Where There's a Mill{s} There's a Way! * I Recently Added about the NJ Isaac Edge's Windmill that Came to Southold!
By Danny McCarthy
If you aren't aware: I've been to Sylvester Manor and taken trips to Sag Harbor via ferries. Shelter Island, Shelter Island Heights & Dering Harbor are beautifully sensational, and I feel that being that Shelter island is its own TOWNSHIP and has been since 1730, that Shelter Island residents would truly appreciate "learning" about the North Fork that is across the way, especially from someone who captures its history in a truly honest, truly researched, and being written in a different manner. I am proud to highlight BOTH TOWNSHIPS "write here!"
The Old Red Mill that was formerly in Southold on the Peconic River now rests on the Sylvester Manor property on Shelter Island. I learned from Hallock Park Preserve rep Kevin Kelly that was going to be an event at the Hallock State Park Preserve Sunday, January 13 {2019!} regarding "Mills, Machines and a Mine - 300 years of Industry Along the Peconic River" hosted by George Bartunik, a member of the New York State Park Commission for Long Island and former Riverhead Town Board member, who will give the presentation on the early industry that developed along the Peconic River. I also came across the Sylvester Manor website carrying information about that Mill.
Dr. J. G. Huntting stated that the Old Red Mill at the mouth of Jockey Creek “towered above every other mill in the County.” The mill departed from the beaten track of windmill architecture. This mill was tall and slender while other mills were comparatively short and stocky. It was octagonal in shape and several stories high. It had a rotating dome that carried the arms that turned the shaft that revolved the stones that ground the wheat that made the bread that was buttered by a majority of the people of the countryside. Dr. Huntting went on to say, “When the great arms spun round, they made a swishing, whirring sound that was heard not only in the immediate vicinity of the ‘run’ but well up the Bowery Lane and on to the Hog Neck Road.”?
Dick Albertson is remembered in Dr. Huntting’s Old Red Mill article as being the one who ran the mill, “or the mill was running him.” Mr. Albertson could defy the competition of the water mill at Peconic. When the giant plants in Minnesota began to put out flour of a superior quality and at a moderate price, Mr. Albertson quit. While he was proprietor of the mill, he kept a small catboat that was moored at the head of the creek. “When the sound of the grinding was low,” he and Dr. Huntting would take the boat and sail across the bay to the fishing grounds under the green hills of Shelter Island. Dr. Huntting recalls: “And such fishing!”?
???The Old Red Mill was bought for $200 in 1840 by Joseph Congdon of Shelter Island and transported across Peconic Bay in pieces by an ox team and barge. Between 1840 and 1841, the ancient Dutch windmill was re-assembled and ready for operation in the latter year. Many owners from 1841 to 1879 used it as a mill. For nearly 40 years, the mill stood still. The mill began to grind again during World War I under the ownership of Miss Cornelia Horsford. Shortly after the War, it stopped being used for the last time. The windmill was purchased in 1926 by Sylvester Fiske and moved from its location near the center of town to his estate, Sylvester Manor, in Shelter Island, where it remains today.
Southold High School 1908 class member Rosalind Case Newell wrote a very moving history of he Peconic Mill.?
?????????The production of bread was considered years ago. Mixing flour with water or milk and then baking makes bread. People have made crude flour for centuries by grinding grain. The Europeans used windmills to power flour mills. The North Fork settlers used the concept. Abundant forests gave timber for water mills and windmills that ground grain and sawed lumber thus fulfilling the basic needs of food and shelter. The windmill owner had to face the threat of gale-force winds or the occasional calm causing the mill to shut down.
???According to Carol Levine in?Windmills of Eastern Long Island, a windmill works just like a water mill except that wind and not water is the source of power. Wind turns the shaft that engages the gears and rotates the millstones that grind the grain.
???The Great Western Mill dominated all directions from its location on Pine Neck in Southold. According to Clarence Ashton Wood in a January 1955?Long Island Forum?article, the Great Western Mill stones were originally brought from England to Brooklyn and the mill was actually erected in Brooklyn Heights. It was relocated to Jersey City. In 1839, Hampton Young, Ira Corwin, George W. Phillips and Giles Wells of Southold bought the mill and had it removed from New Jersey to Eastern Long Island where it was transported in sections through Long Island Sound to Southold Harbor. The mill was taken down in hunks with its large pieces being thrown overboard and towed ashore. According to the article, some parts of the mill were brought up Jockey Creek but most were carted up Pine Neck Road.
???The Great Western Mill was set up on the George W. Phillips lot a short distance east of Mill Hill (now known as Willow Hill). The sails on the Great Western Mill were made of iron. were also attached. Another feature was a machine for hoisting grain and returning flour. The article goes on to say that at one time while the machinery for turning the dome was disconnected for repairs, a strong wind came up and whirled the arms until one of them broke and the iron sails were badly damaged. Canvas sails were used thereafter. Hampton Young ran the mill for many years, later it was run by Phillips. There were various owners over the years.
