The Mill at Edinburg Virginia

It's time for me to continue the narrative and photos related to our fall 2024 road trip.  My fingers are now mostly healed following surgery so, if I pace myself, I can return to posting on my blogsite...

After our overnight stop in Woodstock Virginia, we headed out for a day of exploration.  We avoided Interstate I-81, instead following US Hwy 11 south to Edinburg Virginia. 

We had a full day planned and the town of Edinburg itself wasn't one of our goals.  However, when we spotted the historic Edinburg Mill along US Hwy 11, we just had to stop and take a look.

The Edinburg Mill was built by Major George Grandstaff in 1848.  It managed to survive the Civil War and operated continuously until 1979 when it was converted into a restaurant.  That restaurant closed in 1998.  The town of Edinburg and the Edinburg Heritage Foundation purchased the mill in 2000.

The mill now serves as a visitors center and as the "Museum at the Edinburg Mill".  The museum tells the story of the mill, the town, the Valley Pike, the Shenandoah River and the railroad.  A theater at the mill features a film entitled "The Burning", an effort to weaken Confederate forces in the valley.  The Foundation also operates a gift shop at the mill and a restaurant is back in business as well.

"The Burning" refers to Union General Sheridan's campaign of devastation in Shenandoah County and 3 adjacent counties.  Edinburg is located in Shenandoah County.  There were 13 continuous days of burning of property and confiscation or slaughtering of livestock.  About 1,400 barns and countless other farm structures were destroyed as well as 70 mills, several factories, 3 iron furnaces, warehouses, and numerous railroad structures.  Hundreds of thousands of bushels of crops standing in the fields were destroyed, thousands of hogs were slaughtered and its estimated that over 100,000 heads of cattle and horses were driven off.  The Mill at Edinburg was set on fire but the local women convinced the Union soldiers to save the flour...giving locals time to extinguish the flames

This impressive large home is located right next to the Mill.  Located at 218 South Main Street, this is the Grandstaff Mill House.  This large Queen Anne style frame home was completed in 1850, with additions and changes over the years and completed in the early 1900s.  That Victorian wraparound porch dates back to ca. 1910.  Generally speaking "The Burning" wasn't directed at dwellings although a number of them were accidentally destroyed as the result of other fires.

Now onto the museum that's located in the Edinburg Mill... Beyond the antique glassware, there is a Studebaker Farm Wagon.  Built by the Studebaker brothers in South Bend, one of these wagons cost about $175 in 1876.  Studebaker built their last wagon in 1920 when the company was purchased by the Kentucky Wagon Company.  This particular farm wagon came from a local farm and it spent many years hauling grain to the mill for processing...and then taking feed back to the farm.

This piece of farm equipment is a Wolf's Middling's Purifier. A middling's purifier is a piece of equipment that is used in the production of flour.  It removes the husks from kernels of wheat.  It was first developed in Minnesota.  This particular unit was built in nearby Chambersburg Pennsylvania at the August Wolf and Co. Works.  Augustus Wolf held 70 patents for flour mill machinery.

This cluttered kitchen scene is just packed with necessary, curious and unusual items.  Note the flour bin at the upper left.  You can't see it but the bin has a window and users could measure how much flour then needed to make up their recipes.  There is a healthy display of different corn bread cast iron molds, as well as some early toasters, a number of rolling pins and two old-time lunch buckets at the left on the top shelf.  My favorite is probably the fifth glass container on the shelf above the toasters.  That bulbous container with an embossed elephant head on it, originally contained Jumbo Brand Peanut Butter from  the Frank Tea and Spice Company in Cincinnati Ohio.  I found one of these jars on eBay listed at $40.00.

This device is called a wheat fan.  A hand cranked fan blows the grain and chaff across vibrating screens.  These devices were used by farmers.  The first step would be to separate the wheat from the chaff and the second go round would be to remove the "white caps", leaving only clean wheat.  The farmer would then take the 'clean wheat' to the mill, usually trading 'credits' for a set of amount of flour at a later date.

FYI, a white cap is a kernel or multiple kernels of wheat still attached to the glume or bract and often to a small piece of stem, usually at the tip of a head of wheat.

This is a large selection of what we call strollers nowadays.  Baby buggies, baby carriages and perambulators or prams (British), are other terms for these items.  Many of these old baby buggies, especially the high quality versions, were made in England.  One company that made them was the Marmet Pram Company.  They made high-quality baby carriages/prams from 1912 until it merged with another manufacturer in 1973.

The company re-invented the baby carriage by replacing the traditional iron bar chassis with a sprung tubular steel frame.  This created a lighter, easier to move carriage.  By 1924, production for the US market was so successful that a separate facility in New York was formed.  By 1928, that facility was making over 100 prams or baby buggies every day... Various models are still available today on eBay.

This little item is a Speedo Jar Opener.  Made from cast iron, it was made by the Central States Mfg. Co. in St. Louis Missouri.  This company made a plethora of small kitchen products designed to help the homemaker.  Items included knife sharpeners, can openers, large and small jar openers, jar sealers and a juicer.  Many antique Speedo products can be found for sale on eBay.

This relatively large device is a pre-Civil War grist mill.  This type of grist mill was actually used on the farm in lieu of taking the grain to a large flour mill.  The runner stone (top) grinds the grain against the bed stone (bottom).  The mill can be adjusted to control the coarseness of the product desired, for example corn meal vs. flour for bread.  

This particular farm based grist mill was used at a local farm to grind grain for troops during the Civil War.  It was donated by a fellow who remembered that when he was a child, he'd be tasked to grind grain in cold weather with a blanket covering himself and the grist mill to keep the heat in.   

That's all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them...

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave