Restoring History in my Home Town with AI Part 2, The Williamsville Water Mill

 Once upon a time the village of Williamsville had numerous mills, the largest of which were built by Jonas Williams and Johnathan Dodge. A large creek runs through Williamsville, and if that creek were in Colorado or Nebraska, it would be considered a raging river. 

Ellicott Creek was a marvelous place to play while growing up. It wasn't very deep, so it would take a concentrated effort to drown. We would hike along the banks up and down the twenty feet wide creek, digging up crawfish and fishing for catfish and trout. There were even eels in that creek, but we left them alone. 

On the south side of Main Street, the creek was dammed to create a large mill pond. The pond has a large island in the and that is Island Park, the heart of the village. Island Park was known for peaceful ice cream socials and maybe the occasional game of catch. That is until the Jolly Boys incorporated and used the island to raise money for youth activities. A huge carnival would take over the island. Rides, games booths, food, and the biggest money maker of them all - the Beer Tent. Draft beer was slung by the pint or by the growler (a large collectable bucket) When we started out, we served Labatt's Blue on tap (Nirvana!) and Old Vienna as the premium beer (Nirvana squared!) The Old Home Days parade and carnival still exist but it's a shadow of its former glory.

Ellicott Creek was power. Mills were built on either side of the creek, on the east side the biggest mill was the Dodge Roller Mill which was one of the largest grist mills in the county outside of Buffalo. It turned cereal grain into flour and middlings. The Dodge Mill burned down in 1894 and the owner, Jonathan Dodge, died fighting the fire.

On the other side of Ellicott Creek was Williamsville Water mills, it too was a grist mill and made flour and there was a large lumber sawmill there too. The mill was powered through a raceway from the mill pond that created Island Park. The sawmill portion was torn down leaving the water mills that stands today. 

The images here are all the historic images that you can see. If there's more, I have yet to see them. One thing the Williamsville Water Mill was famous for was apple cider. They pressed cider every autumn up until the current owners made it into an ice cream store. I always wondered what the mills looked like in 1930 at the height of apple cider season, I think it looked something like this:

Next: The B&O in the Boston Valley