As a child, it was always a big mystery to me. We were never allowed to cross the creek to explore it. The structure was too old and in disrepair. I love being able to walk inside and all around it and wonder how my great-grandparents were able to keep it going as long as they did!
The following article comes straight from Haywood County News, by Edie Burnette.
If these walls could talk, they would tell of a historic gristmill brought back to life
This diary belongs to Francis Grist Mill, U.S. 276, just outside Waynesville:
1976–2004: Getting old is not for sissies. My joints creak, the waterwheel won’t turn and part of a wall has fallen down. My gears are probably frozen in place. I long for the days when I was useful, grinding corn and wheat to keep my people fed.
2004: Who are these people looking at me, making notes? One fellow said he was with the Heritage Conservation Network in Boulder, Colorado. New beam and posts? Siding? Unstable? I could have told them that and more.
JULY, 2004: They are back with more people and some of them look familiar. One man lives just up the road and little Tanna (Tiimbes) who swept my floor is all grown up. Why do they have all those tools and equipment? I hope they aren’t here to pull my gear teeth!
JULY, 2004: It has been a busy two weeks since HCN began this workshop. I am stable again! A new sill beam rests where the old one was rotting away and five new posts have replaced the old ones. These people have spent hours cutting and chiseling mortises and tenons. That huge machine called a crane had to lift the 26’ sill beam and get it in place! Nineteen volunteers from nine states and Sweden spent 1,800 hours beginning my restoration, not including some 40 others who brought food, drinks, and manpower.
JULY 2005: They are back for another two-week workshop! Some of them are earning college credit for putting me back together. I wonder if they know that some of the folks around here, volunteers with Francis Mill Preservation Society, have been spending hours working on my facelift?
These good people repaired the support beams under my heavy millstones, put more new posts on my east wall, repaired joist ends, installed new floor joists and new floor planks for the machine room floor, and were so careful that the new was like the old. The siding and battens on my south side were reinstalled and I have new siding on the east wall. Before they left, they restored some of my fascia and eave molding. This year the 16 volunteers included four returnees from Ohio, Michigan, Florida and Texas, along with students from Michigan, Georgia and North Carolina. Add to that an additional 35 who came with food and power equipment.
JULY 2006: Repairs to my structure are finished and I am now stable, completely enclosed and watertight. Bridge timber that supports my heavy millstones has been repaired, the siding on my front wall has been replaced, and they are beginning to reconstruct the flume that collapsed in 1980 under a heavy snow. Flume tower foundations have been excavated and poured and five are completed. Volunteers will finish the flume. Eighteen mill volunteers were here, three returning for the third year. Others were from Florida, Michigan and Texas and North Carolina. Again, 35 other volunteers ran errands, fed everyone, and brought needed materials.
JUNE 22, 23, 24, 2007: My new steel waterwheel has been installed by nine FMPS volunteers and a crew from the Water Wheel Factory in Franklin.
Luckily, I still have much of my original equipment, such as stones, overhead belts and pulleys, wooden gears and a variety of grinders. With new belts, it all still works with the help of John Lovett, a millwright hired to get everything in working order.
JULY 2007: The flume box has been installed and it is handsome. Volunteers from FMPS, Raven Road Builders and Plemmons Plumbing have refurbished the milldam and connected the wooden flume to the pond with an underground pipe.
SEPT. 22, 2007: The waterwheel turned during the 2nd Annual Music at the Mill!
APRIL 26, 2008: I ground 150 pounds of corn meal! I feel like my old self again – ready to work! I surely have a long list of thank you notes to write, including those who financed my return to good health - Steele Reese Foundation, Society for Preservation of Old Mills, Terrence Mills Preservation Fund, James McClure Clark Foundation, Janirve Foundation, Mast General Store, Society for Industrial Archaeology and Haywood County Community Foundation. This has truly been a community project!
This is the opinion of Edie Burnette, who writes a weekly features column for the Haywood County News. She can be reached at ediehb58@bellsouth.net
The wheel turning for the first time!
