CROSBY'S SAW, GRIST, CARDING, and SHINGLE MILLS

As noted in Chapter I, the Crosby family acquired the property that was to be the site of the mills in 1837. By 1843 they had a sawmill on the east bank of the river and a corn or grist mill on the western bank (21).

The 1863 Lake map shows a saw and grist mill on the west bank and a carding mill on the east (6). Whether the sawmill had moved or the map was incorrect is unknown, but the 1864 directory confirms the existence of the three mills and that the proprietor was Andrew Crosby. Benjamin Farrow was noted as working in a saw mill, as was John Sentener in a flour mill. Did they work for Andrew? (7). Andrew was noted in the 1870, 1871, 1880 directories (9,10,12). In the 1889 directory Cyrus Crosby and Andrew are described as mill owners and in 1900 Cyrus was noted as having a shingle and carding mill. Heath E. Crosby was also mentioned under mills but no description of the type was listed (22,23).

The 1904 and 1909 directories list the Crosbys as farmers but, as can be seen from the information below, the mills were doing well (24,25). In April 1901 the Guardian noted the Crosby brothers are doing 'a rushng business' in their grist and sawmills (26). In January 1907 the Examiner noted that the Crosby Bros. were having new roller mills installed in the large and commodious building erected for the purpose a few months previously. They were expected to have the roller process in operation in the course of a few weeks so that they could handle the increase in the number of patrons (27).

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Crosby's sawmill courtesy of Lynn Crosby

In the 1914/15 directory Ernest Crosby was noted as operating the sawmill and Heath the grist mill. In 1924/25 Heath is still listed as having the grist mill, but the sawmill is back in Cyrus's name (28,29).

In the 1929/30 directory Elmer and Heath were listed as millers and in 1950 Everett was listed as having both the saw and grist mills (30,31).

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