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;- THE PRESTON COUNTY JOURNAL- Wednesday, November 23, 2011-
. ,:!',-=- 1 AWest Virginia History
. re
" - of the Crow Sisters
Part I0
/!iii!!i!!!i!!i .....
by
Clyde Cale Jr
Industry on
the Crow
homestead
We know noth-
ing about how the
Crow family had
meal or flour when they first
settled on the farm in 1769. We
know that they had maple sug-
ar and molasses and that they
killed wild turkey and deer for
meat.
Nothing has ever been said
about having meat from corn,
which was the staple grain crop
'in the beginning. Michael Crow
II still wanted his johnny cakes
when he was an old man. We
know that the Crows had a veg-
etable garden, when two of the
men who murdered the Crow
sisters came afterwards to the
farm to beg for food.
The grist mill: the first mill to
produce corn meal or flour was
located in the bottom north of
the old home. It was a mill to
which a team was hitched to the
sweep which went round and
round in a circle to grind the
meal. The grinding burrs were
in the middle of the machine.
It could have been the same old
mill that my father had above
the grain house near the old
brick homestead.
When I was a small boy, my
father Wylie Lee Crow, used
to hitch a team to the mill and
grind feed for the hogs, cattle,
. and especially the cows, from
the corn, oats, and wheat raised
on the farm. I recall that when
he got through grinding feed
for the livestock, that he would
make corn meal on the same
machine.
It was told that one time, my
aunt tried to have a birthday
party for my grandfather, who
was noted for getting things in a
mess if someone tried to be es-
pecially nice to him. He got the
team hitched to this old mill and
then they ran off, no one having
control over them. It was quite
a job to stop the team, as they
ran round and round in a circle.
The faster the team ran, the
louder the old mill ground and
grumbled, and may have even
howled. The team was even-
tually stopped by some of the
other men at the birthday party.
When anyone tried to give
Grandpa Michael Crow II a
)resent, he always got out his
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pocketbook and tried to pay the
giver in cash for the gift. He
was surely different from many
people in this respect.
Water mill: The Crows fi-
nally built a water mill down
by the creek. I have no way
of knowing what year it was
built. It was a large three story
structure built of wood. A land
dam was built to keep the creek
from flooding the mill property.
A large dam of stone was built
across the creek and a water
wheel constructed.
The water flowed under the
wheel and when it hit the fins
on the great wheel, it turned the
large flint-like burrs and ground
the grain. It was the custom in
that day to take the wheat that
the farmers had raised to the
mill, get it ground into flour and
then take it by team and wagon,
or sled if there was snow on the
ground, to Cameron. There the
sacks of flour would be shipped
on the new B. and O. railroad to
other cities and sold.
Michael Crow II was a man
of wonderful vitality, working
on the farm during the day, and
in the old grist mill at night. He
would fill the grain bin with
wheat and then turn on the
waterpower. As he would sit
down on his Miller's chair to
rest, he would fall asleep with
weariness until the bin emptied
and the clanging of the empty
machinery's rumbling would
arouse him, when a new supply
of grain would be put in the bin
Kingwood, WV
and the grinding process contin-
ued throughout the night.
There are no existing pictures
of the old mill. There are some
foundation stones in the narrow
field between the Crow ten-
ant house and the creek. Other
foundation stones have been
found in the creek bed. Re-
cently, Robert Crow, the present
owner of the Crow farm, found
a huge mill stone in one of the
out buildings. He removed it
and put it on display near the
road going to his house and
Cemetery.
Today the Crow farm is owned
by Robert Crow and his fam-
ily. He is a direct descendant of
Jacob Crow through Michael
Crow II.
Steam mill: in later years, the
water mill was replaced with a
steam mill. The machinery was
purchased and hauled by wag-
on and teams from Wheeling.
It was used many years, but in
time people quit making their
wheat into flout to sell. The mill
than passed into just a small
phase of local history, and fi-
nally even the building was torn
down.
Saw mill: there was also a
sawmill attached to the wa-
ter wheel. The saw ran up and
down vertically. The blade was
similar to the old cross cut saw
that was used to saw timber in
the process of logging.
Crow's mill: there was once
a country store across the road
from the mill. It was also the
post office known as Crow's
mill. The mail man walked from
Wheeling, W. Va to Ryerson's
Station once a week to collect
and deliver mail at the several
stops.
The mail route was later
The Old Mill Site. Mrs. Fred Cochran is standing on the ap-
proximate site of the mill [left side].
Schrock Farm Equipment
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changed around 1912 and the
Crow's post office was discon-
tinued. The RFD 1 route from
Dallas, W.Va., took its place and
thus another phase of local his-
tory was ended.
Distillery: the Crow farm at
one time had a distillery for lo-
cal consumption. The farmers
would take a jug of home made
whiskey to the fields along with
jugs of water. It soon became a
thing of the past to have whis-
key in the hay field and the
small still was discontinued.
Blacksmith shop: the black-
smith shop was located near the
old mill. Its major function was
to shoe the farm horses. There
never was a carriage master
working at this shop.
Conclusion: this concludes
the story of industry on the
Crow farm during the first four
generations. It seems that even
the Crow farm is to pass into a
mere bit of history.
Huge millstone found by Robert Crow. It was used as a sup-
port in one of the famrs out buildings.
The U.S. government is con-
templating the building of a
flood control dam on the farm
so that Wheeling and its envi-
rons will not be hampered by
recurring floods. There are usu-
ally about three floods in a score
of years, and they seem to come
at any season except autumn.
Today were are here, tomor-
row we are gone, and then al-
most or entirely forgotten. Time
and time alone is the master ot
man's destiny.
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