earnings, and probably more, in improving the property. It is not called to mind how many times the dam was washed out, and if there was ever any improved mill appliances or mill fixtures to be had, Mr. Beed put them into the mill. Besides, he put forty years of the hardest kind of work into it, and for years it has been a common saying that William G. Beed gave more hours to his business than any man in Hampton.

It goes without saying that after the decline of wheat raising in this country, the mill worked against great odds. For the bulk of the wheat was shipped here from other states and not only that but was hauled by teams from the depot to the mill, a distance of three miles, and the flour or feed from the mill back to the depot or to Hampton. Even with this disadvantage, Mr. Beed thought that the mill could be operated without serious loss if it could only have the patronage of the home market. But other cheaper brands of flour in which there was greater profit, were extensively handled by local dealers, so that the local product had no advantage in the local market.

Mr. Beed believed that wheat sufficient for home consumption at least, could be successfully raised in Franklin county. In the spring of 1904 he sent to South Dakota and got a carload of seed, which he

sold to farmers at cost, but he only disposed of a little over a third of the carload but those who did sow of the seed got a better quality of wheat than was raised in Dakota where the seed came from.

This mill was always an important factor in the growth and development of Hampton and Franklin county. Before the advent of the first railroad, it afforded a home market for wheat, then the principal product here. Later its custom work for the farmers of all this vicinity was a great convenience. It was always a regulator of the home flour market and was an insurmountable obstacle to combinations in the price of that staple, or to extortion of extravagant prices. It employed more labor and paid out more for wages than any other interest ever in Franklin county, save and except the railroads. It always supported from three to five families and the aggregate of Mr. Beed's payroll during the forty or more years of the mill's activity here would capitalize several national banks.

This old landmark has been for some years past out of commission. The building is, however, pointed out to the stranger as one of the historic objects of Franklin county and is looked upon with interest by all who secure even a moiety of its history.

beed's lake

The people of Franklin county have a resort at Beed's lake, about four miles northwest of Hampton, and here in the summer months gather picnic, fishing and boating parties, where the days are spent in the open and under the spreading limbs and foliage of a beautiful grove of trees. This body of water was secured by building a retaining wall at one end of a depression of a tract of land and confining the water from Spring creek, which flows into it. This gives a body of water covering about sixty acres. A number of boats belonging to frequenters of the lake float upon its surface and in the grove have been placed a toboggan slide and other apparatus to amuse the visitor. The owner has always been very generous in giving visitors free access to the grounds and lake, which each season have been under the supervision of a caretaker, whose services have been paid by private subscription. Beed's lake is the only one in the county and is valued exceedingly by lovers of boating and other outdoor sports.