4. About the Mills

Chapter 4: About the Mills

What we know about the mills has been pieced together from many sources, including census and property records, knowledge of other 19th-century milling activity and eye-witness accounts.

While there is no trace of the former mills today, the remains of the earthen dam are still visible just upstream from the Mill Street bridge. In the spring, you can see where the old tailrace (or canal) passes under the roadway.

Based on these observations and the map of 1885 showing where the millrace and dam were located, we can estimate the approximate location of the mills.

Long-time resident and artist Jonas Robinson (1901-1988) remembered what the remains of the old sawmill looked liked. His father worked at the mills in the 1870s. In 1985, I asked Jonas to draw me a picture of the mills. The sketch shows a long, low building, butted up against the dam, with a saw blade in the middle, to allow for logs to pass through from one end to the other.

Based on Jonas’ drawing, along with further research and visits to Upper Canada Village to examine other mills, I created a pen and ink sketch (below) for inclusion in the 1985 Bishop’s Mills Souvenir History published at that time.

In 2006, I worked with my son, Christo, then 13, to create a 3D scale model of the mills. Using the measurements from the 1885 map, and the research information we had gathered on sawmills and gristmills, we created a portable, table-top diorama using model railroad trees, water and building materials to create a realistic look.

In the photo (see page 20), the scale model has been superimposed on a background to represent the vast millpond held back by the dam. The millrace (canal) that powers the gristmill on the left flows behind it and under the road. It returns to the creek downstream from the bridge.

1885 map of the Village (modified detail) showing location of the miller’s stone house, plus estimated locations of sawmill and gristmill. The shingle mill would have operated within the sawmill building.

How Things Worked

The Water Wheel

The Bishop brothers calculated that this location on the creek would provide them with the waterpower necessary to run their business and start a community. Depending on the time of year, the earthen dam only provided about 6 feet of head – or height – of water to power their mills. This was not uncommon in eastern Ontario where the landscape is relatively flat.

Because of the small head of water available, the Bishops likely used what is called a breast water wheel – where the water strikes partway up the wheel. Not quite as powerful as an overshot wheel, but providing more power than an undershot wheel.

According to Bruce Henbest, lead sawyer at Upper Canada Village, “Most mills in eastern Ontario used a variation on this kind of waterpower, and that many of the 19th-century sawmills would appear very similar.” (Ed. Note: the sawmill at Upper Canada Village came from just west of Heckston, in North Grenville, about 10 miles from Bishop’s Mills. It was known as Beach’s Mill.)

A ‘Breast’ Wheel allow the mill to operate with lower volume of water.

Simple technology was used to transfer the energy from the water wheel to the up-and-down motion of the saw – while moving the log forward through the blade.

The sawyer guided the log being sawn, while the blade moved up and down, sawing off one board at a time.

The Sawmill

Most 19th-century water-powered sawmills consisted of a straight saw blade strung tight in a rectangular wooden frame, called a sash or gate. The saw sash is connected to a water wheel below it through a crank and by a wooden sweep or pitman arm. The latter takes its name from the person who – before sawmills made them obsolete – stood in a pit below a log and pulled the saw through the wood by hand.

The turning motion of the water wheel is converted to the up-and-down motion of the saw by the eccentric crank. Some power from

the saw sash is used to turn a large gear, called a rag wheel. This in turn moves the carriage which the log rests on, pulling the log through the saw. The saw cuts into the log on its down stroke, and the log moves forward again on the up stroke. After one board is sawed, the log carriage is run back to the other end of the mill, the log moved over, and another board cut. This process is repeated until the whole log has been sawn into lumber.

In times of low water, there would still be enough head to power shingle-making equipment. A sawn shingle, made of abundant local cedar, would last up to 20 years.

Working at the Mills, c.1870s

Back in the day, everyone had a job. Local resident Osborne Dool (1926-2014) remembered hearing stories about his grandfather’s brother, Frank Dool, working at the mills as a boy. His job? “Piling shingles and shooting rats.” With the men working in the sawmill turning out shingles, and the gristmill grinding out sacks of flour, there would always be a place for a young boy to do the smaller – but important – jobs.

Village boys would often be able to help at the Mills.

The Gristmill

A gristmill is a mill that grinds grain. Farmers would bring their grain to the Bishop mill, where the grain would be emptied into compartments. There, shaft-driven rollers or millstones, would rotate against each other and crush the grain into finer particles. The customer paid a toll, or fraction of the grain he brought to the mill, in exchange for having his corn, rye, or wheat ground into meal. The final product, meal or flour, was used as feed for various farmyard animals or for household baking.

Grain was piled into hoppers at the top end of the operation. Wooden chutes directed the grain between the millstones.

As the grain was ground, the flour or meal was bagged for sale back to the customer.

The Beginning of the End

According to census and atlas data1, in 1862 Chauncey’s occupation was listed as “Grist and Shingle Mill Owner”. His brother Ira’s son, Stephen L. Bishop (1825-1896), was listed as being a “Shingle Manufacturer”.2 The area was thriving – land had been cleared, homes and barns built. Most of the heavy sawing had been done, and the mills were kept alive by the gristmill and shingle business.

But the age of waterpower was coming to an end. Modern, steam-powered sawmills were appearing. In 1877, Chauncey died following a back injury from a fall. When Ira died a few years later in 1883, his son Stephen sold the mill and machinery.

In May of 1885 the spring rains had swelled the millpond to capacity. With no one keeping up the maintenance on the dam, it was only a matter of time before something gave way.

On Tuesday, May 12, 1885, the earthen dam broke releasing the water in the millpond: approximately 12 acres of water, six feet deep. Three million cubic feet of water gushed through the breach in the dam, scouring rock and shrubs from the creek bed below the dam. An unstoppable wall of water crashed into the bridge supports, shearing them from their moorings, collapsing the bridge and sweeping it downstream.

A boy named Charles L. Dool, son of Thomas and Eliza Dool, was killed. He was 14 years, 9 months, 6 days young.3

The bridge was replaced. The mill buildings fell into ruin. One day, in 1913 the county road crews were looking to raise up the roadbed leading to the bridge. They needed stone to make gravel, so they poured kerosene over the mill ruins and set fire to them. When the rotted timbers had burned away, all that was left were the mill foundations. The men then hauled the foundation stones to the roadway and fed them to their steam-powered gravel crusher.

1 The Canadian County Atlas Project, https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/aboutatlases.html 2 Ibid. 3 Bishop’s Mills Cemetery Records

Jonas Robinson was 12 at the time. He would never forget that day. “I was there – on the bridge, watching,” he recalled.

Today there is no trace of the mills.

Remembering the Mills

In 2010, as part of the 170th anniversary of the Village, a plaque was erected to commemorate the efforts of early pioneers such as the Bishops and the Dools.

David Bishop, from Richmond Hill, and great-great-grandson of Chauncey, attended the event, and spoke of the dedication of the pioneer families and the resilience of the community.

In 2010, a plaque commemorating early Bishop pioneers was erected overlooking the site of the former dam and mills on the Middle Creek.

Sketch of the Bishop’s Mills Cheese Factory as it might have appeared in the early 1920s – based on research and later photos.