What's Our Town History? - Kirby's Mill Edition

7 years ago

In about 1773 there was a petition made to the General Assembly, this was to request access to build a dam that could power a sawmill and a gristmill(a machine that grinds grain into flour). The Mill was made completely operational by the year 1778.

The house that resides across from the mill is often referred to as the “Miller’s House. It was originally built by Nehemiah Haines about ten years after the mill was constructed. His son later inherited it in 1830 and redesigned the mill from a one-story to a three-story complex. Around the same time a blacksmith and barn were also built.

Custody of the mill then went to William S. Kirby in the late 1800s, who is the eponym of this little area. It was then time for the mill to undergo more renovations. A fourth floor was added to the mill. The water wheel, which is often seen with old fashioned mills, was also removed and replaced by more efficient water turbines.

It was the most productive during Kirby’s ownership. People depended on this mill. It outputted logs, wheat flour, buckwheat, rye flour, cornmeal and chicken feed. These products weren’t even just sold locally either. Logs were sometimes bought and shipped to Philadelphia. And the need for flour went all the way up and down the east coast.

Although, as time went on there was a lot less timber to go around, so this led to the shutdown of the sawmill. Meanwhile flour stopped being made from the gristmill in the 1920s, but livestock feed kept being produced. The blacksmith and wheelwright shops also took hits during this time and were shutdown due to the automobiles coming out.

The gristmill was eventually converted to electricity in 1961 because there was little water and there were also mechanical issues. It was partially operational until 1969 when the Medford Historical Society had purchased the property from the Kirby Brothers. It has since been restored and converted to a museum.