Mills

Mills were among the first buildings constructed in colonial North America and became the foundation for mechanical and industrial development. Sawmills were required to cut the lumber necessary for houses, barns, and stores and to produce an important commodity for foreign trade. Sawmills appeared in New York and Massachusetts by 1633, Rhode Island by 1639, Connecticut by 1654, New Hampshire by 1659, and Pennsylvania by 1662. In 1671 New Hampshire alone shipped 20,000 tons of boards and exported 10 shiploads of masts. Meanwhile, gristmills were needed to grind grain into flour to feed settlers. Although saw and flour mills were the most widespread types, paper, oil, and fulling mills also dotted the rivers of North America. A fulling mill operated in Roxbury,

Massachusetts, as early as 1657, and by 1700 at least 17 more compacted material into uniform cloth. Virginia’s first fulling mill was built in 1692, and one appeared in Pennsylvania in 1698. These mills paved the way for the expansion of textile manufacturing in the 19th century.

Powered by water, mills were among the greatest technologies in the early modern world. Waterfalls provided ideal locations for mills, but in places where falls did not exist, millers used dams and races to create the necessary power. A race paralleled the river bank like a canal, about 10 feet wide and nearly as deep. It created power by descending at a slightly shallower angle than the river itself, which over a distance raised the surface of the water in the race higher than that of the river. A mill was placed at the spot where the vertical difference between the race and the river was large enough to turn a waterwheel. Millers improved their waterpower by using dams to ensure a more constant flow of water into the race, which pooled an important supply of reserve water that helped to limit the impact of droughts and floods. Most dams were shallow, constructed from wooden planks and stones. Wooden gates were placed at the dam and above the waterwheel to control the level and quantity of water. These water systems—a dam, a race, and a waterwheel— required considerable initial capital investment by developers and depended on the expertise of artisans and the brawn of laborers to build them.

Although saw, oil, fulling, and paper mills were commercial enterprises, nearly half of flour mills worked mostly on custom for local neighborhoods. Custom flour millers ground grain for local farmers for a toll, often paid by an exchange of goods or services. Flour millers operated on a larger scale in the “bread colonies” of the midAtlantic region as many merchant mills manufactured flour not only for consumers in cities such as Philadelphia, Boston, and Charleston but also for export, especially to the West Indies to feed slaves and planters. Around 1750 a combination of political upheaval and crop failures in southern Europe opened up new markets for mid-Atlantic grain farmers and flour producers. This expansion in trade led to several important developments in milling, encouraging millers not only to produce more flour but also to seek better ways of manufacturing it.

Among the most important improvements made in milling around the mid-18th century were the importation of French millstones and Dutch bolting cloth. Before the French burr stone, the “cullin” stone quarried near Cologne, Germany, had been the most popular. The freshwater quartz quarried in the Marne Valley in northern France was found only in small pieces, called “burrs,” that were assembled into a single millstone, usually after shipment. Less abrasive than other stones, French burr stones produced the whitest flour, which fetched the highest

Water mills like this one were often used to grind corn kernels into grist for cornmeal. (Library of Congress) market price. Improvements in bolting cloth also helped millers to make finer flour. Until the introduction of silk by Dutch merchants, bolting cloth had been made with wool, linen, and even horsehair. The standard quality of silk cloth allowed millers to regulate more closely the grades of flour they produced. When flour markets expanded around 1750, millers in the Middle Colonies gained a competitive edge by capitalizing on these improvements, their natural advantages, and their abundant wheat supply.

All types of mills served as important points of exchange in colonial communities. They provided goods, services, and employment opportunities for a combination of wage laborers, servants, and slaves. They also functioned as meeting places and cultural centers. The operator of a sawmill or a gristmill brokered information along with lumber and flour. Mills thus stood at the intersection of colonial life and economic development.

Further reading: Carroll Pursell, The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994); Martha Zimiles and Murray Zimiles, Early American Mills (New York: C. N. Potter, 1973).

—Brooke Hunter

Minuit, Peter (1580-1638) Dutch colonial governor Peter Minuit’s career as a mercenary and adventurer is a clear example of the transnational character of early European exploration and settlement. Born of French Protestant parents in a German principality in 1590, Minuit eventually worked for both Dutch and Swedish exploration companies. In 1626 the 36-year-old Minuit arrived in the fledgling Dutch colony of New Netherland when that colony’s commander was under house arrest. Shortly thereafter, Minuit assumed the leadership of New Netherland’s 300 colonists, split equally between Dutch - and Frenchspeaking people.

Minuit found daunting challenges when he came to power, including deplorable conditions on Manhattan island, disarray in the company’s account books, deteriorating relations with the area’s Native population, and low morale among the European colonists, many of whom wanted to return home. Minuit began by consolidating the Dutch settlement. In the spring of 1626 Minuit bought Manhattan island from local Indians for 60 guilders in trade goods while he moved the tiny settlements from the banks of the Connecticut and Delaware Rivers to Manhattan. His building program for this influx of new workers resulted, in the fall of 1626, in 30 log houses, a new blockhouse surrounded by palisades of wood and sod, a solid stone counting house thatched with reed, and a mill whose second level accommodated church services. During Minuit’s tenure this tiny European enclave was second in size only to the English settlement of Plymouth in New England.

Beyond basic survival, Minuit’s main concern was to send profits back to the Dutch West India Company, whose board was split over whether to continue sending settlers to New Netherland or to limit Dutch interest in North America to a series of trading posts like that of Fort Orange on the Hudson. Minuit worked tirelessly to promote economic development, even extending feelers to the English colony of Plymouth. In 1630 Minuit extended his base on Manhattan by purchasing another island from the area’s Native people for “some duffels, kettles, axes, hoes, wampum, drilling awls, Jew’s harps and divers other small wares.” The new acquisition was named Staten Island in honor of the governing body of the Netherlands. Minuit ruled in a continually precarious situation as disgruntled settlers clamored to go home and as authorities in Europe devised various ill-fated land schemes (patroon-ships) to promote private investment. Although Minuit’s colony sent approximately 63,000 animal pelts home, this windfall may not have been enough to cover the enormous costs of settlement.

In 1631 the company recalled Minuit, who had to defend himself against charges of extravagance and

Dutch colonial officer Peter Minuit purchased Manhattan Island from the local Indians for trinkets valued at $24. (Hulton/Archive)

Mismanagement. Despite such disgrace, Minuit managed to interest Swedish investors in the New World. He cofounded the Swedish West India Company and in 1638 led an expedition to a site near present-day Wilmington, Delaware. Having settled 50 colonists on land claimed by his former Dutch employers, Minuit headed south to the Caribbean, where he perished in a hurricane off the island of St. Christopher.

Further reading: Oliver A. Rink, Holland on the Hudson: An Economic and Social History of Dutch New York (Ithaca: N. Y.: Cornell University Press, 1986).

—Judy VanBuskirk