???A building was attached to the north side of the mill in 1846 and William Snediker of Hempstead installed a steam engine. The engine was soon abandoned as it was said to have consumed all the toll collected by the miller. The building that housed the engine was bought by a group of local Presbyterians and removed to the property of Deacon Cleveland near the corner of Main Street and Oaklawn Avenue. The Presbyterian Church bought the building the following year and it was maintained as a prayer room and lecture hall. Renowned Southold music teacher David Philander Horton taught his first singing classes there. In 1871, the building was sold to Hezekiah Jennings who moved it to his premises on Feather Hill where it served as Southold’s first meat market. Simeon Benjamin Horton conducted the business. The market was later converted into a cottage for summer boarders.
???As to the fate of the Great Western Mill, on Saturday morning, June 25, 1870, the mill caught fire and was soon completely destroyed. The fire supposedly originated from friction from the machinery.
???John and Jeremiah Vail built a windmill on Orient’s South Beach some time after 1700 according to Steve Burt in a June 1, 1989?Peconic Bay Shopper?article. The Vail mill stood halfway between Jonathan Truman’s and Orient Creek and remained there until 1760 when it was dismantled. Amon Taber built the second Orient mill for Noah Tuthill just west of the Orient Old Wharf. It was taken down around 1810. A third 40-ton Orient mill remained until 1898 when it was moved by barge to Glen Island at the head of Long Island Sound. It was reconstructed to provide resort-goers entertainment.
???Mattituck-Laurel Historical Society{former}?President Norman Wamback provided information to Dr. Merlon E. Wiggin for his February 2004?Peconic Bay Shopper?article on Southold’s Grist Mills. Richard Cox of Oyster Bay built the Mattituck tidal grist mill in 1821. He ran it for many years. It lay on the west side of Mattituck Creek. He sold it in 1847 to retired sea captain Joshua W. Terry. In 1902, Yetter & Moore of Riverhead operated the mill before it was converted, a short time later into an eating and drinking establishment {The Old Mill Restaurant}.
* NEWS * According to the JANUARY 20, 2022 SUFFOLKTIMES.COM listing of BRIANNE LEDDA's article titled "Renovation variance OK'd for Old Mill Town ZBA emphasizes historic significance of former restaurant, mill on Mattituck Creek" it is stated "The town Zoning Board of Appeals granted conditional variance relief to the owner of the former Old Mill Inn restaurant site in Mattituck, calling the property 'perhaps the most constrained parcel in the Town of Southold.'"... BROOKLYN FOLK strike here yet again: "Real estate records show that Mr. Martignetti's company, North Fork Project LLC, purchased the parcel for $620,000 in April 2019." -?
The Peconic or Goldsmith Inlet Grist Mill plans commenced in 1836. Construction was started in 1839 and completed in 1840. Some of the materials used included stones, boards, bricks, as well as a day’s work. Some time in 1842 additional work was done on the mill. Evidently, the mill was a good investment for the shareholders. The first Goldsmith Inlet Grist Mill miller was a Cox and about 1870, a Terry was the miller. It was reported that he put on an addition to the building since he could not keep up with the great demand for grinding grain. Now that there was the addition, it was rumored that the mill ground a bushel of grain in one minute. Horse-drawn wagons delivered the grain from local farms. Shallow schooners that sailed across Long Island Sound from Connecticut also carried grain to be delivered to the mill. It is unfortunate to report that on Thanksgiving Day 1898 during a gale, the windwheel was destroyed and it was not considered worthwhile to put up another. In 1906 what remained of the mill was torn down.
Here is a link carrying the Fall 2014 Southold Historical Society Newsletter - * NOW SOUTHOLD HISTORICAL MUSEUM. If you download the link - scroll down for my?From the Archives?column about the?Goldsmith's Inlet: https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/f19472_de0015bf05d04054a23bcb7b1069af73.pdf
???PICTURE THE THOUGHT{s} ~ I had merely browsed through materials relating to MILLS locating an undated document being adjoined with a caption. The description read: "New Jersey Bell Telephone Company Tel-News clipping re Jersey City landmark of a mill {ISAAC?EDGE's WINDMILL}??that was moved to Southold."?
... The included clipping attachment reads as follows ...
"Isaac Edge's Windmill
Our front cover shows an ancient Jersey City landmark, built by Isaac Edge who settled in Paulus Hook in 1806. It stood on the shore of the Hudson just north of what is now the corner of Montgomery and Greene streets. The mill stones and machinery were brought from England. About 1839 a railroad bought the property and the mill was taken down and moved by ship and move to Southhold {stet}, Long Island, and rebuilt. It operated until it burned down in 1870. Old mill records tell of flour selling in 1812 up to $18 a barrel."?
???The only other place in America other than Long Island where old windmills are located is Cape Cod. Long Island’s collection of these huge wooden wind machines is better preserved and more accessible.