Beck's Mill - History

History

The site of the mill was originally an Indian burial ground, with the Shawnee and Delaware tribes living nearby. The Indians were presumably displeased when the first white man on the land, George Beck arrived from North Carolina with his sons to the Indiana Territory in 1807, after brief stops in Kentucky. Once establishing a place to live near the future site of his mill and building a primitive shelter, he retrieved the rest of his family, who were living near Louisville, Kentucky, a few months later.

While exploring his property, Beck saw a waterfall coming out of a cave while hunting on the property. He quickly decided it would be a perfect place for a mill. This waterfall, which is actually a spring, is the second largest spring in Indiana. The cave is a mile-long, and provides water throughout the year. The first mill was built in 1808, and was 11 ft x 11 ft stone and log structure. Beck built a small dam uphill west of the mill, which through gravity would create a low head of pressure for water to go through wooden troughs to turn the mill wheel, which was overshot. Some of the stones used for mill were buhr, and were brought to the site from Louisville. A second mill, built in 1825, was a frame building considerably larger than the first mill, which it replaced. A carding machine was added in 1828.

The current mill was the third one on the property, and was the first to have two stories and furniture manufacturing. The mill in its most active years (1864-1890) ran 24 hours a day, using a turbine/waterwheel combination to turn the grindstones. Families would sometimes wait three days for their corn to be milled at Beck's, forcing a settlement by the mill. Eventually, the modern roller mills far surpassed the capability of gristmills, and urbanization made rural mills difficult to transport to in comparison, causing Beck's Mill to stop operating in 1914. In 1963 a tornado touched down on the property, killing two people.

Of the 65 mills that operated in Washington County, it is the only one still standing, and less than 20 still stand in Indiana. However, it was placed on Indiana's 10 Most Endangered List due to water damage and trespassers, some of whom vandalized the mill. Descendants of the original owners owned the mill and the surrounding area until November 2005, when the sixth generation became willing to sell.