In Her Own Words, The Old Mill

 

How grateful are we when we can find first hand accounts of events/life written by our ancestors!  Recently, while visiting a third cousin, she shared with me a handwritten account written by her great grandmother of the Old Mill in Peconic, Long Island, New York.   Unfortunately, I don’t have the date that Ella Terry Billard, the daughter of the Miller, Gilbert T. Terry wrote this account.  Gilbert, my paternal great great grandfather, held the position of the Miller from about 1864-1898.  Ella, born in 1873 and married in 1894, had a firsthand view of the happenings at the Old Mill. I am thinking Ella perhaps wrote this for someone who was going to be writing an article on the Old Mill.  Over the years much has been written about the Old Mill.

click on images to enlarge

As I transcribed this to post I debated with the best way to tell Ella’s story.  As a genealogist, I always want to know more about the subject.  I wondered, would I be able to find newspaper accounts about the events Ella told us about?  Are there pictures that would make the story more interesting?  If I can find articles, can I learn anything new from these additional accounts?

There were many interesting articles and pictures to be found.  I opted to supplement Ella’s account with the additional information I have found.  While this will make for a longer story, I believe the value of the additional information helps give a much clearer account of the story of the Old Mill over the years. 

Here is Ella’s account in her own words:

Transcription:

“The old mill at Goldsmith inlet in Peconic was built sorely as a tide-mill in 1839 with money raised in five dollar shares among the neighbors who felt the necessity for a grist mill in the vicinity.  The heavy round stones to grind the grain was brought to Greenport in sailing vessel and moved from there in two farm wagons in September that year to where the mill was under construction.  The power of the outgoing tide to the [Long Island] sound from the [Goldsmith] Inlet had been tested by a temporary bridge and gates and found satisfactory to run an under-shot or wheel.  The farmers also carted the rock for the water wall which confined the channel to keep it open for a free run of the rising and falling tides.

The following information from an article entitled He Knew Peconic Mill published in the Long Island Forum September 1954 helped me understand the workings of this type of mill:

“In these tide-water-mills the rising tide swept into the rock-walled channel through the open gates.  As the tide-water retreated the gates would close, storing the water in the creek for use when it flowed out, turning the big water wheel.”

The heavy winds in winter would blow sand into the mouth of the channel completely closing it for so long sometimes that the men of the village would gather there with spade and shovel to dig an opening for the tides so the mill could operate.  The first miller was John [Ellsworth] Appleby who only ground when sufficient grist had accumulated to make it worthwhile for in those days there was not enough to keep the miller busy all the time.  After Mr. A[ppleby]-came Mr. [Richard]Cox, [Gabriel] Bennett and Smith, the last an Englishman who bought in all the shares and owned it himself.  He afterwards sold it to Mr. Walter Terry and his several sons from Middle Island and Mattituck who were all practical millers.  After running it a number of years he turned it over to his son Gilbert [Terry]

who conducted it for thirty-four years.  He widened the channel and extended and enlarged the sea walls-or piers-by vessel loads of rock from Connecticut.  As the tide would only perform during the fall of the tide from the Inlet about ten hours a day at the most and when there was a long spell of “low tides” or winter freeze the grist [grain] would pile high.  So he decided in 1870 to make use of the terrific winds and erected a new part to the mill building on top of which was a tower and a forty-foot across wind wheel, the largest of its kind at that time in the U.S.A.

photo found in A Rose of the Nineties by Rosalind Case Newell

After that on numerous occasions Mr. Terry ground over two-hundred bushels, often a bu[shel] a minute-which required some very quick work by the miller and his helper to keep the hopper up-stairs filled with grain and the bags filled with the ground feed unloaded from the spout below.  Mr. Terry built a shed on the northwest corner of the mill large enough to shelter 2 teams of farm horses if desired by the mill patrons and that on the night of Dec. 28, 1866 during a wind and snow storm of tremendous violence the like of which Mr. Terry says he has never seen since the Steamer Commodore of the New York and Stonington Line

came ashore off the Inlet-Off Faulkners Island the rudder having come out of the water-the boat broached to and getting into the trough of the sea soon rolled the smoke-stack out.  Being helpless and in a northwest wind it drifted toward the Long Island shore and then over an anchor and being immediately over a rock when it pounded until day light-being so badly torn that the water entered faster than it could be pumped out.  Some of the crew getting possession of the liquors at the bar became drunk and mutinied and when the anchor had been cast off and the steamer drifted toward ashore they seized the only boat left on board and attaching a line there to drifted toward ashore.  Early that morning Mr. Henry Squires observed on the beach several barrels of light freight, part of the deck-board of the Commodore not seeing the steamer he went home and got his team and wagon, returning he observed the row boat and looking off saw the steamer.  Hitching the boat rope to the rear axel of his wagon he pulled the boat along to abreast the steamer and the passengers were landed followed by the officers, one hundred and sixty in all were saved.  Mr. Terry’s house being the nearest it was filled to over flowing with half frozen men, women and children many of whom were immigrants.  By nine o’clock in the morning a two-horse wagon load of life preservers were piled up on his premises after serving their purpose.  A great part of the freight strewn on the shore for several miles was saved by the prompt action of the wreck master who arrived on the scene from his home in Mattituck at an early hour.  Much however was broken up and stolen.  The boilers and walking beam of the steamer could be seen near the shore for many many years. 

The Corrector, 5 January 1867, page 2

The wind mill weathered the 1888 Blizzard but collapsed under the weight of heavy wet snow and a terrific wind storm of Nov. 28, 1898. 

                   This article helped me understand the severity of the 1888 storm in the area:

16 March 1888   The Long Island Traveler, page 2

2 Dec 1898  The Long Island Traveler page 3

Numerous other wrecks have occurred in the vicinity-notably the coal barges that came ashore during the great storm that wrecked the famous wind mill of Mr. Terry on Nov. 26, 1898. The McCauley directly back of the old mill near the mouth of the Inlet,

photo found in A Rose of the Nineties by Rosalind Case Newell

the Neversink and Escort

 

on the other parts of the Sound Shore.  The McCauley was eventually worked off the beach costing more than it was worth to accomplish it.  Mr. Terry retired from milling and moved to Orient to become a gardener for a sister of his who owned a large farm there.  A Mr. Horsfall from ?  owned the mill later but owing to its wrecked condition

photo found in A Rose of the Nineties by Rosalind Case Newell

and lack of business, farmers were raising less and less grain and every store keeper was buying and selling grain flour and feed shipped all over the country from the big steam mills.  Mr. H. soon retired too and the old mill was left to the souvenir hunters and other tackers until the owners decided take down remains and the timbers, great beams, wheels and irons was converted into other uses.”

Final thoughts:

• Luckily, Ella’s great granddaughter is very familiar with her handwriting and was able to verify this was written by Ella.  I believe the writing on the last page were thoughts Ella intended to add in to her writing.  Dear Great Aunt Ella, I tried to insert them where I thought appropriate and hope you’d approve.
• Always search for newspaper accounts of important events that your ancestors may have been involved in.  When transcribing handwritten accounts, written by our ancestors, there are frequently unreadable words/phrases. Having additional accounts such as a newspaper account may help you figure out those unreadable sections.
• Interesting and unexpected to find information about the wreck of the Macauley on a Civil War site.
• Using census records can be helpful in verifying information and can help you understand the spelling of a name.  I found a Mr. Isaac Horsfall from England listed on the 1900 census as a Miller living in the area with his wife Fannie.
• Getting started and asking questions can bring about amazing finds when one thing leads to another and then another.  In my experience a lot of people have things (handwritten accounts, photos, books, postcards, etc.) they may not realize they have or how important they are until you start asking questions.
• By adding the newspaper articles, photos/postcards, and a poem the story Ella wrote becomes so much more meaningful.  Now it’s more than just the written words on a page.
• My cousin also had a small book entitled The Old Tide-Mill On The Sound by Daniel H. Overton. Daniel wrote a poem about the Old Mill.  I thought it appropriate to end with one of the stanzas from his poem:

Time’s tides flow on resistlessly

And bear old forms away;

New tides, new methods, and new truths

Grind greater grists to-day.

 

I am so very thankful to Ella for being the keeper of so much family history and accounts such as this one!

Photos of Ella-possibly while her father was the Miller

If you have any corrections or additions or stories to share, I look forward to hearing them.

Enjoy the journey,

Debby

Reviewing my post entitled Labor Day-They Were Millers published 5 September 2016 I see how much additional knowledge I now have.